What makes them good?
- A dominant graphic: Each cover has one large, strong, graphical element -- a character from the featured game in that issue. No cluttered screenshots. No inch-tall characters in the corner. Just one dominant graphic.
These graphical elements include: A menacing looking Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas gangster with a gun pointed slightly towards the reader (September), a pastel, canvas Paper Mario reading a piece of paper (October) and a polka-dot-bikini-clad Dead or Alive Ultimate girl in a black-and-white, faux newsprint style. Each of these graphics are high resolution, and large enough to nearly all parts of the cover that don't have text. These graphics focus the cover and provide a strong hook for a reader skimming the magazine racks. - The logo: Each cover features the large, sytlized GMR logo at the top of the page. The logo is big enoug hto read, but not so big that it dominates the page. Each cover placed the logo at a slightly different location, in a different color scheme (made to match the dominant graphic above), but they are all still highly recognizable and attractive. GMR's logo is actually a visual elemnt instead of cland window dressing.
- Large, concise text: Outside of game titles (which are used sparingly), page information (see below) and an Electronic Boutique discount teaser, the September issue has 14 words on the cover. The October issue has eight. The October issue has three (Xclusive Xbox Reviews). The game titles are big andthe rest of the text is small, which is how it should be.
Readers at a newsstand are scanning these covers for information on the newest games, not a feature on "5 games to scare you silly" (to take an example from the latest GamePro). Once they open the magazine, they may very well be interested in such features, but for the most part they're not going to stand there scrutinizing the entire table of contents on the cover. Keep it focused: catch their eye with a big graphic and text element and get them to open up the magazine. The content should be able to handle it from there. - Page numbers for features: Some features on the cover have small text above the title in the form "Page 86 //FEATURE//HALO 2" to tell the reader exactly where to flip to for the featured content. The October issue didn't have this, but I hope they'll bring it back for the next issue.
I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of GMR. If you compare GMR (an EB magazine) to Game Informer (a Funcoland magazine), the differences are night and day. GMR is cleanly laid out with not only reviews and previews, but actual articles and insightful interviews. I look forward to "Ask Itagaki" every month. That guy's a hoot!
ReplyDeleteBefore you ask, I don't work for them. I'm a game developer. My boss asked what 3 game magazines he should order for the office. I said:
Edge (UK)
GMR
XBN
Frankly, I think that magazines like GamePro are trying to appeal to some demographic that finds garish colors and busy covers 'eyecatching'.
I'm not sure how much you know about cover design (and based on this post, I'm guessing very little), but there's a very simple reason GMR can design its covers this way: it's not a regular newsstand magazine, competing with other magazines.
ReplyDeleteWhile you don't go into the ethical issues of a major game retailer partnering with a magazine, that partnership guarantees placement on counters at ebgames, so it doesn't have to follow standard magazine design. It's competing with nothing. It can do different things because it's not being put in front or behind of other magazines.
Single images are great, no question.
Altering the positioning of your logo is a serious no-no on a normal newsstand (where there are serious racking issues), and you risk people not seeing your magazine at a glance if you do things they don't expect with the logo. It's your identity; altering it constantly makes it confusing. (Again, because it gets placement on the counter, this becomes a non-issue.)
Fewer, more concise words is great, but dismissing an article like "5 Games to Scare You Silly" shows a lack of understanding of the newsstand buyer. If you're cometing with, say, 5 other magazines and they're all promoting the same games, you do need other editorial that will set your issue apart. Choosing an occasional roundup or special feature on the cover makes more sense than risking having the exact same coverlines as your competitors. (Everyone previews and reviews the big games at the same time.)
Putting page numbers on the cover is mostly used for certain types of magazines, particularly those for business professionals who, in theory, have less time. It's not a bad idea to do this with other types of magazines, but a lot of game magazines are polybagged on the newsstand because of cover disks. If it's in a bag, it makes no sense to put page numbers on the cover.
