Cover History

Cover types
1. Early Magazine Covers
In early magazines, they didn't have covers just table of contents. Then they began styling them like books. Some magazines began using a general cover for all the issues, so that it wouldn't mention what was in the issue. In earlier times, there were a wide range of different types of covers.

2. The Poster Cover
People began putting illustrations on their covers. Finding quality artists to draw elaborate pictures on their magazine covers. Some were so elaborate that they would be mistaken to be framed and on a wall rather than on the front of a magazine. There was little writing on these covers, the artistry took the majority of the cover. Life magazine in 1936 was the first magazine to use photographs as the cover.

3. Pictures Married to Type
The eras of magazines are clearly established when first looked upon. When you first look at a magazine you can tell what era, decade, or even year or date of when it was created, because not only were the past time magazines very simple, but also current events that were happening in the time, directly effect the magazine and magazine cover.

4. In the Forest of Words
At the turn of the 21st century, magazines began writing practically everything in their magazine on the front cover. The words covered up most of the photograph.