I've been an avid reader of the magazine Popular Science since I was in junior high school when I got my first subscription.  For me it's been an invaluable resource that allows me to see what's going on in the world, but also a window to the future, giving me a peek at what's to come.

Over the years I've noticed a steady decline in the quality of the editorial design of the magazine.  I decided to do a historical analysis of Popular Science cover designs throughout their 100+ year existence.  For me, the golden era of PopSci design fell between 1925 and 1935, when the covers featured a distinctive white frame, a blocky masthead, and the illustrations had a clear presence without any distracting headlines.

It isn't hard to see that in recent decades, PopSci covers have gotten objectively worse.  I remember being so confused when I got the 2016 issue in the mail.  It looked more like a Cosmo cover than anything remotely scientific, with its dozens of headlines, strange photography, shouting callouts, and about three too many typefaces.

Drawing inspiration from those great covers of the '20s and '30s, I decided to revamp the face of Popular Science to create a cover that wouldn't overload the senses but still stir the imagination.  Borrowing the white frame of '25 gives the magazine some much needed breathing room.  I drew a new masthead from scratch that mimics the gaspipe lettering from '35, with a little added dimensionality.  The article titles are relegated to their own space, letting the feature illustration take center stage.