I never claimed to be an expert on cover design... I'm simply giving my opinion on a set of covers that caught my eye (admittedly away from the newsstand) and why I liked them.
ReplyDeleteI see your point about keeping the logo position constant, but I do like the way the logo changes in color and style to match the rest of the cover. Makes it stand out a bit, in my opinion.
An occasional call-out to a feature is OK, but in general I think covers go overboard in cramming as many words as they can on their covers, making them seem crowded and unfocused. In general, I notice covers with fewer, larger words and fewer, larger pictures. But that's just me.
And I understand that page numbers don't work for every magazine (polybagged ones, for instance), but I did like them on GMR. And I don't think only business professionals want to save time... less time flipping through the magazine means more time playing games, after all.
Changing the color of your logo is fine; altering it so that you lose the branding is generally considered bad form. I prefer the idea that you can change more things than less, since it works better aesthetically, but few magazines get premium placement in a retailer like GMR. It's really not fair to compare what they can or cannot do with magazines that solely rely on normal newsstand placement.
ReplyDeleteCovers do go overboard with text, but there's one big truth in magazine design: numbers work. Whether it's "5 Horror Games," or "27 Tips for Plumbers," whatever, they are effective and should be used.
You can make plenty of credible arguments for the "less is more" philosophy of covers, if you're solely going by aesthetics. My experience has been that unless those fewer items you have on your cover are amazingly compelling, sales go down when you promote fewer items on your cover. With only a few seconds to grab the attention of the newsstand buyer, you want them to grab on to something, anything.
As for the time issue, don't forget that these magazines are monthly. You should design for 30-days of potential browsing and flipping, not just for people who want one article and just jump to that page.
I've been doing covers for over 12 years now; they're both incredibly complex and simple, and it's almost impossible to determine what works and what doesn't work. If you solely go by sales, you have to assume your magazine exists in a vacuum, that your sales are not affected at all by your competitors. That's a flawed approach.
If you go by what looks good, you may lose out in sales because it may appear you have less... stuff than your competitors. If they can't browse the magazine, it's even worse.
And while the game magazines would love to have strong images each month, most don't produce their own art so they have little control over the image. This is quite unlike a celebrity magazine, or a woman's magazine, where the cover image is designed to work with the type. Game artists just pump out an image and the magazine is pretty much forced to make it work, with wildly varying results.
I thought you might enjoy looking at ign.com's "Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Overload" article. It's funny, because last week the Official Playstation Magazine put a demo of MGS3 on it's demo disk. It looks like the guys at ign just played the demo, and sort of pieced together piles of bullshit to give it a "overload" there isn't anything in the article that couldn't really be deciphered by your average video game fan. If you've kept up on articles and coverage, I think anyone could've written. It's a real shame that this is the height of videogame journalism. This overload is nothing but a "we played the demo here's what we think".
ReplyDeleteAny thoughts?
--Turry
I agree. The simple cover design has always struck me as eye-catching. Cluttered and poorly designed covers tend to make me move on to something that looks nicer at first glance. After browsing through that, I might look through the other one. But to be honest, and I know I'm repeating, I doubt I could ever regularly read an American gaming magazine after being spoiled by reading Edge for the last two or three years that I lived in the UK.
ReplyDelete"Readers at a newsstand are scanning these covers for information on the newest games, not a feature on "5 games to scare you silly" (to take an example from the latest GamePro)"
ReplyDeleteActually, all my experience suggests that they're looking for both. There is room for both hard-nosed consumer information and "talking-point" features, articles intended to stir up discussion. I've found time and again that readers love a good debate, and any "5 Games..." or "Top 10 Titles..." article inevitably provides grist for that mill.
Once you get inside, though, the magazine is crap.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree about the eye-catching covers(that's what a cover's for, after all) but the articles seem to be written by children. There's columns written by 'funny' characters and poop jokes.
Just use the Internets for game info, like you already do.