Under the cover

We've all glanced over the magazine shelf in a newsagents and picked up something we weren't even thinking about buying when we entered.

The graphics, typography and words on both the front cover and at the head of articles are crucial in guiding our decision, so it's no surprise that - with this reliance on aesthetic attractiveness - the case for modern publications being an art form exists.

In magCulture, Jeremy Leslie dissects the reasons we buy, the way in which brands have grown and how newspapers have learned from the consumer lure of their weightier counterparts. Prominent figures in the field are interviewed - including Tony Chambers, art director of British GQ, giving away the secrets of the bare-bottomed 'air-brushed thong' Kylie tennis cover.

Mostly though, the photos star. Featured alongside Miss Minogue's cheekiness are landmark layouts such as The Guardian's near full-page 9/11 portrait and articles that deliberately use pictures to make the reader question what they have seen.

The New York Times Magazine's paradoxical coupling of milk inside a classic Coca-Cola bottle, for example, pulls consumers into a story reporting the soft drink giants facing 'a global marketplace that has lost its thirst for bubbly brown sugar water'.

Predictably, the most eye-catching pages tend to be those that rely on shocking images and statements: Homme Arena+'s beaten-up Justin Timberlake, Time Out's meat-cleaver-through-tomatoes vegetarian special and The Face's 'Let them eat drugs' monarchy opinion piece are all designed to make the consumer drop their jaw before they hand over their change.

magCulture - new magazine design by Jeremy Leslie, Laurence King Publishing, £25.