Your favourite covers #7

This time, three simple, graphic covers.

David King is one of the great but relatively unacknowledged UK editorial designers. Developing his talent alongside Michael Rand at The Sunday Times during the late sixties, his interest in Russian constructivism art and design led him to become the designer of choice for the groups behind the rise in left wing activism in late seventies Britain. City Limits magazine was one such project, a listings title that grew out of a bitter internal rift within the more established Time Out.

Making a virtue of a poor budget, King’s covers for the new magazine (launch issue above) were based on bold, grotesque typography, strong CMYK colours and coarse halftones. They remain a case study in editorial branding and were one of the main reasons I was drawn to magazine design. (later, my first editorial job was in the City Limits studio). See more of David King’s covers here.

Wired also has a highly developed visual identity, and hasn’t been scared to run typographically led covers over the years. This one, suggested by Warren, is from April 1999 and is almost invisibly black. ‘The headlines are printed in clear gloss varnish on matt black. At the time it exuded extreme confidence on what was still really a niche publication.’

Sleazenation – an earlier incarnation of Sleaze magazine – produced a run of great covers under art director Scott King. This one, from November 2001, takes a cheesy T-shirt joke and adapts it the newsstand shelf. King has the enviable ability to carry off a simple idea like this by making the design invisible. Thanks Mark for suggesting it.

Which magazine would you place it next to?