Magazines Part 2

1. Early Magazine Covers-
Many early magazines didn't have typical covers. For the most part they had the title and a description or table of contents. Some began to look like book covers, with small illustrations and description words. They began to have bigger and more symbolic pictures and less text. The covers began to get more themed and customized to the specific magazine. Different companies had their own styles of magazines.

2. The Poster Cover-
The poster cover became a style that was basically the standard for magazine covers in the 1900s. Famous illustrators would draw something, usually a portrait of a person. The pictures would be centered on an oversized magazine. The covers would have the title of the magazine, the large illustration and the occasional blurb previewing the magazine's content. The pictures mostly represented ideas and moods of the magazines, not really what the magazine was about. The pictures are the main attraction in these magazines.

3. Pictures Married to Type-
These magazines had cover lines. A cover line is a short headline or phrase that hints at the content of the magazine. The magazines of this era had a good balance of photos and text. The typical cover would have the magazine title, large and at the top. A photo of model would take up a large portion of the cover. The title and model would usually overlap. The model would have a unique pose and the photo would strongly suggest the theme or tone of the magazine. Multiple, smaller cover lines would be spread around the cover.

4. In the Forest of Words-
With many modern magazines, cover lines are equally as important as the image on the cover. Busy covers with lots of text overlapping photos is very common. Some cover lines are the same size as, and sometimes bigger than, the titles of the magazines. Even with powerful models and images on magazine covers, the photos often get overshadowed by the cover lines. Poster covers and covers "married to type" can still be found, but you'll mostly find cover lines flooding the cover space.