Top magazines have created their success with many things, one of which is their cover designs. People first see any printed media from its cover unless it has no cover. Therefore, the cover designs need to be characteristical so people will recognize the brands easily.
Car and Driver
Car and Driver were founded in 1955 under the original name of Sports Cars Illustrated. The current name was used for the first time in 1961 by an editor, Karl Ludvigsen. As the name can tell, Car and Driver is a kind of magazines that focuses mainly on the automotive world. It is targeted at automotive enthusiasts.
Unlike other magazines, Car and Driver normally use cars for the models on its covers. It can be one or more cars as the main cover picture. The brand name is placed on the top part of the cover, above the stunning cars.
The brand name is in black Sans Serif styled fonts with the smaller ‘AND’ between ‘CAR’ and ‘DRIVER’. Above the ‘AND’ is a red rectangle, and below it is a blue rectangle. Sometimes, the brand name is written in the same color scheme as the cars in the cover picture or other related color schemes.
Elle
Elle often focuses on women’s lifestyles like beauty, fashion, and entertainment. ‘Elle’ is a French word that means ‘she’ or ‘her’. It was founded in 1945 by a French couple, Pierre Lazareff and Helene Gordon-Lazareff, in Paris.
Elle magazines have unique covers with the Serif-styled word ‘ELLE’ dominating the top part. Portraits of popular celebrities with stunning appearances usually decorate the beautiful covers of Elle. The models often cover up the brand name, but people still recognize it for its uniqueness.
National Geographic
National Geographic, also known as Nat Geo, is owned by the National Geographic Society and was founded in 1888. The magazines have many categories, such as nature, history, science, and geography, as seen from the brand name.
National Geographic has a unique style like no others. There is a thick yellow outline around every cover of National Geographic. The brand name is written at the center near the top of the cover with ‘NATIONAL’ written above ‘GEOGRAPHIC’. The pictures themselves are different based on the themes or categories.
Rolling Stones
Rolling Stones covers mainly popular culture topics like music and entertainment, but sometimes it also covers political issues. It was founded by Jann Wenner and Ralph Gleason and was released for the first time in 1967 with a music legend, John Lennon, as the cover model.
Rolling Stones has featured various artists, mainly musicians, for its covers. Each member of a legendary band like The Beatles even has appeared more than 30 times on the covers. Among other earlier models were John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, and Paul McCartney. Recently, a K-Pop sensation, Blackpink, was featured on the cover.
Along with the models, the iconic styled brand name logo is written on the top part of the covers. The logo is usually written in red but sometimes can be written in gold or white. It also can be written in three-dimensional or two-dimensional textures. All those details are placed on a single-colored background.
Time
Time is based in New York City and intended to tell news stories. It was published for the first time in 1923 as one of the first news magazines in the United States. It also has a European branch, Time Europe, based in London, and also Time Asia, based in Hong Kong as the Asian branch.
Time has a distinctive red border on its covers. The design is simple and elegant, with political figures, role models, or others as the cover models on a normally dark background. There are only a few writings along with the red, white, or black ‘TIME’ written on the top part of the cover.
These iconic cover design of some popular magazines can be their unique identities. You can also create your design with a similar approach. Do not forget that you can find beautiful graphics and stunning font styles to decorate your design. You can also find other references from many top cover designs.
