Magazine+Cover+Assignment

1.

2. Although both of the above magazines differ greatly, there are still a pocketful of similarities, albeit a small pocketful. Each magazine cover has the basic principles of a standard cover. Namely the bold title, date, price, main story, and an interesting subject in the middle. Other than those elements, though, neither magazine are very alike to the one beside it.

3. The Vogue magazine has many cover lines to try to catch a reader's eye, but the main story would be "The Best of the SPRING Collections 2010," with extra emphasis on the season. As for Life magazine, the main story is plain and simple: the Circus.

4. Design principles evident on the cover of Vogue magazine are depth of field, with the building in the background blurred out; simple and single point because there's only one subject: Tina Fey; and colour space, her green top contrasting with the beige-y brown of the rest of the photo. On the Life magazine cover, apparent design principles include simplicity; element relationship between the giraffe and clown; and framing, where the giraffe also frames the clown with its neck.

5. Early magazine covers of the 18th and 19th centuries were very simple and incredibly different to what they generally look like now. In the 1700s, magazines either had a table of contents on the front page or a book cover looking design, not even indicating on it what was inside. As the 19th century wore on, more pictures were included onto magazine covers, although cover lines were not evident on them until the later 1800s. Another change made by the end of the 1800s was the logo, which later on grew in size and became more visible, and the experimentation with varying designs and colours. ([|source])

6. Poster covers were quite popular in the second quarter of the 1900s. They were relatively simplistic with one dominant photo taking up most of the cover space, overshadowing any cover lines, although those weren't very popular. A good example of a poster cover is the Life magazine one above. There isn't much information as to what's inside the magazine except for the main story, which one could guess by just looking at the cover photo and is typically pushed to the bottom of the cover. ([|source])

7. Cover lines are included on magazine covers because they tell the reader what stories are included inside the magazine, they grab the reader's attention along with the photo. Oftentimes, the cover lines are used as a means to convey to the reader that the magazine understand what they need and will help better their lives. ([|source])

8. An integrated cover is one with which the cover lines mingle with the subject, more times than not overlapping each other. Cover lines are usually of different sizes, fonts, and colour, and they surround the subject, taking up most white space. Integrated covers became widely popular in the 1990s and are still very evident today. ( [|source] )

9. Where the cover lines are placed effect the overall feel of the cover because they're a large part of what initially grabs the reader's attention. If the cover line is only at the bottom with the picture taking up a clear majority of the cover space, the design would be of that of a poster cover. But, if the cover are merged with the photo, it would be an integrated cover design. The position of each cover line is essential to the cover as a whole what ever the design may be. (sources same as above)

10. ([|source])
 * Outside the box:** keeping elements of the magazine cover in separate boxes, simplifying the printing process
 * Inside the box:** decades ago, printers had difficulty printing off text on pictures, so magazine cover designers would put a box where they wanted the text and ran the cover through the printers a second time to print the cover lines on
 * Columns:** vertical columns of a different colour where all the cover lines would be placed
 * Zones:** the title, photo, and cover lines are separated into horizontal zones
 * Banners and Corners:** a banner with the main story and possible other cover lines runs across the main photo and magazine cover
 * Unplanned Spaces:** the cover lines are placed in empty space in the photo
 * Planned Spaces:** the cover lines are integrated into the photo