Cover Fight 1.0 : Fallon V.S. Kimmel

Cover Fight time!
Ok so I've been meaning to post this since the Jimmy Fallon Vanity Fair cover came out but work has been crazy and I haven't had time to. SO, I'm posting it now because I believe this is still relevant and well, I love that Jimmy Kimmel cover and never had a chance to post about it so here we go:

A few months ago Esquire and Vanity both put on their covers two late night stars, on the one hand we have Jimmy Fallon for Vanity Fair and on the other Jimmy Kimmel for Esquire. We have two very different styles. Esquire mixed polished with artistic and oh my god how well does that work?! This cover made me smile, made me want to buy the issue, made me happy I went to the newsstand. The photo is great, it's by Jeff Minton. It captures the essence of Kimmel really well, the whole concept is just perfect for him. I love the hand drawn look of the type and the smudges around the logo. There isn't much to say here other than, they totally nailed it… So we have 1 point for concept, 1 point for typography and one point for photography!

On the other hand we have Jimmy Fallon for Vanity Fair. Different magazine, radically different style. The cover was shot by Annie Leiboviz. I am divided on this one. The more I look at it, the more I like it, I guess. But if I were to glance at it quickly at a newsstand I don't think I would look twice. It doesn't pop out enough for me. I wish Jimmy had been the only one on the cover, the models add a certain touch to this that I don't like. I get the concept, I get why it might have seen like a great idea to shoot two stories in the same picture on the cover, but I don't think it came out as great as it could have been. They didn't play the comedy side enough. The type is ALL over and it's getting very cramped which might be what is bugging me. I don't care too much for the blue sticker bubbles on top on the red banner on the bottom right. The logo is getting completely eaten away and I don't know where to look anymore. The hierarchy is off and it's a cover that ends up being rough to navigate through. (On a side note, Fallon's face looks kind of weird…) If we count it up we have 1 point for concept, -1 point for typography, 1/2 point for photography.

Which gives us 3 for Kimmel and 0.5 for Fallon.

So for this "fight", Kimmel and Esquire get the win…because you know, I smile everytime I look at this cover and that is a really good feeling.

Vogue UK June 2014 redesign

Kate upton made the cover of this month's Vogue UK. It's quite a disapointing cover considering the model and the photographer. I would have expected more but it turns out we don't always get what we want right?

After looking at the full photoshoot I saw this one picture and the cover alarms went off in my head. I took about 20 minutes and here's a little bit of a "what if..." moment...

 Dear Vogue, if you are going to have a really hot, beachy and steamy photoshoot with Kate Upton, do it all the way (by all the way I do mean put it on the damn cover).

 For this redesign I used some of the most basic fonts on my computer (though clearly they need a little help typography wise it's not the point I'm trying to make).

I understand that dealing with brands and getting the proper credits on a cover is a huge thing but that's why you plan those things ahead. This shoot is so light and steamy while the cover appears completely dull and washed out. This is another case of Vogue UK being so much better on the inside than it is on the outside (see my previous post on this with Natalia Vodianova). But this is supposed to be a package deal! (see below for more pictures from the shoot)

Next time Vogue, please go through with a concept ALL the way, 

it would make everything so much better...

FT W

I'm finally posting again after being MIA for quite some time. Its been busy and also a bit hard to get to write anything recently. It's too bad I ,issed a few good covers to comment on in the past few months. But let's not dwell on that and focus on the latest issue of W magazine instead!

For this (quite awesome) issue of W, Cyrus was photographed by Mert and marcus. Now there is no question, the cover is doing everything a cover is supposed to do: intrigue, surprise and please.

The photo is beautiful and at first you don't really know who it is you are looking at, "Is that Lady Gaga..? no, wait…holy crap!." That moment right there, that is how every cover should make you feel, great concept and art direction.
The article written by Ronan Farrow is great as well, really draws you in. Nothing particularly exciting or new, just good writing. The general design and layout of the mag is really clean too which is a plus. Cool illustrations are added in the mix and who doesn't love those…

 All other publications out there should be striving for covers like this one every month, there aren't many good ones out there anymore. Let's take Vanity Fair's hollywood issue as an example. It was pretty but when you open the mag to look at the story, surprise! there is none. The cover is all you get apparently nowadays at VF. I know I do a lot of commenting on cover design and photography but come on you have to back it up with more content inside. If the content is not as good as the cover you are really cheating the customer…

Anyways, W rocked it and I definitely want more.

