Magazine covers design

Undoubtedly, the cover image presented in magazines plays a significant role in stimulating the level of attraction and patronage the edition of that magazine will receive; a fact that is well understood and appreciated by all players in the magazine publishing industry. Whatever is presented on the cover image of a magazine can best be described as an extension of the stated branding of the magazine in question. According to a recently published survey almost eighty percent of all readers spend just a little over five seconds in skimming through the cover of a magazine before settling on the decision of buying that issue or not (Reference needed).
The reason being that most readers understand that besides furnishing the reader with relevant information about what he or she should expect by way of the content of the issue, it serves as a channel to come into contact with the inherent foundational values that defines the magazine displayed for sale; summing up as an ideal marketing tool. As part of the task of this essay, the central focus of the work will be looking at the design layout and typographic features of magazine covers within the last century. To accomplish this task specific emphasis will be placed on a sample of two popular teenage magazines in circulation called “More” and “19.”
A closer look at issue 359 covering December 27, 2008 to January 8, 2002 in comparison to the January 2002 editions of “19” will create the platform to assess the role played by the print media in the proliferation of teenage ideology behavioral trends. Both additions provide a formidable basis to conduct a comparative critique of the design trends that reached its peak by the close of the twentieth century. It then proceeds to look at questions as to whether there is any marked transition between the twentieth century and the twenty first century.
It should be noted that reference to visual designs brings to mind a host of professional artistic disciplines that are all geared towards sending a communicable message by relying on the visual sense to achieve this. In other words, the design process brings together a combination of images, symbols and words to make a visual presentation of a message to an audience. The process may include typography and page layout mechanisms to get the final message presented.
The visual presentation of designs has a long history dating back to the medieval days when civilization was still at its lowliest forms. Naturally, the art has undergone a series of transformations with the greatest of all these changes taking place in the twentieth and twenty first centuries. It has gained tremendous usefulness in advertising, fine art, graphic designing and even lately web designing. An important meeting point in all these areas is that there is an emphasis on the need to make an orderly presentation of all ideas that are to be communicated through the work being done.

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