7.16.2014

Martha Stewart Living - my "Non-covers"

Even as a child, I used to enjoy playing with other people's things: my dad's tools, my mom's baking utensils. As an adult, little has changed. I enjoy the art of repurposing and reimagining, which is probably why collage remains one of my favourite art forms. As a fan of Martha Stewart Living magazine, I love rethinking the beautiful covers and coming up with my own ideas for the ideal cover image, something that hints at the content inside without being literal. It's something the editors already do very well and perhaps I am bold enough to think I can play along. It's a fun little passtime. Some people play Angry Birds, I redesign Martha Stewart Living covers! Below are five covers that I came up with recently. Let me know what you think of them!


I was always a little sad that the editors of Martha Stewart Living never put together an article index for the 2000 -2009 decade. The index the editors issued for the first decade of the magazine's publication is a treasured collector's item today. This is my imagined cover for the second index volume.

12 comments:

Alan said...

Andrew -- what do you think of the new logo ? they have started using . moving away from the circle logo

ANDREW RITCHIE said...

Alan, Martha commented on it on her radio show a while back. She said they will use the circle logo for products and the new "martha stewart" logo for print and publishing. I like it. Simple and tasteful.

Anonymous said...

All are excellent , but in particular the first and the last two
APM

Sent from my iPad

LEfting said...

These covers are really beautiful - you are incredibly talented.

Anonymous said...

I wonder when the new 'martha stewart' logo will be used on the Living magazine as was shown in the 'martha stewart halloween' 2013 issue. Also, wasn't there talk once of the magazine dropping the Living name, simply calling it Martha Stewart (magazine)? If this happens, I would think then that the new logo will be used. The 2014 Halloween magazine will presumably arrive at the end of next month (I normally notice her Halloween magazines out at the end of August), so it will be interesting to see if it is branded like last year. Great job on the mock covers by the way. I've always felt that less is more.

ANDREW RITCHIE said...

Anonymous, the talk about them dropping the name "Living" was my own talk! It was a suggestion I made on the blog a few months ago after I got a notice in my email that the Martha Stewart Living Facebook page would be changing its name to Martha Stewart. It got me thinkng if the brand could/should drop the word Living from its masthead.

Anonymous said...

Andrew,
the magazine editors have nothing on you--these are gorgeous. i particularly love the baskets, the pumpkins and the turkey red cloth. very textured. i remember the article on turkey red clearly and actually found a couple of yards prob on ebay years ago. anyway your covers are evocative of early--and dare i say--classic martha covers? i'm a loyal reader to this day but i'm old enough to be nostagic for the early years when martha wasnt trying so hard to stay relevant in a sea of copy-cats and she was not only relevant she was the stylemaker and teacher.
i'd love to see you post your own covers every quarter or maybe you could create some christmas covers. you are so creative .
cheers
vicki from alaska

Anonymous said...

Love the lavender fields and index covers! They should use your ideas for future issues!!

ANDREW RITCHIE said...

Thanks for all the nice comments, everyone! I'm glad you enjoy them. I had fun making them!

Rowaida said...

You are amazing and so creative Andrew, I loved them all. The first cover with the lavender field is gorgeous, l love it.
Best wishes xx

Tonya said...

I love all of them! I especially thought the lavender one was stunning.

The Daily Rant said...

I love ALL of them, but the gilded eggs one is my favorite.