GQ class

Yes! Thank you GQ for printing three covers for your October issue. Usually less is more but in this case more is better. For this month GQ decided to cover Aniston's husband to be Justin Theroux, actor Idris Delba and singer/actor Jeff Bridges.

The photography is great, all three cover guys look really good. The classic sexy look is back and it feels amazing. The type is not too present, just enough so you know what's inside without ruining the pictures. I do have to mention the two rectangles with headlines are kind of a no no especially the one with the white outline… do people actually still think boxes with outlines are ok? Tried it without the box on the left and instead put it on the right, I feel like it's more balanced that way.

I love the fact that the logo is half black and half white, it really enhances the way the lighting works on each of the guy's portraits. Thank's GQ, for being classy and smooth this month and giving us the gift of a trio.

What’s This Font 1.3 – Vanity Fair France

 Greetings typelings, It's this special time again, what's this font is back! For this 4th and latest edition we will be taking a look at Vanity Fair France. Lots of really cool and recent new fonts here that I'm sure you guys will love. We've got a mix between Vanité, VF Didot and Futura.

The first typeface we will be looking at today is VF Didot. Of course such a beautiful font could only come from one place: Commercial Type. Both the U.S and french version of Vanity Fair are currently using it, though the U.S is also using the stencil and the thicker weights unlike VF France.  The font is used throughout the whole magazine, Front of book, back of book and of course features. It has got the most amazing lowercase italics and they come in a bunch of different weights. They give just enough of a soft feel so that it doesn't look girly rather just elegant. The original Didot is a timeless gorgeous typeface and VF Didot is just as beautiful. It's not available for purchase yet as it was designed very recently. You can keep an eye out just in case but it seems Vanity Fair will have the exclusive use for quite a while. For more info check out Commercial Type. 

 

(Side note: The uppercase italic are are not working quite as well as you would want them to, they are too italic unfortunately...VF France hasn't been going in that direction too much though unlike VF U.S)

Now for my personal favorite, Vanité! Vanité is the font VF France is using instead of Solano Gothic (What VF U.S is using). This font was the result of a design collaboration between the art department at Vanity Fair France and Jean-baptiste levee. This typeface is perfect for the french edition, it's art deco and modern at the same time. This is what's replaced VF Sans and it's doing a great job. It has a lot of wonderful glyphs. Unfortunately, there again, it's not available for purchase but we're keeping our fingers crossed right? You can find more information on Vanite here.

The third one is a classic, Futura. Ah future, I have come to appreciate that typeface a lot in the last few years. It's just so easy to use and in this case it blends so well with the whole design of the magazine. VF U.S and France use the same version of it, Futura (T1). This typeface however has so many different variations that it's really hard to know which is which! I was never able to find where to get Futura (T1) but here is a link to the regular version on MyFonts. It goes for $356 and has 18 different weights. I'd say it's definitely a good one to have in your pocket.

For the last one I'm afraid we're just going classic with the VF times which is used for all the main text throughout the mag. Nothing fancy here, just a sweeter version of Times making an easy read. All and all, good typefaces in the mix! You can check out the fonts Vanity Fair U.S uses here.

 

Vogue Paris' hot chill

If any of you are in europe right now, (or your international press stand), I’m sure you’ve taken a look at the latest Vogue Paris issue. For august we have a special London issue with Daria Werbowy photographed by David sims.

Werbowy is wearing an awesome Ralph Lauren Jacket and all in all this cover looks pretty cute. The colors are nice and the model looks great, (though I could’ve done without the nose piercing…). The typography is very messy however, its quite crowded and you are losing any sense of priority on this cover. Everything is sitting really tight and I found it hard to read. I can honestly say though that this cover looks a hundred times better than the U.S and U.K editions, (by saying this I’m merely pointing out that those two look aweful not that this one looks amazing..).

