Magazines Part II

1. Early Magazine Covers

     Most magazine covers in the 1700's and the 1800's were extremely different from the magazine covers of today. Back then, the magazines usually looked like a book cover with the title, publication data and occasionally a small illustration. But, the illustration was for decoration rather than a insight to what would be talked about in the magazine. Also, some magazine covers would look like a table of contents, or the front of a newspaper. 


2. The Poster Cover

     During the late 1800's, many magazine covers had exquisite illustrations done by artists and engravers who learned to master graphic design. Also, the illustrations weren't typically covered by the title and the illustration was just to convey a general mood, not to portray the stories in the magazine. Pictures were the main focus of the cover and sometimes looked as if the should be framed and hanging on a wall rather than on the cover of a magazine. Lastly, sometimes photographs would be blown up to fill almost the whole entire cover, leaving a small amount of room for the title and the theme of the magazine.


3. Pictures Married to Type

     Although most illustrations and pictures drew people in, some magazines had to have creative cover lines to catch people's attention. Ever since then, most magazines have a cover line and a big picture on the cover. Also, four things that were common in magazine covers were a large title with the person's face slightly overlapping it, a full body picture of the person, an unusual expression or pose by the person, and cover lines on all sides of the person. Lastly, the cover lines typically included the contributors to the magazine, not the topics or themes presented in the magazine.

4. In the Forest of Words

     In the 21st century, magazine covers included cover lines and pictures that were of equal importance. Also, most covers have a background picture and cover lines that are in the foreground, covering all of the sides of the picture. Lastly, many models on the cover pose in a certain way to allow many cover lines to cover parts of the picture that aren't too important.