Welcome

Obama covers, photo by Johanna Perez-Fox

If you’ve been following the design news, or even the regular-ass news, for the past week or so, you’ve learned once again that magazines are in trouble. Condé Nast recently folded four titles, and with folks still losing jobs and having to scale back recreational spending, it seems that the magazine industry needs a miracle to survive the continuing economic storminess.

Enter Barack Obama. The man is like gold — put his face on the cover of a magazine and it sells. Not only that, but the images are almost instantly transformed into timeless pop icons, if not proper gallery-worthy art.

Obama. No explanation required.

Yesterday, the American Society of Magazine Editors announced at their annual Magazine Innovation Summit that the Cover of the Year award would be handed to Rolling Stone for their minimalist Obama cover (above). The same cover also won in the Obama category.

Wait! An Obama category? Yes. That’s how serious this shit is.

This isn’t unprecedented in the world of magazines, however. Princess Diana helped achieve a similar effect of instant desire for any title that bears her image. Clearly, her tragic death caused a spike in interest, but even today, she remains incredibly marketable and a useful tool to sell magazines. A sort of last-resort-secret-weapon-hail-Mary situation.

Diana. No explanation required.

What’s interesting is the similar minimal nature of the covers. Unlike most magazine covers, which shout shout shout for attention, these are super subtle, almost stark, in comparison. What’s this issue about? May ask a reader. Does it matter? Replies the publisher. In this case, the icon of Obama (and of Diana) is bigger than the story-of-the-day. The figure is larger and more permanent than any stack of monthly papers.

Similarly, Obama’s face appears in front of the magazine’s name. The masthead is obstructed, rather severely, by Obama’s image. A similar tactic has been used with Diana (below), but isn’t terribly common. We do see this occasionally with fashion titles like Cosmo and Vogue, but that’s mainly to do with hair, or to add some interest to the layout, and less of a statement of hero worship in popular culture, in my opinion.

Diana. Just the facts.

This reminds me of the Obama-branded sneakers, where the Nike swoosh, usually a revered and cult-like symbol, is hidden by Obama’s face! This shows us, once again, that people will always be more powerful than brands, even the strongest brands. A true icon of flesh and bone is more relatable and more actual than the brand metaphor which takes it’s place.

Or maybe it’s just him.

via FishBowlNY »

// a tale of design, design: print, fashion, photography, politics, the industry
// Comments Off