Improper - Cover Ideas

I did some initial designs for the cover of the improper zine. The layouts themselves are fairly uniform magazine layouts, Some with images on and some without. I got feedback from my collaborator that the colour scheme felt too ‘christmassy’ because the dark orange resembled a red. I adopted a lighter bright green which I think works well, it especially looks good on top of the black and white photo.

These designs took inspiration from the cover of L’imparfaite, one of the zines I researched, as well as old playboy covers, this magazine are what’s stereotypically considered as ‘sexy’ so I liked the idea of subverting these to form a new image/idea of ‘sexy’. The more minimal covers do this well by appropriating the uniform magazine cover layout on completely negative space, and opposed to an image; instead of an image of naked woman on the cover which is basically saying ‘this is what sexy is’ they don’t show any image at all, leaving the idea of what ‘sexy’ is open to interpretation. 

I think these ideas are a good starting point, and looking to these points of research to inform the design is a good way to do it, however I intend to do more visual research and to form a visual language through that, that will be con sent throughout all the touchpoints, as well as being justified and rooted within the rationale and aim of the project.