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Photographer Proposes Enhanced Magazine Covers for iPad

by Amar Toor on March 29, 2010 at 07:30 AM

As the iPad inches ever closer to its official release, few people are more excited than magazine publishers, who, after years of watching their revenue evaporate under the blazing sun of the Internet, now hope to finally be able to charge users for enhanced digital content. But, as tricked-out as the e-reader magazines of the future may be, the simple significance of an enticing cover will likely remain constant. As TechCrunch points out, the cover is still the first thing that people see, and still represents the easiest opportunity for publishers to attract consumers. So, what will the magazine cover look like in the iPad era? California-based photographer Jeremy Rosten has an idea, and has created a video prototype of a 'Sunset Magazine' cover display.

As you can see in the clip, the e-cover essentially consists of a traditional design that slowly pieces itself together, while a video loop runs as the background image. It seems like a simple framework, but suggests that the cover of the future will almost certainly be less static, and a lot more cinematic. Still, while we're excited to sit back and watch publishers duke it out in an ongoing game of high-tech one-up-manship, a part of us nervously wonders what cultural implications might arise from such a development.

We may have purchased fewer print publications in recent years, but certain seminal covers were still able to burrow their ways into our cultural consciousness, even if we only glanced at them while passing in front of a subway newsstand. Glorified PowerPoint covers like Rosten's may look cool, and certainly open a whole new box of digital toys to graphic designers, but can the moving image effectively replace the still photo as societal touchstone? Would a John Lennon montage cover hold the same weight as Annie Leibovitz's timeless Rolling Stone cover? Changing media, as always, will shape our changing aesthetic. We only hope that, as publishers surge ahead in the iPad gold rush, they don't lose sight of the unique power that a singular, simple image can hold. [From: TechCrunch]

Tags: apple, cover, covers, deathofprint, design, e-book, e-reader, ipad, magazines, print, Publishing, top, web

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