Magazine/book covers are something really fascinating to me. All designs are created to draw a viewer’s attention – but the cover of a publication is highly competitive and a window to everything inside. This specific one is really intriguing to me. It’s asymmetrically divided by the skier. The headline keeps the design in balance, while not overbearing the top half. The “rips” on the page work  as lines drawing the eye downward as they create an arrow of a sense. There is an abundance of negative space in this piece,

The New Yorker February 2013 issue. Click on image for source.

but the simplicity is what makes this design work. The negative space is representational of snow, and since it’s a winter issue of the magazine, this works  wonderfully and since snow is white, with the colors in the skier’s clothes it almost feels as though this piece is printed in color even though it is almost entirely black and white. The skier is a point at the end of two lines. Within the lines is a group of text that works as a plane, but also as a view of what’s inside the publication. “The New Yorker” headline is arguably a plane and a line because on one hand it takes up enough room to be considered a plane, but the eye moves from the left hand side of the page directly to the right creating a line.   The date and price in the top left and right corners are points. Since they are equal in weight, this adds to the sense of balance.

There is also one thick black vertical line on the far left hand side which finalizes the balance. This line seemingly doesn’t have a purpose, but without it the negative space would have been overbearing. Since the two lines trailing the skier hit the right hand edge, it was seemingly necessary to create a shape or line that touched the left hand of the page in this case. It adds structure to this design.