Alexey Brodovitch worked as the art director for Haper's Bazaar and during that time, laid the foundations for modern magazine design. His revolutionary use of phtographs, asymmetrical layout of pages, three-dimensional effects, breaking the framework of the grid, classic typography, combinations of text and pictures, black and white phtotographs tinted with colour, etc. His famous 'Design Labratory' sought to get his students to think and act practically and independently with almost three and half thousand creative talents attending these highly unconventional courses.
Mike Meiré is a German graphic designer who is renowned in magazine circles for designing two of the most innovative magazines of recent times – brand eins and Econy. Both of which were celebrated for their clean, cool aesthetic appeal.
His redesign of cultural magazine 032c was described by Magculture.com as “willfully awkward” as it went against the set standards of graphic design. 032c was a very strong independent magazine with highly sophisticated content, however it became visually predictable as Meiré describes it. He noticed that magazines at that time were following on the aesthetic on pretending to be cool, sophisticated or even culturally relevant. Meiré and editor in-chief of 032c, Jörg-Koch, used this as an opportunity to come up with something different. As a result through the use of stretched type, taking the front cover design back to its roots and use of impactful photography, 032c was transformed into a "truthful intelligent independent magazine with a touch of underground".
Leica World Magazine is an unusual magazine in that it uses irregular column widths in its page layouts. This makes it impossible to shorten or lengthen the text of the exclusive interviews, and so the only corrective length is the length and breadth of the columns. This magazine is also an example of how the content influences the format. In Leica World, the basic format is that of the 35 mm photograph, which makes a vertical photograph that has been suitably enlarged, cover the entire page. And because the magazine is glued bound, there is always a narrow unprinted strip that retains the full detail of the picture.
Flaunt Magazine makes use of cut outs within their designs to help it stand out from the crowd. There may be gaps in the page where you can catch a glimpse of the woman's face from the page below. With each issue they come up with new variations to add to the visual game of hide and seek which definitely enhances the viewing experience for the reader. These cut outs however are only limited to the cover and front page and the conventional rectangular form of the magazine is stagnant. In some ways this method of helping the magazine stand out is similar to that of DEAR magazine as mentioned in a previous blog post.
Within this book there were also mentions of Singaporean magazines.
Unfortunately there seems to be no articles of Ecuad magazine on the internet. From the image however, there is an interesting use of typography that would have been unconventional amongst the selections at that time. Though not entirely visually appealing, its different approach would have made it stand out.
Again, no articles of Designer Magazine on the internet. What is effective though with this design is that because of the cut off text, the word designer becomes easier to read. This is a personal opinion that may be due to the phonetic and unique characteristic of the word designer which requires an "s" sound and has a silent g. Furthermore because of the isolation of the S and G it directly relates to the short form of Singapore that is commonly used.
Substance magazine's article headline example above is a demonstration of how a headline can stimulate associations in the reader and arouse their curiosity. In this case the sharp, right angled typeface relates to what one thinks of when imagining a electronic interface whilst the gold colour scheme entices the readers eye.
The significance of this blog post is to help broaden my understanding of magazine design as well as inform myself of the magazines back in Singapore. Despite not being in circulation, it is a useful resource to draw upon in the future for design ideas or reference.
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