MarkLives.com runs a regular slot featuring the best local and international magazine covers every week. We recognise well thought out, powerful and interesting (and hopefully all three in one) magazine covers and celebrate the mix of pragmatism, creativity and personal taste that created each of them. By media bloggerMediaSlutZA.

INTERNATIONAL
Vanity Fair, March 2012

If you’re at all in the magazine industry, and have ever been involved with any shoot, you will definitely appreciate the hard work that went into this cover, and all previous similar ‘Hollywood’ covers that Vanity Fair does every year. It all paid off – the young Hollywood actresses look fantastic!

New York, 6 February 2012

The cover story is about “The Celebrity Economy” and features an image of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie on a dollar bill. They certainly know how to use their stardom and ‘exclusive pictures’ to work for them.

Desktop, February 2012

Take one Photostat of a bum. Add a clever coverline “PUBLISH YOURSELF” and make it pretty with some basic CMYK-colours. This is a very basic, but very efective cover.

LOCAL
Rolling Stone, February 2012

Very smart move by the Rolling Stone guys! It’s makes for a very strong concept, and I’m sure a talking point around every dinner table, from people of all backgrounds and cultures. The cover has already gone mini-viral and is being shared via Facebook like crazy. Might be one of my favourite South African covers…

- The (for now anonymous) blogger behind MediaSlutZA knows way too much for his own good about media in South Africa. Magazines in particular. His mission is to show when South African magazines might fail, but most importantly, succeed. If you’re looking for a library about South African magazines and news, your one-stop pitstop is MediaSlutZA. #MagazinesForTheWin

- Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us @marklives and @mediaslutza

Y&R‘s Land Rover Defender ‘Jumper’ print ad made the front cover of the latest issue of Lürzer’s ARCHIVE – “200 Best Automotive Ads 2000-2010 worldwide”. Lürzer’s ARCHIVE is a leading ad industry collection. The ad was originated and shot in Cape Town, but was scheduled for publication in the UK.

Account Manager: Rebecca Hanson Art Director: Ntobeko Ximba Copywriter: Ntobeko Ximba Creative Director: Graham Lang, Clinton Bridgeford Photographer: Bryan Traylor Retoucher: Lee Aldridge, Stuart Frost

MarkLives.com runs a regular slot featuring the best local and international magazine covers every week. We recognise well thought out, powerful and interesting (and hopefully all three in one) magazine covers and celebrate the mix of pragmatism, creativity and personal taste that created each of them. By media blogger MediaSlutZA.

NTERNATIONAL
Interview, February 2012 (Russia 1st, and Germany 2nd)

Readers of my blog will know they I have a grudge against publishers of international titles who just ‘copy and paste’ a cover from another edition onto their own. It shows no creativity. Interview on the other hand did something rather unique. Lana Del Rey (my ultimate new favourite singer) is featured on their Russian editions’ cover. Instead of just re-using it, the Germany editions’ editors just cropped in a bit, made it black and white, and voila!

uMag (Germany), January 2012

Not the most flattering picture, but the “U” logo use is something very creative and smart. CoverJunkie has already featured it, and I think it’s definitely worth another mention. You can view all the uMag covers on CoverJunkie.

LOCAL
SARIE Kos, Februarie / March 2012

“Roomys-stafies anyone? Could someone please start producing these to the mass market, because they just look delicious! Beautiful execusion and colours.

Getaway, February 2012

The guys from Getaway just keep turning out beautiful and inspiring covers! This cover is really striking and I also love the main cover line, “Escape to Malawi in a Mini Cooper”… and then “Say what!?”

Cleo, February 2012

I confess, it’s not the most beautiful or unique cover ever, but I felt it’s worth including in my list for 2 reasons: This is the last issue of Cleo South Africa, and they used the stunning Tamara Dey on their cover. The fact that they decided to use a South African celeb on the cover, which they are not too fond of doing, is a great way to say goodbye to their South African readers.

- The (for now anonymous) blogger behind MediaSlutZA knows way too much for his own good about media in South Africa. Magazines in particular. His mission is to show when South African magazines might fail, but most importantly, succeed. If you’re looking for a library about South African magazines and news, your one-stop pitstop is MediaSlutZA. #MagazinesForTheWin

- Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us @marklives and @mediaslutza

MarkLives.com runs a regular slot featuring the best local and international magazine covers every week. We recognise well thought out, powerful and interesting (and hopefully all three in one) magazine covers and celebrate the mix of pragmatism, creativity and personal taste that created each of them. By media blogger MediaSlutZA.

