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
FT Weekend Magazine, 26 May 2012
The FT Weekend Magazine covers are definitely on my radar with their last 2 covers falling in my favourites list. This week the one South African sport star everybody is talking about, Oscar Pistorius, does the Greek God thing on the cover. This black & white picture has centrefold-potential and the striking coverlines in simple colours compliments it nicely. Inside this issue there’s also a very in-depth must read article for every Oscar-fan.
WIRED, June 2012
What a cute main coverline and cover image that just all work together. But not just that, the way the Creative Director played around with the WIRED logo and duct tape is pretty ingenious and very smart and unique. On CoverJunkie they went a step further and also published the original drawing the Creative Director did to show his idea for the cover-concept. It’s a must-see for any Art Director or person interested in design.
LOCAL
Playboy South Africa, June 2012
Stepping out of their comfort zone and NOT using a half-naked model on the cover must have been a long and hard decision for the Playboy SA team, but I think they pulled it off with this 007-conceptual cover. The cover might be a bit dark, and I’m hoping that they’ve added some kind of finish to the actual cover that’s not showing on screen, to make it stand out more.
Rolling Stone South Africa, June 2012
This is definitely one of my favourite Rolling Stone South Africa covers. It has a strong concept, message and the cover stars should be well-known to most of the general public, which should hopefully mean an increase in sales after their last set of ABC-results (the paid for stats was rather disappointing). It’s styled perfectly, is well-executed and perfectly timed for the 8th season of Idols starting on Sunday. I just love it when TV and print work this well together.
NewsNow, 31 May 2012
I’m not going to explain the reference to President Jacob Zuma and “The Spear” in the cover because I’m pretty sure that even Queen Elizabeth is completely up to date with all the trials and tribulations of this saga…
But I’ll give NewsNow the credit that they had a perfectly timed cover (even though they are also jumping on the band-wagon), but most importantly, they did it with a twist, and a successful twist at that. They also produced a little video to incorporate the ‘defacing of the painting’ (which happened after they’ve gone to print).
– 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
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