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.

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.

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?

Dress the (graphic designer) part

I came accross Ugmonk while browsing instagram and its simply awesome... The typogaphy is just beautiful and makes you want to buy on the spot. So if you're a designer, dress the part with these really cool tees.

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!