The Making Of Our Rich List Issue Cover

Typography is something that many designers take for granted and shift their focus to the more pictorial aspects in magazine design. If used cleverly, typography produces excellent results and can easily replace images on covers.

I always say loudly, ‘Use typography as much as you can, it looks good.’

To quote Gail Anderson, the prolific New York-based designer, writer, and educator (gailycurl.com) - “After about seven designs, you realise there really are infinite ways to look at a problem. I now completely enjoy the process, though I'm keenly aware that all but one of those dozen great ideas will eventually be killed. It's strangely liberating.”

We normally judge a magazine by its cover. We knew that the cover for our flagship Rich List issue would have to be so special that people would gravitate toward it.

It all started with a simple idea based on our cover line “100 Richest Indians 2011”. From the very beginning I was reluctant to use an image for the cover but the cover had to be classy and powerful. We all brainstormed on different ideas to break that mould of conventional Forbes India covers and I thought a smart and well aligned use of typography would look very powerful on the cover. I have always been a fan of primary colours and a simple palate always works for me. The idea of gold, red and black against white was on back of my mind. Primary colours, if used cleverly can look stunning.

I have shared below how the first draft of the cover started and the transitions it went through and finally took shape for a very attractive and powerful cover.