INTERNATIONAL
Maclean’s, 23 January 2012

The coverline reads ‘Veils, who are we to judge?’ (a story which makes for an interesting read all on its own) but the cover image is what made me think twice about the face-value differences, especially with the black line covering the naked girls face. Maclean’s is a Canadian publication which I’m sure was the design-inspiration behind NewsNow. Decide for yourself.

O Magazine (US), February 2012

Most O Magazine (Oprah Winfrey) magazine covers are a rather boring – same old thing over and over. This one however is different and FUN. It’s the first cool cover since Ellen featured alongside Oprah in 2009. I wonder if the whole ‘School Blackboard and chalk’ thing had anything to do with her first class at her school all matriculating…

LOCAL

ZigZag, January/February 2012

The lighting, the texture of the water, the colours, the mood, the timing… everything just comes together to make this cover one of their best so far.

ELLE South Africa, February 2012

If this cover image seems familiar it’s because it was used for the November 2011 issue of the US edition of ELLE. The South African version of Elle is using it to celebrate Valentines Day. Still love it!

Sports Illustrated, February 2012

Here is something you don’t see everyday – my favourite sporting heros cleaned up and shot professionally. Now that is something for me to look at twice – or three times in the instance of Sports Illustrated February 2012

- The (for now anonymous) blogger behind MediaSlutZA knows way too much for his own good about media in South Africa. Magazines in particular. His mission is to show when South African magazines might fail, but most importantly, succeed. If you’re looking for a library about South African magazines and news, your one-stop pitstop is MediaSlutZA. #MagazinesForTheWin

- Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us @marklives and @mediaslutza

MarkLives.com runs a regular slot featuring the best local and international magazine covers every week. We recognise well thought out, powerful and interesting (and hopefully all three in one) magazine covers and celebrate the mix of pragmatism, creativity and personal taste that created each of them. By media blogger MediaSlutZA. This will be his last update for 2011 but he will be back in 2012 with more fantastic magazine covers to share!

INTERNATIONAL
Vanity Fair, December 2011

She’s done it before in September 2010, and it looks like she’s going to do it again for Vanity Fair, namely be one of their best sellers of the year! With her 2010 cover she made the September issue of Vanity Fair its 2nd best seller (http://www.hollywire.com/2011/01/lady-gaga-2010s-best-selling-magazine-cover). No wonder they featuring her again… This time with make-up and a bright red dress – just in time for Christmas [that hat is bound to inspire a meme - Ed].

AdWeek, 28 November – 4 December

The now instantaneously recognizable little boy in the Volkswagen Ad, that has raked up more than 44 million views on YouTube, makes him the perfect little cover guy/icon for the “10 Best Ads of 2011” issue. To view all Top 10 ads click here. I promise you, definitely worth a watch.

Fricote, #5

A fun and quirky food magazine with unique and smart covers. Their covers definitely follow a trend to be unique and different.

LOCAL
Mango Juice, December 2011

I’ve been noticing the covers of Mango’s in-flight magazine for a while now, and they’re definitely doing something right without trying too hard. At first I thought this was a digitally manipulated sand castle, but the description of how it was built in Durban, and all the drama that went with him (Read a minute-by-minute update here) makes one appreciate this art form just a bit more.

Plascon Spaces, #6

This cover makes me feel like I’m back in Greece on a small island. It just screams sexy and summer. I saw it in store and the striking gold logo makes this cover even more striking.

Finweek, 1 December 2011

The treatment of the cover, the cover lines, the clean background with its striking image; everything just makes this cover and issue worth picking up.

- The (for now anonymous) blogger behind MediaSlutZA knows way too much for his own good about media in South Africa. Magazines in particular. His mission is to show when South African magazines might fail, but most importantly, succeed. If you’re looking for a library about South African magazines and news, your one-stop pitstop is MediaSlutZA. #MagazinesForTheWin

- Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us @marklives and @mediaslutza

MarkLives.com runs a regular slot featuring the best local and international magazine covers every week. We recognise well thought out, powerful and interesting (and hopefully all three in one) magazine covers and celebrate the mix of pragmatism, creativity and personal taste that created each of them. By media blogger MediaSlutZA.

INTERNATIONAL
ELLE UK, December 2011

It’s normal that most magazines have a touch of red on their cover for the Christmas season but there are few that do it right. Not only is this one of the most simple, elegant and beautiful ELLE covers that I’ve ever seen, but the general lack of cover lines, and the added layer of the logo just makes it “wow”. The only cover line “Kiss from a rose” is perfect with the dress covered with lipstick kisses.

