Remember when magazines had illustrations?
I picked up this pulp magazine for $1 at a local flea market just for the cover. It's not the best pulp cover ever done but it's a small example of an era when the illustrator was king in the magazine world.
For that matter, the use of illustration was also dominant in the movie posters as well for generations.
When was the last time you saw a magazine (non-comic book related) with an illustration on the its cover?
These days, of course, photography is the way to go. Now there is a trend among art directors to save money by not commissioning original photography but buy collections of stock art.
It used to be the exercise of creativity was the way to acheive a market share. Now it's more important to cut expenses to make a profit than to make one through having a singular product.
Grumble. Grumble.
©2006 by Gordon Michael Dobbs. These words are mine alone.
actually, i've been reading the new yorker, which still does illustrated covers, and wired tends to use photos as part of a digital illustration or montage, which i definitely respect as an art form.
ReplyDeleteSadly it's not just cost-cutting that puts those goddam celebrities on magazine covers. It's market-driven. Those goddam consumers are drawn to those goddam celebrities like you-know-what to you-know-what!
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