The only thing that bothered me was the whole theme of this issue. As I mentioned this is a special London edition, and apparently to us french people, a London edition means winter style and cold photoshoots. It seems a bit chilly for an august issue which is disappointing but clearly you can’t have everything (trying sure wouldn’t kill you though…).

What's This Font 1.2 - VOGUE Paris

Greetings designers and type geeks. It's time for a What's This Font post and this time we'll be looking at Vogue Paris. Definitely an upgrade on Vogue U.S if you ask me. There are lots of interesting things in there, especially layout and font wise. The first font we will  be looking at is the font used on the cover. On the one hand you have the VOGUE logo which is a slightly altered version of Didot (T1) HTF M42 Medium (who knew right?) and on the other we have a mix of Miller Banner light, roman and semi bold for the headlines. 

I don't find there is much to say on the Vogue logo itself, it's pretty iconic and speaks for itself so for now I will just focus on the use of Miller which was designed by Matthew Carter and Richard Lipton in 2010. The first time I discovered Miller I was working as an intern at Victoria's Secret and it was one of the fonts they used the most. You would think I would have recognized it but the way Vogue uses it is so different that to me it looked like a completely different font. It's modern yet has got all the right curves. It works very well for them and all in all it's quite a gorgeous typeface. Not only that but the price range is quite reasonable, you can find Miller Banner here.

Now despite all these good aspects this font does have a major flaw which comes to light in a more obvious way as you flip through the pages and Vogue Paris doesn't seem to have noticed it: readability. If this reads well on the cover I'm afraid the same thing can't be said on the inside of the magazine. That is mostly due to the layouts, a lot of cramped text everywhere whether it be big or small, not the smartest choice. Vogue also decided they wanted a customized version of Miller specially designed for them and that's how they ended up with...let's say interesting, alternates.

While some of the alternates work quite well and give the page a little more beauty and vogue, one in particular is just plain weird. You can guess from looking below, it's the B. It looks like a J and a B stuck together and reads really weird. No one's perfect right?

Yippeekayay GQ readers

 This March Bruce Willis is taking over the movie theaters with Die Hard 5 and the magazine stands as well. The Die Hard saga star is covering both GQ U.S and U.K march issues, the question is, who did it better?

On the one hand we have the french, who chose to shoot Willis wearing a black t-shirt, keeping things simple, and on the other, GQ U.S, who chose a jean shirt with a tie, topped with a grey/blue blazer. Now simply based on the styling and the pose, I do think the french did it better. I don't know about the U.S, it seems they had this picture retouched a LOT and the actor is starting to look like his wax replica from Mme Tussaud…

Typography wise, Despite the fact that the fonts are way better on french GQ, the layout on the U.S one is better. The french cover feels very crowded and I'm having a hard time enjoying the picture because of it. I also really don't like the way they're advertising the iPad app on the french cover with that yellow tablet on the left, it just doesn't go.

However I have to go with GQ France, I like the photography a lot better and I'm never disappointed with the inside layouts which is not so often case with G.Q U.S. Once again, the U.S will just have to try and do better… what do you think?

On a side note, below is a comparison between french GQ's current cover and a quick retweak I did getting rid of the ipad icon and slightly rearanging the headline type to uncrowd the page. Not necessarily a solution but something to think about, I wanted to give the picture some more breathing space to see how it looked.

VOGUE UK's december mess

In one of my previous posts I said Vogue could do much better but it also seems they can do MUCH worse. Vogue UK has the gorgeous Natalia Vodianova on their cover for their December issue and this mess makes me want to weep for designers everywhere...

