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.

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.

Esquire's game of Throne

I have to admit I wanted to buy the march 2014 of Esquire instantly just by glancing at it quickly on my computer screen. Peter Dinklage from Game of Thrones stole this cover and am I glad he did. With exclusive photographs by Tom Munro.

Ok so first off, hats. Thank you Esquire for putting this amazing actor on your cover. I'm sure many other people feel that way as well. Dinklage looks amazing here and I cannot control the urge I have to go to the first newsstand and buy this issue (unfortunately, we french people have to wait a little longer to get the latest goodies from America...). The styling is great, the picture is great and the guy is great. This scores major points. However, I can't only be saying nice things...or can i?

Layout wise I have to admit I was a little weirded out, at first. The logo placement felt a little awkward laying like that on Dinklage's shoulders, but after thinking about it, it was an obvious choice. Had the Style Guide copy and logo switched places it would have made Dinklage look a lot shorter. The placement they have now, with his head all the way above the logo helps a LOT. It makes him a lot more present and imposing. To give you a better idea of what I'm talking about, I quickly tweaked the cover to emphasize the difference.

On the left we have the original cover, very powerful. On the right, my tweaked cover. It's quite funny because it looks like I made him smaller. Optical illusion. A simple logo placement can make or destroy a cover, this one works very well, kuddos for that because this picture could have easily been ruined.

Esquire, please ship your issues to France faster.

Sincerely. 

J~

It's all about Vanity Fair France

I've been off the grid for a while and missed commenting on a lot of covers in the past months. BUT, I do have a good reason! Since october 2012 I have officially been working as part of the Art department team at Vanity Fair France with Yorgo Tloupas (Art Director) and Genève Doherty (Associate Art Director) on the design of Condé Nast's newest baby. After months of hard work, late nights, junk food and team work, the first ever issue of Vanity Fair France is finally available and we are all so excited!

Who else could have been worthier of our first cover other than Scarlett Johansson? A gorgeous woman with amazing talent. She opened the doors of her parisian life to our team.

This first issue is very dense and has a lot of fascinating articles and great photography. We were able to get talented illustrators (one of my favorite parts), as well as great photographers and writers. So for everyone out there who is not able to go grab their first issue, here is an exclusive sneak peek at what you are missing out on, time to go grab yours! (also available on iPad of course with lots of extra images, animations and interactive delights).

 

GQ U.S going playboy style?

Ok so I haven't posted in a while but it doesn't mean I haven't been paying attention...I don't know about you but I have been really disappointed with the covers GQ has been publishing lately. It seems instead of publishing a men's style magazine, they've gone trashy on us and have now started to take  playboy looking pictures. I am of course talking about 2 of their latest covers, Rihanna and Beyonce. Yes Beyonce is hot, yes Terry Richardson is a very good photographer and no, this right there, isn't working.

Now I was willing to overlook the Rihanna cover as I did see some good things about it. It was provocative yet not trashy. However I can't ttribute the same compliments to the Beyonce cover. The pictures are not GQ material, just a playboy or maxim shoot at best...(see below). I know they are trying to sell more paper but this is just not right. If you look at GQ france you can truly see a magazine with a strong identity, photography that says something. Even GQ U.K whose identity/graphic design may be all over the place is still stronger than GQ U.S. Am I wrong? you tell me.

Obama is a GQ Man

That's right, for their November cover GQ France has president (and presidential candidate)
Barack Obama!

This issue is great and I'm not only talking design wise, but also content wise. I realize I don't talk about content in my articles but it also plays a big part in a cover. This is definitely an issue you want to pick up if you can read french. Those great articles are of course completed by great design. It fascinates me to observe how the same magazine ends up being so completely different from one country to another. The general design of GQ US is pretty nice but I don't love it the same way I do GQ France.

Anyways getting back to this awesome new issue, definitely a go getter! the article and layout on Obama is well worth your time trust me. I usually don't enjoy reading articles in magazines like this but I have to say this one actually gets me to. The layouts are perfect for legibility and well organized.
It's a stunning cover, loving the blue they used for the headline and the picture of President Obama is quite nice though I wouldn't have minded it being a bit bigger to get to a real portrait type photo.

Honestly this is the only thing I can find that might bother me a little bit, apart from that kudos to the whole GQ team in Paris.

Time to go grab yours!

On a side note: Obama has been on a few other GQ covers, which one is your favorite?

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.