Daniel Craig: GQ v.s ESQUIRE

Latest 007 Daniel Craig is on the cover of both GQ France and Esquire U.K
for their October issue and I can't complain. But who is doing it better?

Let's start with the photography.

For Esquire we have famous photographer Terry O'Neil with a straight on portrait and for GQ, photographer Tom Craig opting for a lighter setting and something slightly more interesting than a straight on pose. The photography is clearly better handled in every way by GQ France. The styling is great (that suit looks perfect on him) and he looks the most like himself. Esquire seemed to have had a bit of a mishap regarding the styling (and I also want to say Craig's face? I'm not the only one seeing there's a problem there am I?), what is Craig wearing? nothing I'd buy for my guy for sure...They tried to do something way more dressed up than they usually go for on their covers and it didn't work.

Now design wise.

 I'm not playing favorites but GQ does it better as well. Mostly I like their typeface better than Esquire U.K, it makes more of a statement and is way more pleasant to look at. Don't get me wrong Esquire's cover looks fine but considering they are indeed esquire they should look great. The whole thing looks a bit awkward to me.
Let's hope their next cover makes us forget about this one because so far (excluding this little accident) they've been amazing.

GQ October is bare & dapper for fall 2012

GQ U.S, U.K and FRANCE throw at us multiple covers for this fall, good thing?
I'm not so sure... We see here how drastically different the same magazine is from one country to another, and apparently the country where the magazine originated from isn't always the leading example to follow.

Well hello there Mr. Craig! GQ France didn't do anything particularly special for this October issue but why change a winning style? This edition of the magazine has been gorgeous all on it's own completely detaching itself from its American sibling for a while now. The typefaces are custom made for GQ France and were designed by Anton Koovit, Yassin Baggar and Yorgo Tloupas. The boldness might appear a bit overpowering at first but it actually fits the general design perfectly. It's clean, modern and gorgeous all the way. We have a definite winner here there's no question about it!

Very sexy Tinie Tempah and Lana Del Rey cover GQ U.K going black and white for this fall. Both covers for this UK edition are at first glance a mixture of steamy and classy. The photography by Mariano Vivanco for Lana and Dylan Don for Tinie Tempah is perfect and the styling is just as good. What is bringing these covers down you may ask? well it's the typography. I mean really? I tried to find the name of the font they used unsuccessfully, not that I want to use it, it's not my taste and really not in sync with the GQ style. I understand the concept behind this but they could have used a more modern typeface and make this look way more appealing. So for this issue I'm not sure I can look past the font used. Still, I do have to give them credit for standing out on stands and be eye catching even if only for a few seconds.

Oh GQ U.S...what's been going on with you? Granted your photography of actors Denzel washington and Javier Bardem is great and that should'nt change but your typography is just boring. There is nothing special about these covers and it's a bit disappointing...The typography is just so cluttered and boringly stacked, you have so much more to offer than that, and if you don't I'm asking myself why pay $5 for this. When are they going to redesign this to be visually more appealing? Hoping for something better for the next issue.

A bit of TYPOGRAPHY

A few weeks ago I started working at Vente-privee.com

I've been doing photo retouching, comping and art direction, it's actually really fun and it's giving me a chance to sharpen my Photoshop skills (that can't hurt I was not far from being photoshophobic...). Anyways, my boss asked every designer to work on a little something for a book they want to send out to furnishers and clients as a little goody goody!

The theme: A touch of pink.

Since I've been trying to experience more with typography lately, I decided to go type nuts on it. The fuzzy "Rose" is to mirror the company's mascot and well the pink...its a pink world I go to every morning, enjoy!