PUBLIC MARKS with tags magazine & typography

Chances are a Bloomberg Businessweek cover has stopped you in your tracks at some point: Maybe it was the brilliant cat hurricane GIF, or airplanes humping mid-air, or the most anti-Apple typography ever slapped over Tim Cook's face. But behind the provocative graphic design is a smart strategy that's changing the way publications are made, both online and off.

As late as 1955, Vogue covers vacillated between serif and sans serif typefaces, as well as script faces and illustrative, photographic letters. It was after 1955 that the magazine appears to have legislated a consistent use of the all-capitals banner headline set in Didone lettering. Apart from minor details, it has remained absolutely fixed since then, the trade-dress of a powerful international franchise.

It only takes a glance at the cover of any recent Paris Vogue to see that something odd is afoot. There’s the hair for a start. Veering between the lank and the bushy, it never quite achieves the luxuriant waves that are the norm. All around are quirky touches: idiosyncratic typefaces, hand-drawn motifs and even collage. This may not sound like much, but in the context of fashion magazines Paris Vogue is doing more than bucking a trend; it is attempting to shrug off a genre.

What vigorous brush strokes! These friendly looking Edomoji, or “Edo characters,” are traditional Japanese fonts that were developed in the Edo Period (1603 to 1868). Today, they haven’t lost their attraction! Now, PingMag talks to self-taught calligrapher Bunshi Tachikawa who got so much into Edomoji that he threw his experience as graphic designer over board and created a brand new style himself – now known as the Bunshi School of Edomoji. A brand new school!

This is an attempt to create cover art for every great magazine I own (+ a few I wish I owned). It's never a straight crib, the source magazines are a jumping-off point for my imagination... ... and covering covers is a theme that lets me combine some of my favourite things; portraiture, typography, pencils and graphic design. The occasional photos illustrate my current process: I draw A3 & A4 sections which I sometimes collage or retouch in Photoshop. The COVERS typeface is Akka (a nod to Carlo Scarpa) redrawn by hand, of course.

Before & After magazine has been sharing its practical approach to graphic design since 1990. Because our modern world has made designers of us all (ready or not), Before & After is dedicated to making graphic design understandable, useful and even fun for everyone.

via we need money not art