by MediaSlut (@MediaSlut) Last week, we published our list of the 10 best South African magazine covers of 2015, with ELLE (South Africa) taking the no. 1 spot with its April 2015 celebratory cover, making the whole of SA smile and be proud. This week, we’re looking at the 10 best international magazine covers of 2015 that were (mostly) featured in my weekly MagLove column this past year.
This year’s #MagLoveTop10 will include new sections covering travel and business, and here’s the publishing schedule:
- Friday, 4 December 2015: Best South African magazine covers of 2015
- Friday, 11 December 2015: Best international magazine covers of 2015
- Friday, 8 January 2016: Worst magazine covers of 2015
- Friday, 15 January 2016: Sexiest magazine covers of 2015
- Friday, 22 January 2016: Best food magazine covers of 2015
- Friday, 29 January 2016: Best travel magazine covers of 2015
- Friday, 5 February 2016: Best business magazine covers of 2015
Want to view all the covers at a glance? See our MagLove Pinterest board!
Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us at @Marklives and @MediaSlut.
View 2014’s best international magazine covers here.
#10. Vanity Fair, July 2015
If there’s one thing that Caitlyn Jenner’s first, and beautiful, cover showed me, it’s that print definitely isn’t dead yet, and that something in print form can definitely still end up being the world’s most-talked-about and republished medium! All the pre-planning and launch of this cover was perfectly executed and timed, and the cover is iconic in its own right.
Here are the full article and pictures (in case you missed it), and here is the extended conversation between Jenner and Buzz Bissinger, which includes details not published in the original article.
This is Vanity Fair’s first appearance on this list.
#9. Successful Farming, September 2015
Yes, it’s rather brown and a topic the majority might find boring, but the creativity behind this cover and, more so, the cover story (and brilliant cover lines!), is what really got me excited! The photography, typography, copy writing and art direction make this probably the best and most exciting farming-related cover I’ve seen, and a very worthy no. 9! Read more here.
This is Successful Farming’s first appearance on this list.
#8. Metropolitan, October 2015
One of the most-simple, yet effective, cover effects of the year: printing with Glow in the Dark Ink! It works perfectly for Eurostar’s magazine. Metropolitan, as the cover would have lighted up when the Eurostar passed through the train tunnels! Read more here.
This is Metropolitan’s first appearance on this list.
#7. WIRED, March 2015
This cover perfectly illustrates the world we’re living in when it comes to “Sex in the Digital Age”! Just brilliant! Absolutely nothing more needs to be said to explain the cover, as it reads almost like second nature to most of us these days. Read more here.
In 2014, WIRED made it to #10 on this list.
#6. Huck, July/August 2015
*uck, looking at this again after a few months, it’s still such a beautiful cover image and overall cover, for Huck magazine! No cover lines, just evocative beauty… Read more here.
This is Huck’s first appearance on this list.
#5. In Touch Magazine, September 2015
In Touch is the magazine of In Touch Ministries, with the tagline “Thoughtful Faith Devoted Living”… Who says that Christian magazines can’t push the boundaries when it comes to creativity!? And this title pushed those boundaries straight into the 5th position! Read more here.
This is In Touch’s first appearance on this list.
#4. The New York Times Magazine, 24 April 2015
Wait for it… Wait for it… Do you see it?! The magazine commissioned artist, JR, to paste a massive image of a man ‘walking’ onto Flatiron Plaza, and then photographed it from a helicopter! As JR writes on his website “people walked on him all day and no one really noted him”. Brilliant concept for an edition highlighting“Walking New York”. Read more here.
In 2014, The New York Times Magazine made it to #1 on this list.
#3. Globe Magazine, 15 November 2015
Cover concepts such as these deserve recognition, and the art director a bonus (delivered in an HR envelope)! The whole issue was about “Top places to work”, so Globe conceived and executed a perfectly fitting, brilliant concept! I hate receiving these envelopes from HR, but I love seeing it on this cover! Read more here.
This is Globe Magazine’s first appearance on this list.
#2. Metropoli, March 2015
Metropoli has created something timeless with this cover, which celebrates “The Dream of Martin Luther King”! What with a haunting profile image of Rev Martin Luther King, and subtle reference to the iconic picture of he and others marching for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery in the US on 21 March 1965, it’s a great 50-year anniversary cover The dream definitely lives on… Read more here.
This is Metropoli’s first appearance on this list.
#1. New York, 27 July 2015
Chills. That’s what I felt when I saw this cover for the first time, with 35 of the 46 women who’ve accused Bill Cosby of sexual harrassment. And chills are what I got again when I sifted through all the great covers from the past year, and looked at this one! That’s when I knew it needs to be no.1 … This cover, with the “unwelcome sisterhood” all together, is visual journalism at its very best, and something that made these allegations very human. Read more here.
Both in 2013 and in 2012, New York made it to no. 5 on this list. Congrats!
MagLove by @MediaSlut is a regular slot featuring the best local and international magazine covers every week, recognising well thought-out, powerful and interesting (and hopefully all three-in-one) covers and celebrating the mix of pragmatism, creativity and personal taste that created each of them. The (for now anonymous) blogger behind MediaSlut knows way too much for his own good about media in South Africa, magazines in particular. His mission is to show when SA magazines fail but, most importantly, also when they succeed. If you’re looking for a library about SA magazines and news, this is your one-stop pitstop.
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