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 MediaSlut.
With Nelson Mandela’s 95 birthday yesterday (18 July 2013) I thought it only appropriate to also celebrate some of the recent beautiful cover designs featuring Madiba.
LOCAL
SA Rugby, August 2013
I’m told by the editor of SA Rugby magazine, Simon Borchardt, that it took more than “40 000 photos of the rugby players he (Nelson Mandela) inspired and the moments he helped to make happen” to create this cover. It really is an amazing collection of pictures, and an even more amazing final product. The coverline reads, “Former and current Boks on how he inspired them – Memories of Madiba”. (Please note that this issue of SA Rugby is only on-shelf from next week)
Business Day Sport Monthly, August 2013
Keeping with the sporting-theme, is Business Day Sport Monthly (This issue is free with today’s copy of Business Day, Friday 19 July 2013). A beautiful collage of iconic sporting pictures in black and white, in the background, and a main picture of Madiba that just warms your heart, holding the FIFA World Cup. The coverline reads, “Magic of Madiba – What he brought to a Nation”
iMagazine (City Press), 7 July 2013
The free weekly magazine with City Press newspaper, iMagazine, took a completely different (and unique) approach to their cover. At first it looked a bit ‘strange’ to me, but the more and more I look at, the more and more I love it. The coverline reads, “Mandela – Impressions of an icon”.
Finweek, 7 July 2013
Finweek went the route of using a beautiful black and white picture of Nelson Mandela, paired with bright red design features. It’s once again a picture of Madiba that I haven’t seen before, and I think it makes a great cover. The article “The father provides” didn’t feature Madiba as such, but rather his impact on Qunu etc.
Kuier, 3 July 2013
First with the memorable and heartwarming Nelson Mandela covers, was bi-weekly magazine Kuier. I’m told that they would have liked to have him on their latest cover to co-inside with his 95th Birthday, but this is also their 100th issue, so that by itself was a special cover and issue for the Kuier team. I read some of the comments after Kuier uploaded this cover, and their readers definitely liked the cover as much as I do.
Madiba, 95th Years!
For more recent Nelson Mandela covers, you can find an small archive right here.
– 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 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 MediaSlut. #MagazinesForTheWin
– Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us @marklives and @mediaslut
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