We love a good cover here at Pics & Ink. We spend a LOT of time talking about them. Here are our favourite covers from last month's releases...
David's pick
Covers have a lot to do in magazine world. They need to tell you something about what you’ll find inside, they need to entice you in, and they need to do dull things like tell you the price and the issue month or number.
Cover design is an art and Cranked nails it, much like the rider on the front of issue 26. The design is really simple, the coverlines live at the very top of the page, out of the way. Then a neat line leads us to the logo, sparse, pared back but very neat and sophisticated. Then we find out it’s “A Magazine For Mountain Bikers” - it does exactly what it says on the tin.
The price and issue info are neatly stored on the right side of the page, leaving plenty of room for the image. And its the image on issue 26 that makes this one of my favourites (although their Jo Burt cover from a few issues back was amazing too!). The designers have dared to make so much of the photo a solid black which really makes the cover stand out and contrasts nicely with the white space at the top of the page. The eye is led into the very top of the picture, with a beautiful backlit sky and the tiny silhouette of a rider in mid air. Oh to be there…
Olivia's pick
Hello October. I am ready for you. Ready to come home and shelter from the blustery weather. Ready to turn on the lamps, make a cup of tea and curl up in the armchair with a blanket and issue 71 of Slightly Foxed.
I don’t know what cover image conjures up the turn of the season more than a mischievous fox jumping through crisp autumn leaves. This gorgeous illustration is the work of British artist Jackie Morris.
Curling up with Slightly Foxed is like curling up with a paperback classic - without the commitment of an entire book. It’s thick cream pages are luxurious and inviting and issue 71 has a lot to offer which you can dip in and out of throughout the evening or weekend.
‘Good Humoured, unpretentious & a bit eccentric, it’s more like a well-read friend than a literary magazine.’ Perfectly said, Slightly Foxed.
Fiona's pick
It’s hard to separate the inside from the cover here as New Philosopher is one of my absolute favourites. But, I do like this cover. Issue 33 grapples with identity, especially in the very modern world, where your online data library means you can never really forget anything, and where we all have a self-self and a digital self and which self is myself, and… oh gosh, Who am I??
Existential crisis aside, I think this cover does a marvellous job of summing up the heart of the issue. A hazy, slightly digitised silhouette of a person either melting into or forming out of the ones and zeros of our brave new technological world. Always a sucker for word play, I also love the title, ‘Identity Devices.’ Full marks, New Philosopher. Very clever.
Lisa's pick
Bloom’s covers are deceptively simple. Always a flowering plant, close-up, that tactile de-bossed logo and the blunt bullet points. And yet it’s anything but. Take these hellebores – it gives anyone who has a little gardening experience the satisfaction of recognising the plant and understanding that this is the winter issue (they flower, unusually, in mid-winter and we love them for it). Newbie gardeners (plenty of those during lockdown) can simply appreciate the drama of purple, black and green. Either way you want to turn the page and dive into its accessible, original blend of advice and know-how that makes Bloom the best gardening magazine, and a Pics & Ink bestseller.
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