Esquire definitely has fans in Germany
November 8th, 2008
OK, I admit it. I wasn’t exactly looking for an article in the latest issue of the German edition of Maxim when I spotted this cover, but that’s beside the point. What caught my eye, believe it or not, wasn’t new Bond girl Olga Kurylenko either, but rather how similar the design was to just about every cover that’s come from David Curcurito and gang over at Esquire for the last couple of years now.
A concept that originated with Esquire editor in chief David Granger, the “wall of text” treatment, featuring partially (or in some instances, almost entirely) obscured text on a stark background behind a single subject has ostensibly become a trademark for Esquire’s design aesthetic since first appearing back in September of 2006. In fact, it’s become so much of a touchstone in publication design that it’s just about played itself out, and yet, it just works. It works so well that another magazine in the genre is now taking the same approach to their own cover design.
For a minute, I’d considered the cover subjects and wondered if Maxim Germany was making some super-sly reference to the September ‘06 Esquire cover, which featured none other than the new James Bond himself, Daniel Craig. Could the design choice have been that clever? Making a connection (albeit strained) to a cover of Bond with a cover of the newest Bond girl by virtue of the design alone?
Nah.
Not after I saw the November 2008 issue of Maxim Germany and that it also had a similar “wall of text” cover design. Before these two issues, the cover design was in line with the typical Maxim style. I suspect that this must have been the issue where they decided to test the waters with the cover design and see what they could get away with, because the following December issue looks far more like an Esquire knockoff.
It’s just this sort of thing that irks me to no end–when a magazine as established as Esquire can build a look that’s unique and creative and successful, only to have it cribbed by a publication of considerably lesser quality.
And, no, I don’t lesen Deutsch, but I’m gonna go ahead and assume Maxim Germany is hardly up to Esquire standards, especially given the quality of Maxim here in the US.
