Journal tagged by Cover story

Designing magazine covers retains a reputation as an almost mystical practice, so when one hit us as strongly as the latest Eye cover design did, we wanted to dig a bit deeper. We spoke to the magazine’s art director Simon Esterson about the cover design, and the montage approach they’ve used since issue one in 1990.

We’ve seen magazines experiment with their logo from issue to issue, but Port’s new approach to the typography of its name is unique. Each issue features up to eight different cover stars, and each person handwrites the magazine’s name. We spoke to art director Matt Curtis about how the covers are working.

We speak to Real Review founder Jack Self about the 15th issue of his magazine, which has deleted all images, including its signature cover drawing by Nishant Choksi, in protest against the failure of western media to report on the suffering in Gaza since October 7. It’s a fascinating and revealing form of protest.

When movie magazine Little White Lies launched in 2005, it ran an illustration on the cover because a glossy photo shoot was beyond its budget. The result was a unique visual identity. As issue 100 appears, we invited editor David Jenkins to pick 10 memorable cover designs from the magazine’s 18 years to date.

Dutch art director Jaap Biemans is perhaps better known as Coverjunkie, regularly posting the best contemporary magazine covers on his website and Instagram. He also collects vintage magazines, and has curated an exhibition highlighting the relationship between covers and art. He tells us about the show and shares some favourite covers.

This week the publishing world was hit by the news that the art director’s art director George Lois had died. His sixties cover designs for Esquire remain a common reference point today for editors and designers alike. Here, we republish a 2010 interview with Lois, who said at the time, ‘Magazine geeks are my people.’