FRONT, Issue 162

I’ve seen this magazine with its funky covers pop-up ever so often. And every time I think “what a funny and sexy magazine”, only to find out later that their tagline is “The funniest, sexiest magazine on Earth”. The way they use art/graphics on all their covers, hiding jst the right bits, is just awesome, quirky and very smart.

Visionaire, #61

When I saw this cover of the “Art Magazine” Visionaire with Lady Gaga on it I didn’t think too much about it. “Lady Gaga drenched in Oil. Nothing new.” But the cover line “LARGER THAN LIFE” means quite literally that…

This issue of Visionaire is currently holding a Guiness World Record as “The Largest Magazine in the World”. It’s 2.13 x 1.52 meters (more information click here).

If you love publishing then you’ll be fascinated by the various products Visionaire have produced. There are only 250 copies printed of this issue, and it retails for (only) $1 500. Do yourself a favour and go to the Visionaire website, and watch the video on how they produced/printed it, and how people will read it…

LOCAL
There were no new South African covers this week that have impressed me. Keep an eye out next week!

- The (for now anonymous) blogger behind MediaSlutZA knows way too much for his own good about media in South Africa. Magazines in particular. His mission is to show when South African magazines might fail, but most importantly, succeed. If you’re looking for a library about South African magazines and news, your one-stop pitstop is MediaSlutZA. #MagazinesForTheWin

- Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us @marklives and @mediaslutza

MarkLives.com runs a regular slot featuring the best local and international magazine covers every week. We recognise well thought out, powerful and interesting (and hopefully all three in one) magazine covers and celebrate the mix of pragmatism, creativity and personal taste that created each of them. By media blogger MediaSlutZA.

INTERNATIONAL
UPPERCASE, #11

Crayola played an important part in the lives of most creative people as kids. Who didn’t draw with Crayola!? This cover takes a simple thing like crayons, and transformed it into a creative masterpiece… (Here’s the fascinating history of the Crayola brand)

Holland Herald, November 2011

A simple and striking concept, but also extremely relevant for an in-flight magazine. I was able to read the complete issue online and it’s great to see how the KLM team incorporated the “Time”-theme throughout the magazine.

Epicure, November 2011

The cover itself is a bit too dark (and healthy) for me, but what caught my attention is the playfulness of colours, fonts and objects. I think more magazines should have fun with their covers.

LOCAL

NewsNow, 10 November 2011

The NewsNow team is starting to get a nice following for their covers. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to create a striking and impactful cover week after week, and on such hectic deadlines. But for the past few issues they’ve really hit the nail on the head. This week, the nail is Julius Malema.

Getaway, November 2011

Last week, there were too many good South African covers, so we decided to have one stand over until this week, that of Getaway, November 2011. The cover model “Curious George” can easily be voted the cover model of the year. The photographer Jade Holing caught a very special moment on film and kudos for the Getaway team for using it on their cover.

- The (for now anonymous) blogger behind MediaSlutZA knows way too much for his own good about media in South Africa. Magazines in particular. His mission is to show when South African magazines might fail, but most importantly, succeed. If you’re looking for a library about South African magazines and news, your one-stop pitstop is MediaSlutZA. #MagazinesForTheWin

- Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us @marklives and @mediaslutza

MarkLives.com runs a regular slot featuring the best local and international magazine covers every week. We recognise well thought out, powerful and interesting (and hopefully all three in one) magazine covers and celebrate the mix of pragmatism, creativity and personal taste that created each of them. By media blogger MediaSlutZA.

INTERNATIONAL
Fiasco Homme, October 2011 – February 2012

Since reading a profile on Andrej Pejic in New York magazine, I’ve fell in love with what he does, and what he stands for. This cover embodies that perfectly. If you don’t know the background story of Andrej Pajic, read more here.

Science, 14 October 2011

Bill Nye the Science Guy must love this magazine. I’ll never buy it, but what made me look twice, was the unique angle, exposure and crop of the image. And those whiskers. It actually makes Rodents sexy [for me it just makes them spooky! - ed].

Time Out Singapore, October 2011

It says and sums up everything just with this picture and smart treatment of the coverline.

LOCAL
GQ South Africa, November 2011

The fact that Oscar Pistorius is the first South African male on the cover of GQ in a while might have something to do with it. Not to mention that he looks smoking hot and can compete with any of the previous international stars on GQ South Africa covers.

