The cover of a magazine says a lot about what is inside. It attracts, informs, and prepares the reader. Working in small groups, brainstorm and develop concepts for the cover of our Magazine.
Check out these great covers at Cover Junkie
Example of Design Book Cover / Introduction / Interstitials
Teams
Work in the groups below to generate cover concepts. Take care to maintain collective ownership. When you present, the work of the group is just that and should not be identified as one person’s concept or form.
Each team should develop three magazine title concepts and share the work in a post.
Connect with your Team
In person or video chat
Brainstorm with your group to come up with smart concepts and form ideas. Look at other design, art or culture magazines, posters (and more) from the past and present for inspiration. Decide on a direction and rapidly ideate it.
| PAPER Tyler Sawyer Katie |
BLACK Grayce Michael Cayla |
CYAN Judan Molly Marshall |
| MAGENTA Jack Calder Anna |
YELLOW Amelia Henry Grace |
DIE LINE Julia Cam Jamielee |
Obviously you can talk to anyone you want.
These groups are a place to begin.
Individuals may collaborate organically.
Ideation Aspects
Your group is responsible to come up with concepts for :
- Cover / Back Cover Concept: What is the idea that motivates the form of the cover. How does that idea play itself out on the interior.
- Introductory Spreads: Introduction / Table of Contents / Etc.
- Interstitial Pages: Spreads between articles related to cover concept. Each designer would respond to the concept parameters for the separator pages and create a single spread (example: noodles for Noodle Magazine). The separators are related to the magazine concept, not individual articles and must allow for creative interpretation
Required Content
- Cover Image/Type Concept
- Magazine Title: The proposed name of the publication is up to each group. Come up with a title for the magazine that speaks to its contents in a meaningful way.
- Magazine Subtitle: What is the tag line of the magazine.
- Identifying text: Keene State College, Graphic Design, Fall 2025
- Other text related to concept if necessary
Create a Group Post
Magazine Concept Ideation
Post Name: Team Name + Magazine Ideation
Category: 03 Magazine Ideation
Each group will post:
01
Five Magazine Names for the class magazine
02
A collection of thumbnails done by all group members as a gallery. The group can do thumbnails for three of the five names above. Thumbnails must be of the cover, and can include interior pages, and interstitials. Thumbnail photos must be cleaned up.
03
Gallery of Inspiration Magazine Covers research from other publications around the world.