Influence of Japanese Magazine Cover Design from the 90s on Contemporary Design

THE INFLUENCE OF JAPANESE COVER DESIGNS
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The Influence of Japanese Cover Designs
Japan is a country that has always been considered a more progressive part of the world. The country has achieved far more than the eye can see. With that, it is no surprise that Japan has mastered some of the brilliant areas of graphic design, especially magazine design covers. Japanese design covers have focused on simplicity and subtlety in the contemporary world; the graphics, the aesthetic, and the colors on each cover as crucial to calling out to people. Japanese graphic designers have still not forgotten the Japanese culture when they prepare these covers.
Therefore, the best Japanese magazine cover designs are a pure combination of some of their traditional techniques and some modern ones we generally see in magazine covers and comics from around the globe. Manga is a Japanese design firm that integrates ancient graphic art with the influence of modern American and European comics even today (Kolisnyk et al., 2020). This write-up will focus on which older techniques graphic designers prefer from the 1900s and which newer ones they have adopted.
The first thing we can see from the CUTiE magazine cover is that the background color remains the same, and there is no urge to fill blank spaces with patterns and designs because it can overwhelm the audience. Some bits and graphic pieces must be left empty to produce a good design. These parts are the overall layout, the images, graphic placement, and the size (Xie and Kim 2017). It is white because the celebrity's image becomes clearer to focus on. The text technique can be followed while keeping the aesthetics in check, which can be a challenge while working on advertising images as it has to comply with the aesthetic goals and the color palette of the brand. (You et al., 2019). The text must always be lighter on a darker background and vice versa. It makes it easier for the audience to read the headlines from afar. It is generally simpler to focus if the text is different from the background. Therefore, CUTiE magazine covers usually had a plain white or light shade background. The reason is that although the colors of the graphic must appeal to the users, the headlines are still the primary selling point of the magazine.
People purchase Japanese magazines not only for the beauty of the rich designs but also for the information about that particular industry, be it entertainment or celebrity news, because these cover colors are also influenced by cultural forces (McMullen, 2020). The typography and color combinations of the text remain similar to the 90s because cultural changes do not occur within a 20-30 year period and tend to take centuries.
The text remains simple, and the placement is brilliant to keep the image crystal clear to the audience. All the headlines are perfectly aligned and have popping, captivating colors to grab attention. These methods improve graphics even today, showing how useful these old magazine covers are and their value to graphic designers today in terms of typography and images.
Over the years, Japanese graphic designers have learned some outstanding qualities to help prepare great graphics. They might not be traditional, but they draw customers in and make the graphic and magazine covers flawless. One such observable difference from the covers back in the 1900s is that the magazines did not comprise 3D text enhancements. All the text that you can see in the old magazines is plain and flat.
That has changed today because the magazine covers always have 3D text involvement in the covers. The text appears behind the celebrity's image or the main focus object. Yes, it is not all the text, but the heading and name of the magazine that used to appear on top of the image and sometimes was not as captivating have now been changed. It is mainly done to show off the beauty of the image and piece of art in front of the user because, more than text, it is the graphic that pulls the user toward a product.
There might have been a shift in poses or fashion from the 90s, but the style and beauty of a graphic still attract people. So, the way these celebrities behave in the image might have changed, or what they are wearing might be different, but that does not mean that a graphic designer does not try to enhance its beauty or hides the image behind the text. The clearer the picture on the cover, the more people it attracts. The graphic is complete with both the text and the image on the magazine cover, so using the 3D text paired with some of the brilliance of 90s designs can help a magazine cover stand out.
A traditional observable technique is that the Japanese graphic designers still prefer adding multiple headlines just like before, but they are more appealing to the customer's emotions (Harutyunyan and Danielyan, 2020). The reason is that the company must attract the readers and sell the stories inside the magazine. The more stories each magazine has, the more the Japanese designer wo...