Magazines are finally grasping the power of digital channels. It’s rare now to find a magazine without a website, and more and more are using social networks to create and promote content. Last year saw a rush of augmented reality projects, with magazines including US Esquire and Colors printing QR codes that launched video apps on screen with mixed results – file under ‘gimmick’.
There now seems to be a more considered approach to combining the two media. Late last year McCann Hong Kong created a front cover for Japanese magazine The Brain. In a neat inversion of the usual understanding that pictures work best in print, the cover featured a reproduction of a colour photograph of McCann staff that was also available to view online in super high resolution. Look at it online, and you can zoom in, move around, learn more about McCann and collect a series of tokens that once successfully found led to a lucky winner receiving a prize.
And for their August Wallpaper*, are inviting every reader to design their own personal front cover using elements provided online by the likes of Anthony Burrill, James Joyce and Kam Tang.