Magazines Part II

Early Magazine Covers

Early magazine covers were very different then what we view as magazine covers today. They were more similar to books and most did not consist of pictures/photos. In the mid-1700s the cover of a magazine would be the table of contents, and some would look like book covers displaying the title and publication data (and would something have an additional illustration). Other covers would have their first page of the magazine as the cover, a similar characteristic to newspapers.


The Poster Cover

The poster cover was mainly used from the 1890s to the 1960s and was just made up of an image, the title of the magazine and sometimes a small captions towards the bottom of the page. The photo issued would be eye-catching and between the years of 1890 to 1940 would sometimes not be related to the articles found in the magazine but resembling the mood or season of that time. Poster covers are a bold choice of covers because it brings the reader's attention to one specific subject.


Pictures Married to Type

When magazine covers first started having words on them, they were at first the names of the people that contributed to the magazine, but later evolved to having multiple cover lines on one magazine cover. They would play with fonts and colors but would not distract from the photograph itself. But in the late 1960s is when cover lines were being produced differently, catching the attention of the readers featuring stories about the diversity of people, stories people have never heard of before. In overall, cover lines created even more competition between magazines, each magazine wanting to be bigger and bolder.


In the Forest of Words

Forest of Words is when the cover lines of the magazine play and have a relationship with the cover photo. Almost all magazines these days have forest of words working to capture the consumer's attention. Because the producers of the magazine are aware of the layout of the magazine cover, the models are usually posed a certain way, so they can later be able to put words around the subject, playing well with the image itself.