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Cover to Cover:
Iceland Review from 1963 to the Present Day
We at Iceland Review are proud of our history as the oldest continuously-published magazine presenting Iceland in English. In the 57 years since the first issue hit the printers, many things about the magazine have changed, not least its design.
Though many people say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, first impressions certainly do make an impact. Below, we review some of our favourite covers over the decades.
1963.1
Iceland Review’s first ever issue, published in 1963, features the publisher’s logo. You can still spot the Viking ship and fish, though much smaller, at the bottom centre of our covers today.
1964.4
Nowadays you’d never see a depiction of Reykjavík’s skyline without the imposing Hallgrímskirkja church or Perlan observatory. Though construction of Hallgrímskirkja began in 1945, it was not completed until 1986. Perlan’s glass dome was completed in 1991.
1966.1
The ships and red fish on this cover appear to be a nod to the magazine’s logo, while the vintage map highlights Iceland’s south coast. See if you can spot the Westman Islands and Hekla volcano.
1970.1
The 70s ushered in cleaner, more contemporary cover design. Colourful fishing flies often decorate the walls of Iceland’s fishing huts, so why not a magazine cover?
1971.2
Vintage maps make a comeback on this ornate cover from 1971. Can you identify the bird species in the lower picture?
1976.4
Like the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, the Westman Islands eruption of 1973 brought Iceland to international attention. We can only wonder if the attention these font and colour choices received was good or bad.
1983.2
If you’ve been to Iceland, you know how difficult it is to snap a photo featuring blue skies and sunshine – not to mention an outdoor portrait without the wind messing up your subject’s hair.
1986.4
Not even steaming hot springs can save that outfit.
1988.2
Before she set off on her own solo career, Björk screamed into the mic for Icelandic punk band The Sugarcubes.
2008.2
If Icelandic hot dogs survived the banking collapse, then they’ll surely survive these hard times as well.
2020.2
For our most recent issue, we sent our photographer Golli rapelling down Southwest Iceland’s largest bird cliff. Not to worry: he made it back.
Iceland Review is the longest-running English-language magazine, presenting Iceland’s community, culture, and nature since 1963.
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