Brasil did it better

Kate Upton seems to be everywhere these days, especially on magazine covers. One of her latest appearances was on Vogue UK’s June 2014 cover. Her vintage looking bathing suit is from Dolce & Gabbana and the Photography is by Mario Testino. Now let’s see what could have been done to make this better…

I am a sucker for Vogue UK (most of the time). They have great layouts and photoshoots. Usually though, despite all the awesome content, the cover doesn’t follow. This cover is acceptable but not mind blowing (those are becoming very rare unfortunately). The major thing that is bothering me at first glance is the one thing that always bothers me with Vogue UK, why the hell aren’t they putting the head of the cover girl above the freaking logo? They deleted the G from Vogue, that would have been completely unnecessary if they had just put her head above it. It’s a minor detail I will admit but it’s something that bothers me a lot. Once you’ve noticed her hair behind the logo on the right, it’s all you can see, and you ask yourself, WHY?

As I said though this is a very tiny detail. The typography is also a mess… You can’t read the “Beach Chic” line at all and it’s the biggest headline on there. The first thing I read when looking at this was “30″. Not what you want people to see first, it makes no sense. That giant number is also confusing from afar. Is it her age? oh wait no it’s just “30 all-star summer buys”… The Hillary Clinton copy on the left barely reads too. I’m not sure pink was the best color choice, it has a bad readability.
The photo is ok. I’m saying OK because the fact that the background is beige despite the fact that Upton is in the sand bothers me. It took me a few minutes to put my finger on it but that is a little odd. Everything is so beige, there is no other color to clash, to pop, to make this cover live a little and that’s just too bad.

As I mentioned earlier, Kate Upton has done more than a few covers. Here are 3 other vogue covers she was on and it’s safe to say the only truly successful ones are Vogue Brazil and Vogue U.S. Granted the Brasil cover looks more like a September issue and not a June one BUT, it’s so Vogue. It’s edgy, chic simple and draws you in. what else is there to ask for? As for the U.S one, it’s perfect for a June issue. It’s fresh and warm, it’s not my favorite but it works.

What's This Font 1.1 - Vanity Fair

Hey guys and welcome back for this special second edition of What's This Font! This month on the menu is one of my favorite magazines, Conde Nast's Vanity Fair. They have (for the most part) great typefaces that create an overall beautiful design throughout the issues and this post will let you know what they are and where you can find them.

The first one we'll start with is Didot. It is for all intents and purposes Vanity Fair's signature font and is used almost exclusively on the cover and most of the pages of the magazine. It's one of those fonts that you may find more common than you should. It's an elegant and at the same time modern typeface. You can find it on typography.com here for $300 for 42 typefaces. When used correctly this font has a great impact and is of course absolutely beautiful.

Font number two on our list today is VF Sans. It has five weights, two widths, and was created for Vanity Fair by David Harris (design director) and Greg Mastrianni (art director) and designed, drawn and produced by James Montalbano of Terminal Design. This typeface can be found abundantly throughout the magazine, mostly in the artciles and captions, giving it a modern edge.

Finally the third font and also the most recent design addition to the magazine is Solano designed by Mark van Bronkhorst between 2007 and 2009. This typeface is a perfect new addition to Vanity Fair's design library. It is used mostly with a wide tracking and in a smaller point size which does not tone down its importance. You can purchase Solano on myfonts.com, the price is reasonable per font, the whole family in itself though is quite expensive but definitely a good buy.
More info to come soon!

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!

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?