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...

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…).

From Vogue to Vague

So I finally have a bit of time for myself and decided to take a little trip to the south of France for three days. But, of course, my obsession for the editorial world is not at rest and I had a few hours at the airport to catch up on what I’ve missed commenting on these past few months. Let’s start with a recent cover, I’m looking at you Vogue U.S, I’m pretty sure you don’t want me to be looking at you right now…. For their July cover they have singer Katy Perry. But wait…this looks familiar…

Yes they did. This cover looks an awful lot like their December 2012 issue with Anne Hathaway. Come on, I know it's summer and that this is a small issue but I'm surprised nobody noticed this. The color scheme is the same, green, pretty red flowers, that weird sad empty gaze is still here and honestly it wasn't a winning cover in December and it's not one now. However, this cover is the least of Vogue's problem right now.

 

I'm not even going to mention the layout and graphic design from the spreads inside the issue…Ok well that's a total lie… I have to mention that. When I flipped through the magazine and saw…whatever it was that I saw I'm still not sure, I had to look at the cover twice to check I was indeed looking at Vogue U.S, that's not a good thing...

I do not understand how the whole artistic direction of this publication can be so wrong. If you swapped the current cover with the ELLE logo no one would notice the difference…(that is an insult to ELLE actually, their layouts are divine compared to this) I’m not talking about the pictures as there are some good series in there but Oh My God the typography?? It looks like a failed merger between 4 or 5 different magazines! (no Vogue…that’s not a good thing when you look like you’re stealing layouts and fonts from everyone else…). Maybe the art director is on vacation who knows, it doesn’t make that much of a difference. I have, many times, lashed out at Vogue U.S because this publication which is supposed to be so elegant, fashion oriented and forward is simply a mess. They don’t even have a signature typeface (or one particular typeface that stands out more than the other for that matter, it looks like they are just using whatever they are in the mood for when they make a layout..). I isolated a few spreads to compare and contrast them with layouts from other publications like Vanity Fair and ELLE in case my point isn’t already made, check them out below:

All I can add to conclude this post is this: What it particularly sad is that Vogue U.S is not the magazine is used to be anymore. I find the whole publication to be a bit all over the place way too often (design wise, the photoshoots are still good). I'm liking the foreign Vogues a lot better these days.

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?

Cheesy december vogue U.S

for their december issue, vogue US showed no fear…of total failure. Anne hathaway is an actress I admire for her acting as well as her beauty and vogue decided to put her on their december 2012 cover...

I haven't had the time to post in a while and missed the golden opportunity to talk about this cover. As soon as I saw this cover my face pretty much looked like a cartoon character in shock. What was Vogue thinking?? Let's dissect this winter mess shall we:

First, the photography by (amazing) Annie Leibovitz is far from reaching her normal level of talent. Anne Hathaway looks so terribly sad, I swear her eyes are drooping downer and downer the more I look at this….She looks like she is melting and hat isn't something I want to see. On top of that you add your grandma's rose bush in the back and you're set to cry for a while.

Second, the typography. To be honest it's nothing different that what Vogue has been doing for a while now, a bold and light boring old sans serif typeface that is ready to eat everything standing in its way. Soon they will put type on top of people's faces…. As I mentioned in one of my previous post, this cover does not say vogue AT ALL to me. it screams a cheap house and garden magazine and the first sentence that comes to mind while looking at this is "how to stay pretty (or fail) while planting roses in a cocktail dress".

Third, the color palette. Oh wow red and green how original for a christmas issue…why not put a christmas tree and a stocking with Anne's name while you're at it?

and fourth but not least, the actual pictures of Hathaway used for her feature. If you have ever heard of Mylene Farmer (famous french singer in the 80's and 90's) you definitely see where I'm going with this. The styling and pictures look like they were taken straight from Farmer's video clip from one of her hit songs "libertine" in 1986. If you watch it now it does look a bit cheesy but the way Leibovitz photographed Hathaway is even cheesier. Again I ask: How is this Vogue?

Mylene Farmer in 1986 on the left facing Anne Hathaway in Vogue US dec 2012
 

Vogue UK december redesign

Here is a 30 minute redesign of VOGUE UK's December 2012 cover, using the same copy and basic layout, only adjusting the main color and of course changing the photo.

SO as I have done before, here is a 30 minute redesign of Vogue UK's december 2012 cover using a picture from inside of this issue to give you an idea of how this could have been way more interesting (and pop since this was clearly what they were aiming for...).I am using pretty much the first typeface that I stumbld across in my font library for this as the type isn't the focus here. I don't know about you but I absolutely cannot tell that these two pictures are of the same woman...

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.

British Vogue: Quick tweak session

Here is the tweaked cover of November Bristish Vogue, done in less than 30 minutes
using the same copy, same picture and almost the same arrangement.

So from now on I will be posting very quick ( 25min) re-designs of covers that are on stands I wish had been done differently. I am using very basic fonts as my goal is to do this quickly, for this cover I used Arial and minion pro (can't go more basic than that).

Why am I tweaking the cover?

Number 1, it's great training, number 2 I might just be able to make my point better than with words. So to officially start it off, here is a very quick tweak of the November cover of British Vogue staring Jennifer Lawrence. See below for the before and after details.

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?

Va va VOGUE

The month of may is already there in editorial land and I am focusing on the vogues. Three different and gorgeous women on each edition of U.S, U.K and French vogue show contrasted design styles. U.S vogue features Scarlett Johansson photographed by Mario Testino, for the U.K we have Charlize Theron looking more beautiful than ever in a Valentino dress photographed by Patrick Demarchelier and finally Laetitia Casta for french vogue also photographed by Mario Testino.

VOGUE U.K is my favorite of those three for many for different reasons. First of all the photography and styling is all you could want from a Vogue, beautiful yet simple and elegant. The general color scheme of the cover made me instantly want to pick it up from the stand and the inside is as great as the outside. The light blue/green of the dress combines perfectly with the bright red(with a hint of orange) on the cover. The typography combination of a sans serif typeface with a serif one makes everything better. As well as being more visually appealing it adds the edge that is lacking on the french and U.S covers. This "living Special" makes me want to be Vogue and carry this edition around all day.

Now FRENCH VOGUE's minimal style on the cover works quite well with the photography, a very simple color palette matching Casta's eyes looks very fresh. All and all a good cover though a little excitement wouldn't hurt... The typography is still a little crowded and could have used a little more work. That aside this custom font made especially for french Vogue is absolutely beautiful and makes me drool every time I read an issue...

U.S VOGUE I am afraid to say looks a bit "cheap". Now don't get me wrong, it's not terrible but it lacks the fashion edge that the U.K and french covers have. I am not a fan of this picture of Scarlett Johansson but I think that what is throwing me off is the typography. Vogue needs to be doing some redesign on its covers...It simply doesn't look like a fashion magazine. And the type... all sans serif, all caps, big and round letters crowding the left side, NOT looking sexy at all. Its overcrowded and under treated, come on the french and the british are doing it so well, what is happening in the U.S?