MediaSlut (@MediaSlut)’s choice of the best international and South African magazine covers this week:
- ELLE UK
- House & Garden Gourmet (South Africa)
- Metrópoli
- Novum
- Sowetan Soccer
Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us at @Marklives and @MediaSlut.
Want to view all the covers at a glance? See our MagLove Pinterest board!
ELLE UK, September 2016
On 1 July 2016, ELLE UK announced that it would be launching a ‘new look’ ELLE with its September 2016 issue (“braver, bolder, and smarter than ever before”). It was billed as “a new design to mark a new era in fashion” and, for a week, it allowed ELLE UK readers to choose from one of five special collector’s covers that they would like to have delivered to them during the first week of August.
The four familiar faces (“each star is an icon in their own right”) are Kristen Stewart, Amandla Stenberg, Hari Nef and Zayn Malik. The fifth is a concept cover that has been embroidered beautifully by Claire Barrett from Howthorne & Heaney, and is my personal favourite.
I haven’t seen the full redesign yet but, from viewing the cover(s), I can say that I’m not personally a fan of the coverline font and direction. I can see the direction it’s going in, and the new market it’s aiming for. But, to me, the masthead font and the new Arial-type font don’t sit together so nicely. I am, however, in love with the embroidered cover!
Read more about the issue here, or read a teaser of the interviews with Malik and Stenberg.
House & Garden Gourmet (South Africa), Autumn/Winter 2016
I’m a bit late to the plate with this cover, but this rich pink/beetroot purple beauty also deserves a space at the table. Beautiful plating, styling and overall cover execution! As a fine-dining lover, this definitely tickles my fancy.
Metrópoli, 4 August 2016
Metrópoli, the weekly supplement of the Spanish newspaper El Munto, has done it once again! Just as I think that all possible avenues of using existing items (eg wood, fabric, paint, plants) to produce a cover have been done, another one comes along that makes me go “wow!” The breast and body aren’t done as one would expect from the magazine (the logo is stunning!), but I completely get that it’s illustrating how it would have been done by normal Joe Schmoe if he were to play around on the beach. I couldn’t make out completely what the cover line on the suntan bottle reads, but it’s definitely promoting something about the Top 20 Beaches in Spain.
Novum, August 2016
Being in the magazine industry, this tongue-in-cheek cover captures the design process perfectly, and gave me a good chuckle!
Sowetan Soccer, Issue 29
If this had been an Olympic-related cover, I would have definitely included it in my Olympics coverage last week, and it would have probably been one of my favourites as the ‘action’ on the cover really comes alive, thanks to great photoshop and design!
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 anonymous (for now) 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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