Zig Zag, November/December 2011

The colours, pictures, treatment – it all just screams “Summer Rules” and the cover makes me look forward to summer in Cape Town more than any other magazine cover has done so far.

Discovery, October 2011

Discovery magazine has had a re-design and this is their 1st new look issue. I haven’t seen the complete issue yet but the cover is awesome!

- The (for now anonymous) blogger behind MediaSlutZA knows way too much for his own good about media in South Africa. Magazines in particular. His mission is to show when South African magazines might fail, but most importantly, succeed. If you’re looking for a library about South African magazines and news, your one-stop pitstop is MediaSlutZA. #MagazinesForTheWin

- Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us @marklives and @mediaslutza

MarkLives.com runs a regular slot featuring the best local and international magazine covers every week. We recognise well thought out, powerful and interesting (and hopefully all three in one) magazine covers and celebrate the mix of pragmatism, creativity and personal taste that created each of them. By media blogger MediaSlutZA.

Everyone has their own opinion about what makes a cover great (or not). This week Sports Illustrated is the only South African cover that ‘did it’ for me.

INTERNATIONAL
ESPN, November 2011

For their annual “Body Issue” ESPN Magazine published 4 different covers with a sports personalities on each one. All of them naked. The Hope Solo cover is getting the most attention in the media but the Blake Griffin cover (above) is the one that stood out for me.

Key (New York Times Real Estate Magazine), Fall 2011

If I can look at a cover for more than 30 seconds, it’s a success. If you can look at a cover for almost 3 minutes to look at each detail that captures you every time you revisit the cover, it’s a mammoth success.

Dutch Esquire, November 2011

For me this isn’t a good cover, or one that will sell, but what makes it unique is that only the subscribers of Dutch Esquire received this conceptual cover. I think South African magazines should also start producing special covers for subscribers only…

LOCAL

Sports Illustrated, November 2011

Sports Illustrated took several risks this month. First they made their annual Swimwear issue a standalone title for the first time, which was published 2 weeks before the ‘usual’ issue appeared on shelf. And for their November issue, they decided on a very striking and strong conceptual cover and issue, which I hope will work for them!

- The (for now anonymous) blogger behind MediaSlutZA knows way too much for his own good about media in South Africa. Magazines in particular. His mission is to show when South African magazines might fail, but most importantly, succeed. If you’re looking for a library about South African magazines and news, your one-stop pitstop is MediaSlutZA. #MagazinesForTheWin

- Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us @marklives and @mediaslutza

MarkLives.com runs a regular slot featuring the best local and international magazine covers every week. We recognise well thought out, powerful and interesting (and hopefully all three in one) magazine covers and celebrate the mix of pragmatism, creativity and personal taste that created each of them. By media blogger MediaSlutZA.

The death of Apple founder Steve Jobs definitely made news worldwide, and every weekly publication tried to do something unique and special with their covers, but I found my absolute favourite (below). On the local front, this time of the month is really slow, because most magazines come out around payday. NewsNow, which really stood out for me as did the Visi wrap-around.

INTERNATIONAL
Época, 10 October 2011

The cover copy reads ‘Death is very likely the single best invention of life’ – from a famous address given by Steve Jobs. The simplicity is what got me.

New York, 10 October 2011

“#ToBigToSucceed?” is a very strong hashtag which is relevant to most companies that get too big, too quickly. Think BlackBerry and the recent drama…

Schön, Issue 14

Rick Genest, the Canadian artist, has always both fascinated me and freaked me out. Every time I look at this cove I see something new.

LOCAL

NewsNow / NuusNou, 13 October 2011

Graphically manipulated pictures speak a thousand words. More than a thousand in this case.

VISI, 57 “The Hidden Issue”

Even though the image on the wrap-around itself isn’t a personal favourite, and definitely not the plain grey cover underneath, I felt the wrap-around on the new issue of VISI, deserves a mention. The colour and texture of the paper, and dark black spine, creates a beautiful and memorable “50s-style Design Manual/Text Book” look and feel and that they were going for. So 10/10 for that.

- The (for now anonymous) blogger behind MediaSlutZA knows way too much for his own good about media in South Africa. Magazines in particular. His mission is to show when South African magazines might fail, but most importantly, succeed. If you’re looking for a library about South African magazines and news, your one-stop pitstop is MediaSlutZA. #MagazinesForTheWin

- Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us @marklives and @mediaslutza