How 'Vanity Fair' Went from Cartoons to Caitlyn

Cosmopolitan magazine wasn't always a hotbed for wacky sex tips involving donuts, and National Geographic used to be more text-based than visuals—but the New Yorker is pretty much the same as it was back in 1925. Just as fashion, art, and architecture change with the seasons, the magazines that embalm them in gloss have grown and transformed wildly over the years. "Magazine covers have to compete with each other to stand out on the news rack," Karen X. Cheng, a filmmaker and professional explainer who recently put together a visual history of the magazine cover, explains to The Creators Project. "It’s really interesting what 100 years of evolution has lead to."

In a new project, she and product designer Jerry Gabra juxtapose the leviathans of the modern magazine industry, like Vogue, TIME, and Vanity Fair with their turn-of-the-20th century selves. Their observations about the styles of art, logos, clutteredness of texts and the messages they convey, shed light onto the adaptability of an industry that some suggest can't compete with the internet. More importantly, though, they're a reflection of culture in each era since the industry began—Cheng's use of Lindsay King and Peter Leonard's Robots Reading Vogue project makes the magazine's visual growth abundantly clear.

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Vanity Fair's journey from hand-drawn ladies in swimsuits to the now-iconic "Call me Caitlyn" cover, in particular, represents change on every level, from visual to social. "Together, these magazine covers reveal a peek into our history," Cheng writes. "Sure, we’ve gotten more sexualized. More superficial. We read less. We have shorter attention spans.  But we’ve also gotten more open-minded. At each step along the way, society has pushed the limits of what’s considered acceptable."

Check out the The Evolution of Magazine Covers photo set below:

See more images and the fruit of Karen X. Cheng and Jerry Garba's research on Medium.

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