American Society of Magazine Editors - Stories Behind the 2009 Best in Lifestyle Magazine Cover Finalists

Stories Behind the 2009 Best in Lifestyle Magazine Cover Finalists

October 6, 2009

Delicious | Entertainment & Celebrity | Fashion & Beauty | House & Home | Lifestyle

	*Condé Nast Traveler, August 2008*
	A solitary pool of one’s own with an infinity-edge view of the rugged Amalfi Coast and endless seas is a traveler’s fantasy made reality. Julien Capmeil’s photograph is deeply relatable—the model stands for every reader of the magazine; the water, for the attainable fantasy.

	*Departures, October 2008*
	For their special issue on India, the editors of Departures did extensive research on the visual history of India, and created an inspiration wall that consisted of old posters, fonts, colors, graphics, and illustrations. Finally, they came upon a font that was bold, authentic, and full of energy. The font mirrored how they felt about the new and exciting India they wanted to portray. They designed a collage of type, with words that came from the different stories inside the issue. And for the final touch, a colorful pattern illustration was placed inside the letters.

	*Garden & Gun, December 2008/January 2009*
	Like all great covers, this image of a green turtle shot by Andy Anderson is totally surprising, and it captures perfectly the concept behind the issue--The Hidden Bahamas. It also represents the strong conservation message behind Garden & Gun. Not surprisingly, it was by far the best selling cover of the year.

	*New York, August 11, 2008*
	To illustrate a story on a specific new trend in plastic surgery and cosmetic dermatology (which can now be widely recognized by anyone looking for it), New York coined the phrase “the New New Face” and communicated it graphically by deconstructing its elements on one such New New face—Madonna’s. The annotations mimic the way a plastic surgeon might mark a face, pointing out the main features of the new phenomenon: its heart shape, baby cheeks, and angular jaw. The cover is glamorous, technical, and funny, which is exactly what the story was as well.

	*The New York Times Magazine, December 28, 2008*
	Each year we do an issue dedicated to people, both famous and infamous who passed away that year. Instead of doing a typical collage of old photos or the like we always aspire to do an homage to the people that grace the interior. This year we did a very ornate type cover to celebrate these peoples lives.

	*Texas Monthly, March 2009*
	Texas Style is defined very broadly, as a product of the freedom of life on the frontier, as a mix of the Old World and the New World, as a blending of cultural traditions, and as a certain swagger. But for the cover, a single image was needed that would capture all of this. The beautiful image of a white felt Resistol captures both the high and low permutations of Texas Style. You can imagine an oil tycoon wearing it to lunch at the Petroleum Club or a cowboy wearing it out to a honky-tonk on Saturday night. The stark, white-on-white minimalism of the image also gives it a hypnotic gravitational pull, like the Beatles White Album.