Conceptual cover design

  • Lisa Rahman

Whilst the fashion industry continues to evolve and is challenged to create new systems in a changing world, I wanted to share my memories of the shows as a Graphic Designer once working full-time in magazines. A decade ago, fashion trends were still common place, instagram didn't yet exist, virtual fashion shows had never been considered, and for ELLE's biannual publication we always wanted to think outside the box of what a traditional fashion magazine cover may look like. That 2010 season there was a subtle wave of autumnal tones and we knew we wanted to represent somehow in the cover design. I began the meticulous colour coding task to cut out hundreds of tiny catwalk models, placed them in a block and slowly adjusted them into a natural garment gradient. The final chosen design (with the most cutouts) created a stark impact on newsstands and went on to win a DANDAD award - this cover was directed by the dream team Creatives: Tom Meredith and Marissa Bourke.