Cover Review: Wax Poetics
So many indie magazine covers look sleepy and dull, like the tabletop art books they emulate. Fortunately, there’s Wax Poetics, whose covers are brilliant splashes of imagery, that resemble old-fashioned LPs filled with engaging brightness and poster-like impact. Case in point: the latest cover, issue #59. It features a photo by Jonathan Mannion of Aaliyah, […]
Anorak: The Happy Activity Book for Kids!
The best two-dimensional fun for kids we’ve seen in quite some time is the third volume of Anorak‘s Happy Activity Book for Kids. Created by Cathy Olmedillas and Lewis Smith, this is a light version of the popular (in my household) UK-based Anorak magazine. It’s smaller in size (roughly 7 x 8 inches) and pages […]
Cover Review: Organic Gardening
I’m a big fan of the August-September cover of Organic Gardening, art directed by Susan Eugster and featuring an illustration by Peter Donnelly. I’ve reviewed the cover as the latest Face Up column for Folio online. This is a very different approach for a gardening and lifestyle magazine, with the illustration taking over the entire […]
Suede: “Multi-Culti Urbanista” Style and Fashion Magazine
In it’s debut issue, Suede editor Suzanne Boyd identified the magazine’s audience as “multi-culti urbanistas.” The style and fashion magazine was a joint venture between Essence magazine and Time Inc., and published four issues in 2004-05 before it folded. The complete Suede debut issue manifesto read: “Style is in our DNA. And we, the multi-culti […]
Our Sports: 1950s African-American Sports Magazine Edited by Jackie Robinson
Our Sports, “The Great New Negro Sports Magazine,” was published in 1953, and ran for five issues. It featured top African-American sports stars on the cover: Larry Doby, Monte Irvin, Minnie Minoso, Satchel Paige, and George Taliaferro, who was the first black football player drafted into the NFL. Jackie Robinson was listed prominently on the […]
Charm: “The Magazine for Women Who Work”
Charm magazine started in the 1940s, but it came into its own in 1950, when it relaunched as “The Magazine for Women Who Work,” and hired Cipe Pineles as art director. Pineles is a legendary designer who earlier art directed Seventeen and Glamour. Charm was the first magazine for working women, and the covers featured […]
Sexology Magazine: “Sex Science Illustrated”
Sexology magazine was published from 1933 to the late 1960s by Hugo Gernsback, who is best-known for creating the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, in 1926. Gernsback published dozens of other magazines, including Science Wonder Stories, Amazing Detective Stories, and Science and Mechanics. The Magazine Art website has a fine collection of Sexology covers […]
Cover Review: Essence
I’ve been a big fan of Michelle Obama‘s many magazine covers, so I was happy to review her latest cover on Essence for the Folio: online Face Up column. The cover was photographed by Kwaku Alston, and art directed by Erika Perry. Michelle Obama has become a top magazine cover celebrity, arguably the top celebrity […]
Jill: Legendary 1980s French Fashion Magazine
Back in the early 1980s, I was living and working in pre-grunge Seattle. The only one place to find cool magazines from around the world was the Read All About It newsstand at the Pike Place Market. I would wander over there (I lived just a few blocks away) several times a week to pick […]
Cover Review: Mother Jones
My new review for the Folio: online Face Up column looks at the July-August 2014 cover of Mother Jones, “Koch vs. Koch.” The cover was art directed by Ivylise Simones, and features a tabloid parody of right-wing bogeymen the Koch Brothers. The parody is spot on, with just the right mix of funkiness and visual […]
