Research: Magazine Design Inspiration

Simplicity and Minimalism

When it comes to magazine covers I really like minimalistic designs that are simple but sophisticated. These kinds of covers typically have very bold typography with very little text as not to detract from the images on the magazine. Great examples of this are magazines like i-D, Surface, Vice, Dummy and The Wire. With minimalistic magazine covers it's imperative that the text has clean and crisp font and that all the elements on the page are well aligned with one another to create good page harmony. Great typography is also another crucial aspect. Although it may not be a magazine, American Apparel ads are a good example of simplistic yet effective page designs, which in my opinion look much better than the cluttered approach which indie rock magazines like NME typically opt for. A key aspect of minimalistic overs is that there is only a small amount of text.

American Apparel Ads 

As you can see, American Apparel ads typically have very bold and large titles/headers that draw the readers attention to them. and when this is coupled with a crisp font like Ariel, the results are impressive despite its simplistic nature. Another feature of these ads is that the elements of the page are perfectly aligned with one another creating a seamless finish that looks professional and slick. There's just the right amount of text on each ad, which places a good amount of emphasis on the photos as opposed to the text. Another important aspect of their design philosophy is the uniformity that can be observed. They only use 2 or 3 different text sizes which makes the ads look well thought out and tidy. 

However, a perfect photo is just as important as the typography of a cover when it comes to the overall aesthetic. To pull of a minimalistic style the cover photo has to be bold and eye catching.  Otherwise it will look boring. Here are some examples of covers that utilise almost zero text but still look aesthetically pleasing due to good photography/editing.