Whether it was Bar Rafaeli the sports illustrated swimsuit model naked or the edgy handwritten type all over her that made me pick up this magazine i'm not sure. But the thing i definitely did like was the juxtaposition of the neat blocks of justified type a few shades darker than the background colour against the dark, contrasty, messy handwritten feel of the text covering her body. Whats also interesting is the different handwriting styles that are used on her, some of it seems to be the designers handwriting, and then the rest is more thought out. The 'H' of 'He' in red also brings your eye in to the 'Stephen King' above it because of that difference in colour, it also shows were the story starts if you were to try and read it from her body. The last little touch I liked with this was the 'Continued on page 57' on her inner thigh, giving you the relevant information but in a subtle way that blends in with the rest of the type but does not take away from it by being too obvious, or too close to the body type. The designer that had the pleasure of covering the swimsuit model in type this month was James Victore. Since September 2006 Esquire have had a very obvious house style with their covers, with allot more aesthetic design based ideas behind the normal text found on a magazine cover compared to their rivals. In the Majority of their covers since September '06 they have had a large amount of text on the front cover, but not necessarily just for reading. The normal text found on the front of a magazine showing for example article titles and so on has been transformed in these recent covers to something more, its part of the cover, its an interesting backdrop for the main subject or usually celebrity to step out of in the cover shot. Yes it shows briefly whats in the magazine but it gives you so much more to look at.
Whether it was Bar Rafaeli the sports illustrated swimsuit model naked or the edgy handwritten type all over her that made me pick up this magazine i'm not sure. But the thing i definitely did like was the juxtaposition of the neat blocks of justified type a few shades darker than the background colour against the dark, contrasty, messy handwritten feel of the text covering her body. Whats also interesting is the different handwriting styles that are used on her, some of it seems to be the designers handwriting, and then the rest is more thought out. The 'H' of 'He' in red also brings your eye in to the 'Stephen King' above it because of that difference in colour, it also shows were the story starts if you were to try and read it from her body. The last little touch I liked with this was the 'Continued on page 57' on her inner thigh, giving you the relevant information but in a subtle way that blends in with the rest of the type but does not take away from it by being too obvious, or too close to the body type. The designer that had the pleasure of covering the swimsuit model in type this month was James Victore. Since September 2006 Esquire have had a very obvious house style with their covers, with allot more aesthetic design based ideas behind the normal text found on a magazine cover compared to their rivals. In the Majority of their covers since September '06 they have had a large amount of text on the front cover, but not necessarily just for reading. The normal text found on the front of a magazine showing for example article titles and so on has been transformed in these recent covers to something more, its part of the cover, its an interesting backdrop for the main subject or usually celebrity to step out of in the cover shot. Yes it shows briefly whats in the magazine but it gives you so much more to look at.
I love the Esquire front covers. They are always so eye catching and they use their scribed affects to great use. I've seen this sort of thing before on their covers but nothing that is so, well, hot! I like how the design also carries on inside the magazine.. that doesn't normally happen. Those graphic designers obviously couldn't keep their pens of Bars luscious curves!
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