Bad Examples

Worst Magazine Covers

Sometimes magazines can get their covers incredibly wrong - whether it be bad airbrushing or just silly placing of coverlines. I have picked some of the worst magazine covers I could find and evaluated to help me make sure my cover doesn't turn out like them.

Town & Country

The Town & Country magazine cover is bad for a number of reasons. Firstly, the image of Roger Federer does not match up to the background - it looks almost as if he has been pasted onto it. The colour scheme doesn't compliment each other well either - the yellow doesn't suit the red of the masthead which was used to compliment the colour of his jumper. Also, his position isn't natural - it looks like he doesn't want to be there. This then gives the cover a fake quality, like everything is too perfect. Therefore, for my magazine I will aim to edit it so it doesn't look like I have clearly removed my model form the original background. 

Sunday

What immediately stand out about this magazine cover is the bad image. Kirsten Stewart looks like she has just slumped onto the photo shoot - so the problem with this images is that unlike the magazine before, it is not too natural to the point where she looks like she is trying to hard. Furthermore, it also looks like not much time has been taken to make her look good - he outfit is quite basic and she almost blends into the background with her pale dress and skin. Also, the coverlines look as if the designer just decided to list them instead of trying to make them look better by placing them around the image. Lastly, I personally don't like the shadow of the image - so this is something that I would like to avoid having for my magazine cover. 

Todateen (star)

Like Sunday, the most strikingly obvious mistake with this cover is the image. Either Justin Bieber has as much make up on his face as possible or it has been edited to the point of looking completely unnatural - he looks like a wax doll. This instantly portrays not only the magazine in a bag light because of its amateur editing skills, but also him as an artist because how can anyone look at him and take his music seriously when he gets made up like that? Also, the colour scheme and coverlines just scream pop - which in a way follows its conventions, but the placement of them is shocking. Consequently, for my magazine I will strive for my model to real and for the coverlines to look like the belong there. 

How does this help me?

As I've mention above, by evaluating these magazine covers I know what not to do. What I have learnt is to not airbrush it to perfection - something that I wasn't ever going to do because indie rock music tend to be more raw than polished like pop is. Also, I'm going to try to make sure that the colour scheme works with the image and the coverline compliment it.