Photography and Typography in Action!

• Original Design and Photography © Thrasher Magazine and Anbita Jefferson

Thrasher magazine has been a long iconic staple for skateboard enthusiasts with their amazing skaters taking on bigger and better tricks and being there along the way to capture some of skateboarding style changing riding. This cover of the January 2016 issue, shot by Atiba Jefferson, is an example of the bold creative style that thrasher takes with their photographs. In this post, I’ll break down and discuss what makes this photo pop out of the cover and help highlight the details of the scatter and the rail.

Type-Face contrast

Thrasher is known for being big and bold. That’s why on many of their t-shirt designs, the logo is big and right on the chest for people to see. This compliments their logo as it embodies, rebelliousness, energetic, and bold skateboarding culture. That’s why they use a Sans-Serif typeface for that heavy style. The use of a decorative, bold, contrastive typeface with the sticking blue helps the piece stick out with the natural colors in this suburban landscape. While the clean, simple text isn’t just for looks, it ensures clarity from looking at it from a distance. With the clean Sans-Serif, you want to grab people’s attention as their eyes wander up and down the aisle.

Thrasher uses two different fonts on their magazines for the logo then for the details and for the cover information that’s in the magazine issue. Using clean, bold, and simple design helps to be able to see the details from a distance to help incentivize the customer to look at the articles and the pictures.

Photography

Capturing Cory Kennedy’s noise grinding down a seven-stair ramp is no easy feat, but the photographer’s techniques help him capture all the action. The photographer’s techniques to capture this shot help make the skater pop and bring attention to him and his board. The leading lines following the handrail and fence on the perimeter help accentuate the skater’s direction and draw in the viewer’s eyes. The depth of field is noticeably blurred to help put the focus front up and center. A fisheye lens is commonly used to help make the rail bigger and to get all the action in the view.

Alternate Images for the layout

The same energy and style can be accomplished at other locations. At the Rexburg skatepark has some locations where a noise friend could look incredible with the gorgeous backdrops of Idaho. I didn’t have a skater to recreate the same trick, but the same style can be archived here. I didn’t have access to a fish lens but widening out the lens helped get the surrounding ramps and rails. The focus as in the Thraser magazine is using the rails and edges to bring the focus up to the skater. Getting a lower shout and angling slightly up, helps the ramps look bigger and helps the object look like it is higher in the air.

Conclusion

The combination of contrasting typography and dynamic photographs makes this Thrasher magazine cover engaging and exciting. The use of a decorative, bold, contrastive typeface for the logo helps establish the magazine’s brand identity, while the clean, simple text ensures clarity from looking at it from a distance. Meanwhile, the leading lines and blurred background in the photograph emphasize the skater’s action, drawing the viewer into the moment. Together, these elements create a layout that is visually striking and perfectly tailored to Thrasher’s target audience of skateboarders and enthusiasts.