Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Research - Cover Page

     Cover Page 

    Magazine covers are a vital section of the magazine that are taken into great consideration and serve several purposes. Besides selling a brand, providing insight into the magazine top or main story, providing visually attraction to appeal customers it also presents a publication with content and character making cover pages are one of the most important pages of a magazine. The process of a magazine is one that takes time, dedication, and thought. Designers spend a majority of their time creating a concept that can be socially acceptable while still keeping the company's morals alive and active. Depending on the popularity of the brand, magazine company's will hire a magazine cover designer; Ranging from a week to a few weeks, monthly magazines take time to design. Ideas are thrown around, proposed, and tested but it isn't until one of those cover pages receive an advancement that the others didn't. 

    Cover page are similar to an appetizer at a restaurant, the are a sample into what the entrée will consist of not as filling but provides a kickstart that does not leave you as hungry. Cover pages consists of many different parts, a masthead, feature stories, selling line, dateline, main image, cover line, main cover line and bar coding; These components are seen on a variety of magazine covers but some other components could be added or subtracted from this list.

There are 4 main categories for a magazine:

1.Image based - Image based magazines are magazines that consist of a person (s) with close camera shot someone looking at the camera or off to the side to present a more unique magazine. This image based cover page is usually celebrity models smiling or doing a joyful activity because people appeal to celebrities and there "natural aura". Its as if readers see celebrities as regular individuals rather than by their social status.


2. Illustration base - 20th century drawn illustrations are the only way of cover page creations since the beginning of magazine designs. A well known illustration based magazine is "The New Yorker" which has not changed it's inception since 1925. The illustrations used then (1920's) were real life stories that were utilized while the illustrations used today (2020) are seen as an aesthetic or to present a funny story or even a unique approach to a simple story. 

3. Type based - Typed based magazines present words as the cover page rather than an actual image. There is actually something much more significant about words than an image that draws people in to gain more insight into that magazine especially if the text is attractive. These magazines aren't as common but they still exists and creates a refreshing yet to the point concept. 

4. "Concept" based - Concept based covers are covers that can be instantly confusing for readers because the images concept won't be completely presented until the magazine has been read. Concept based magazines are seen as such because the image utilized is opposing to the magazine company theme or feature stories. The image can be a flower, a coin, or even food that brings an eerie and deep meaning. Although concept magazines are not as common as a image based magazine, there significance is great and readers are more interested to dive deeper into the image relevance.

Source - http://www.magazinedesigning.com/introduction-to-magazine-cover-pages/#:~:text=Magazine%20cover%20page%20serves%20several,and%20recognizable%20to%20regular%20readers.

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