The past two issues of our British neighbors have been disappointing but this one is just plain ridiculous. The photo on the cover (by Mario Testino) is not what anyone could call a Vogue picture nor a good picture. I'm not sure who was in charge of the styling but oh dear! Especially considering when you look at the gorgeous and colorful spreads of Vodianova inside! The pictures in this issue are great, vibrant with all the pop you could want but who could get a chance to see those with a cover so bad? This outfit combined with the grey background makes the whole scene very dull and Vodianova's face and expression is just not right. I have seen her on may covers (including vogues) and I didn't even recognize her on this wreck of a cover. I am being very harsh but it is so disappointing to follow a magazine who did such amazing things just a few months ago and is now daring to publish a cover that looks like this.

The cover photo is not the only thing lacking work, the typography combinations are not that good either. I don't even think I can go in and comment on it, the hierarchy is a complete mess and the line "an explosion of fashion and fun" makes the magazine sound like a cheap version of cosmo.

My biggest concern on this is how can they make the inside layouts so decent and detailed and leave a cover like this? Come on Vogue, please don't keep disappointing like this...

--

here are the gorgeous spreads/photography of Vodianova once you are brave enough to flip through this issue after seeing the cover. The saying about not judging a book from it's cover does not apply here folks, I'm judging whoever is responsible for this humongous difference between the design inside the issue and outside. Shame on you. shame on you.

GQ's Naked Rihanna

For their Man/woman of the year covers, GQ U.S has gone all in showing a naked and steamy Rihanna. Is it getting hot where you are too?

GQ woman of the year Rihanna definitely has nothing to envy other singers and I think this cover speaks for itself. First of all, I am loving the color combination used by GQ for this issue, its fresh and pops up nicely. It goes very well with the picture. I can't say much else type design wise because I am really not a fan of GQ US's covers. I find the typeface very blah and it doesn't do much for the magazine, there's no it factor. Everything is just there laying on top of each other boringly stacked and I think a magazine as big should be able to do better.

Now I won't lie, this picture is HOT, but there is something I find uneasy about Rihanna's face and pose. She looks a bit awkward and mannish. This also has to do with her boy's haircut (not a fan of that...am I wrong?). Her face looks chubbier than we've seen and the way that leather jacket is arranged on her shoulders is not ideal, that left sleeve is really bothering me, very stiff. All in all this is not my favorite picture of her though it has been making quite the buzz. Love the concept and I think they could have shot a way better picture. Her general pose is great but had those few details been altered this picture could have been amazing. Good point for GQ, it's good they have good buzz ideas because design wise they're not flying so high.

what do you think?

Cosmopolitan Time Jump

Ah Cosmo, you've been there so long and you've been so present yet I can't get myself to like you the way I like other publications such as ELLE or teen vogue.

I figured the answer to my question had to lie somewhere within past cover designs. So I did a little research online to look at WAY past issues of the magazine. I explored covers from the 20th to the 21rst century
and oh boy was there some good stuff. (you can find a little visual at the end of this post of all the covers I looked at.)

I saw this one summer cover that I loved from 1970 and instantly thought, "wonder what this would look like if we modernized it a bit..." I don't need to tell you what happened next... (excuse the picture quality, I didn't really look for a higher res)

Now I did tweak their copy a bit (mostly shortened it), and for those of you who'd want to know what fonts I used, here is a little list as well as where I used the specific typeface (see image below for details). Benton Modern display Ultra for the headline, a mix of Arial narrow bold and simple bold for the sans serif text and finally Bauer Bodoni Std1 bold italics for the subheads.



and finally here are some of the covers I looked at when I was digging around, I was trying to see the evolution based on 10 year jumps. It looks like they started going type crazy in the 60s, too bad because the 1952 cover is really nice...

What's This Font 1.0 - Esquire

 Hey guys, so like many other graphic designers I'm a font nut and I like to know what is being used out there and if I can use it too. So for this first post of What's this font, I will be exploring our friends at Esquire Magazine U.S. If you've ever wondered what font they are using, this is the place to look. Most of Esquire's typefaces were custom made for the magazine though not all of them. You can find the ones that weren't, online ,(they do cost a bit though but nothing particularly excessive for a font family).

