To celebrate five years of publishing Elevation Outdoors magazine, we asked Marshall McKinney — art director at Garden & Gun magazine — to narrow down the best covers of the past five years and help steer you, our readers, toward picking the best we ever slapped on the newsstands. And now the results are in…
According to McKinney, “As a publishing vet I’m here to tell you, achieving a memorable cover, like the seven presented below, is a most challenging endeavor…It’s a crowning achievement that takes great effort and sweat-equity peppered with a healthy dose of trust, gut-instinct and love. Yes, love. Here you have an array of active outdoor images. Each pulses with memory, familiarity and fantasy. Can you feel the snow on your lips as you rip a deep turn in the backcountry? Do you remember what you where thinking on that perfect day in July just before you made the crux move on that 5.10 route? The subtle coalescence of image and words dancing together in perfect harmony is the nitty-gritty. Truth is, you’ll know it when you see it.”
Thank you to all of our amazing and loyal readers around Colorado and beyond!
The winner with 36 percent of the votes: Cover #7, October 2011, by Jeff Cricco
Runner up with 31 percent of the votes: Cover #5, September 2012, by David Clifford
