#3. Rolling Stone
May 3 17, 2007
This commemorative issue cover was designed by Chip Kidd, who is the undisputed heavyweight champion of book-jacket design. His work demonstrates a keen cultural barometer, using artifacts and visual linguistics Kidd is the designer equivalent of Marcel Proust. Magazine covers are a different beast, but here Kidd makes the leap by using the same insights that inform his book jackets. He can't use any single musician or group the magazine had already done a Sgt. Pepper's-style photocollage for its 1,000th issue cover so he cleverly zooms in on the famous Rolling Stone logo, making a graphic statement that is at once starkly simple and supremely confident. It underscores Rolling Stone's cultural impact by pointing out that a reader need only see a letter or two of the logo to identify the magazine. Special foil printing makes the whole package feel more valuable. Telegraphic design at its best.
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