The first one we'll start with is Graphik (the font used on their cover) which can be bought through commercial type and was designed by Christian Schwartz in 2009. Esquire uses it on the cover and throughout the issue for categories like "Style", "cars" and "MaHB" (Man at his best). It's a very nice font, modern and bold,very easy to use as well as easy on the eyes.

The next one is Granger, which was commissioned by Esquire from Commercial Type. The name of the typeface was for their long-time editor in chief and was designed by Kai Bernau and Susana Carvalho. Granger is also used as one of their pillar typeface with Graphik throughout the issue and is quite prominent. Both those fonts stand very well together and bring the layouts together nicely.

Now the last one I'll cover today I am not sure about. They use a condensed type on their cover which I would assume after digging around, is Giorgio Sans from Commercial Type. It's a very nice typeface, lots of different weights, very modern and simple. It goes very nicely with Graphik and Granger, so nicely actually you almost don't notice there's a third type family on the cover.

I will keep updating this post as I get more info so stay tuned!

GQ U.K has all the Bonds

So it seems I've been a bit scattered with everything showing up on stand at the same time,
and I forgot GQ U.K's November issue with it's James Bond special (doing a bond cover one month after everyone else and doing 6 covers, nicely played U.K), YUM.

Let's start off with the good things about this issue, number 1 there are 6 covers and they all kick ass. GQ U.K has gone all in for this issue and it looks absolutely amazing. All the covers are great, that goes for the photography as well as design, the color palette is perfect and really, seeing those makes me want to devour the inside of the magazine. They are definitely climbing back up on my magazine favorite list as this has scored some major awesome points. Now I don't know about you but there are of course some tweaks that could have been made type wise to improve this issue.

The best cover for me has got to be the Sean Connery one, great picture and really nice type. The Daniel Craig cover is bit too much of an echo of the french edition of GQ. I would have liked to see the same layout they used for Sean Connery on Daniel Craig. But all and all, they rocked the month and it's a checkmate for all the other magazines covering Bond this month.

U.K Vogue bodge?

Like pretty much everyone this year, I went to see the hunger games and loved Jennifer Lawrence. She's been on quite a few covers this past year so let's check this one out shall we?

Like always I'm going to start with the photography. It's quite a beautiful shot of Lawrence wearing a gorgeous Dolce & Gabbana silver and black dress.It's a great image but unfortunately nothing groundbreaking. You would expect something more amazing coming from Vogue.

Design wise it's looking up from the last issue (see previous article) but still, nothing groundbreaking here either. The color palette is very nice, that coral/red color is beautiful and complements the image well. So it's easy on the eyes BUT then again the type placement is a bit off to me. There is a lot of copy competing with each other but I think what is actually bothering more than that is the way the O of the logo is place above Lawrence's head. It's not bringing anything to the cover and the more I look at it the more it's annoying the crap out of me and it looks like a mistake more than something on purpose. Someone probably went : "oh my god this is going to look amazing"and it somehow made it to print that way. Though this would have worked if her hair had been visible inside the O.

All and all not a terrible cover but not an amazing one either. It's nice to look at and I know I'm probably being harsh but Vogue has to be held to the highest standards and in my honest opinion they can do much better.

Harper's Bazaar's sexy October

Harper's Bazaar U.S hasn't always been the sexy thing it is now and has definitely
been evolving towards something great.

The new look appeared early on in 2012 (it seems they had been tweaking the cover around for a while) and the new look knocks it out of the park. I had never really paid attention to it before that, I didn't find the general design either appealing or interesting. But the last couple issues since this big change have been great and we couldn't ask for more, or could we?

As a graphic designer I have a very critical eye and looking at any cover of any publication, there is always a way to make something better. Harper's Bazaar still has some way to go before it looks absolutely amazing but so far they definitely have been going to right direction. The photography, which is absolutely perfect, and very simple color palettes are dead on and very attractive (doesn't Kate Hudson look stunning?). These are a perfect example of a great blend between the design and the photography, they don't compete and they don't clash, way to go Harper's Bazaar, keep 'em coming. Meanwhile below is a little compilation of their awesome new covers. (the Gwen Stefani one is to die for right?)

more about the new look here

VOGUE U.K quick re-design

So I was looking at this cover and thinking I should stop blabbing and start doing,
that's right take actions in my own hands.

