A Dozen Examples of Great Magazine Illustration

One of the things I love about print magazines is the way they provide a perfect platform for creative and compelling illustration. As Grace Wang in Stack explains, illustrations play a huge part in “defining a magazine’s visual identity, giving independent titles infinite ways of presenting their own narrative.” 

“But what are the different ways graphic expressions are used, and what purposes do they serve?” she asks. To help answer that question, Stack presents a roundup of 12 of their favorite indie titles that are getting illustration very, very right. Like Nous magazine, for example.

“Exploring mind culture and empathetic thinking, Nous magazine fills its pages with risograph-inked imaginations that visualise their contributors’ jumbled-up thoughts,” Wang explains. “Trident Press, the Manchester-based publishing collective behind it, is also constantly coming up with cool projects, like this illustrated guide to risography.”

Shelf Heroes is another of Stack’s picks. 

“Packed with personal responses to cinema and illustrations-as-self-expression, it celebrates good (and not so good) films one letter at a time,” Wang writes. The illustrations are vivid, complex and compelling in their depth.

Another of Wang’s picks is Eyeyah magazine, which we’ve covered before. It’s a bit like Highlights for the modern age, and designed to help kids gain a better understanding of social media and the online world. 

“With the belief that children are ‘visual learners’, the publication uses eye-catching graphics, puzzles and activities to introduce kids to contemporary creativity, while teaching them about topical issues like the dangers of the internet,” Wang writes.

All 12 offer something of interest, especially from a design point of view. Enjoy browsing through and maybe find some inspiration for your own illustration projects.