Ahead of a one-day event at the London Design Festival, Stack magazine founder Steve Watson has gathered editors, designers, historians and publishers to discuss the enduring appeal of magazine cover design. Watson argues that print magazines should no longer be judged against their mass-market heyday but valued instead for their ability to engage readers deeply, offering a slower, more immersive alternative to digital media, and insists the sector remains creatively vibrant despite persistent narratives of decline.

Contributors, including former i-D art director Scott King and media historian Dr Sharon Maxwell Magnus, picked personal favourite covers spanning decades and genres. Examples cited include Wyndham Lewis's 1914 avant-garde publication Blast, a fetish magazine praised for its "seductive" airbrushed artwork by Yosuke Onishi, the final issue of Colors magazine (issue 90) featuring an unconventional take on the 2014 Brazil World Cup with gold foil detailing, and Cosmopolitan's era-defining cover that broke from domestic-focused women's magazines to embrace female sexual independence.