SO, I re-designed the Kristen Stewart Oct cover in a little over half an hour and using pretty much the first fonts in my font library (Arial & italian Oldstyle except the big headline that's Narziss). Now I'm not saying that what I did looks amazing (clearly, I barely spent any time on it)

BUT I mostly wanted to see what the cover could have looked like if the pink and photography had been treated as a whole and not separately. In order to do that I changed the color of her lips to pink and changed the hue of her eyeshadow just a tad.It goes without saying I also tweaked the way the type was on the page...

Vogue U.K: not even trying

OK so I'm going to start with a "what the heck is going on with Vogue U.K" comment:
What the heck is going on with Vogue U.K?? 

At the beginning of the year they came up with gorgeous covers, we couldn't have asked anything more, from the photography to the typography, everything was there to please. You look at both the covers above now and see what I mean. It seems like our U.K friends are leaning towards the American look font wise (which is ,I'm not even sorry to say, not good):

The photography which they usually nail is not amazing and I'm pretty sure the problem with that lies with the terrible clash between the color scheme of Kristen and the pink they used for the type.Yes I have been made aware it's breast cancer month and the color change is a yearly thing (which is great dont get me wrong), what I am trying to point out however is they could have have done something photography wise to make this easier on the eyes. U.S Vogue did it very well, why couldn't British Vogue do the same?

I'd also like to know what is up with that bold and huge sans serif typeface? (that's Nobel bold in case you'd want to know...). Big no no. The typeface they had on the june cover was so sexy that seeing this huge change just makes me refuse to buy this issue. YES, it IS all about the cover, because the cover is the first thing you see and if that's not good well the inside can't have done much better...(not that i wont flip through the issue when I get a chance but right now I'm just not up to being disappointed some more.) To sum up this terrible tragedy, this cover is not a victory for the bristish version of the magazine. ELLE U.S did it better on their June cover and it wasn't even what we can even call a good cover. (see below)

P.S. I must say Nobel Bold is a fine font it's just not Vogue material, seriously, the french made their own gorgeous Vogue font; what are you waiting for?

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.

YRB SUMMER ISSUE

 On the cover of YRB magazine this month (a very late summer issue)
we have Evelyn Lozada and Michael Ealy.

Between the time when we had Evelyn's photoshoot and interviewed her about her glam life as a basketball wife, she got a divorce...Needless to say her marriage to Chad Johnson was very short lived (they got married on July 4th and she filed for divorce august 14th). Drama, drama...you know you love it. Anyways check out our latest issue of YRB, (designed by me) quick before the summer is over!

Esquire's HOT Summer

Esquire U.S and U.K are all in for summer with hot looking cover

A very tasteful clothes-less Rihanna steams things up at Esquire U.K versus 57 year old Bruce Willis who can still is bring it on for Esquire's U.S's cover.

That's all nice and cozy... but let's not kid ourselves, this is about who's got it right:

Both covers' styles are great for different reasons. On the one hand we have great typography for the U.S cover (including the inside, as always pure YUM), the design team sure knows how to keep things interesting. BUT, it is starting to get a little busy and is taking focus out of Bruce's fierce portrait. The copy above the logo is what is mainly throwing everything off, poor Bruce is drowning in a too abundant amount of type...
now now will someone throw him a lifebuoy?

On the other hand we have a gorgeous and fresh Rihanna. A perfect design for summer with the simple typography. Loving the clean look of this cover. The combination of this sexy picture & the restricted color palette brings everything together. In general I would probably be doubtful about the type/copy at the bottom of the cover but weirdly enough (though it could be a little smaller) it really ties the whole thing together and completes it nicely.

on a side note, wouldnt it be wonderful if these two managed to merge their styles? 
those 2 covers seem to complement each other nicely...anyone up for the challenge?

Can't wait to see what's in store for the next issues, dazzle us Esquire teams~