I took over as art editor of We Love Pop a year after it burst onto the magazine scene, with a brief to bring down the target age slightly and add dynamism and energy to the covers and packaging. This was achieved by turning the colour up to 11 and using every font ever released to create a gloriously riotous mess of a magazine, in the spirit of the legendary Smash Hits and other vintage teen mags like Number One and Just Seventeen.
Vlogger Zoella is the undisputed star of We Love Pop, and we put her on the cover as often as possible. Here you can also see our secret method of making one Pantone fluoro ink look like several, which I will be happy to share with anyone who employs me.
Zoella's boyfriend Alfie Deyes starred on these two specially shot covers, and he loved them – a framed version of the one on the left hangs on his bedroom wall! And yes, that torn Colorama WAS fully printed in Pantone 806, complete with all shadows and light. Ask me nicely and I might tell you how I did it.
Zoella's brother Joe also graced the cover, with fellow YouTuber Caspar Lee. The one on the left was shot in less than five minutes in a meeting room at the We Love Pop office when they popped in to say hello and we ambushed them with a photographer and backdrop. On the right is a composite of FIVE different pictures. Can you spot the joins?
When you've got a logo that sits proudly at an 18 degree angle, the idea of doing the whole cover on the same ridiculous wonk is, frankly, irresistible.