You are to create next month's edition of a national magazine (not gaming). Do you want to see your smiling face on the cover of The Rolling Stone? This is your chance.
You are to emulate the style, typography, layout, and all of the elements of the magazine as closely as you can. Use your own original article titles and images.
Content
For this project, I had to design a magazine cover by emulating the style and layout of a real publication. While the prompt mentioned national magazines like Rolling Stone, I decided to take inspiration from something a little different but just as recognizable to me, the Walmart GameCenter covers you often see in-store. They’ve always caught my eye because of their bold typography, simple layouts, and ability to make one game feel like the must-play title. I wanted to capture that same energy with my own version.
The cover I designed features Hollow Knight: Silksong, a game that’s easily one of the most anticipated releases in recent years, even crashing the Steam game store page due to the massive traffic it generated. I wanted to lean into strong contrast and placement to make the character pop right away, while the bold white typography gives the cover its “grab it off the shelf” kind of feel. Adding the tagline “Most Anticipated Game of 2025” helped cement the idea that this issue was all about hype, excitement, and spotlighting one standout feature.
One thing I really enjoyed about this design was working within the restrictions of the GameCenter style. It meant focusing less on cluttered text and more on hierarchy, making sure the logo, main image, and headline were balanced cleanly. Even the small details, like the FREE Magazine, take one! slogan to match the whole gamecenter vibe. Overall, this project taught me how much thought goes into even a simple cover, and how design choices can turn something ordinary into something that feels iconic. Especially when it is something that you yourself see on a time-to-time basis.
Inspiration
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