Cover History

Early Magazine Covers-
During the 1700's The basic cover provided a title and publication information. There weren't any descriptive words informing you about what you might read inside the magazine. The cover usually had a detailed yet generic illustration that didn't really reveal any specific contents of the magazine. Cover lines were rare, some didn't even have covers. Cover lines consisted of one or two lines at the top. Some just began with an article in a newspaper type style. During the 1800's Cover lines started appearing on the covers, using the same generic illustrations, which were mostly victorian embellishments, with another illustration symbolizing something in the magazine. During the end of the 1800's illustators started to experiment and became more creative when drawing.

The Poster Cover-
Started up during the 1890's and went on until the 1960's. By the early 1900's many of the pictures were so detailed and sophisticated. Many didn't have any cover lines, or themes, the image usually went without being covered by the logo. Some poster covers didn't even relate to the story inside the magazine. It usually portrayed a specific mood. Eventually during the 1920's-1960's, the cover lines became part of the cover design.

Pictures Married to Type-
By the late 1800's cover lines were pretty common, in the early 1900's it soon transformed into a type of dialogue. The covers started becoming intergrated, in which the illustration and writing achieved a "relationship", complimenting each part. Most magazines of the 1940's-50's used modest cover lines that didn't ruin the picture.. Many magazines started experiemnting with unusual cover lines. Later on in the 1960's the cover typography became more adventurous by making large and bright writing, intergrating with the picture, sometimes overlapping the main subject, but still organized in a way to look appealing.

In the Forest of Words-
In the turn of the 21st century, cover lines were just as important as the cover art on the magazine. Some covers of this period have cover lines that are surprisingly larger than the actual name of the magazine.