This week Coverjunkie asked Francesco Franchi, Design Director for awardwinning IL Magazine (a supplement from Italian Il Sole 24 ORE) about the favorite covers that are so good he wished he designed them himself:

The 3 most favorite covers Francesco admires

-1. THE GUARDIAN:
February 18th 1988 "Soldiers of Christ arise and put armour on"
Art director: DAVID HILLMAN
I admire Hillman's work. Is one of my point of reference.
I really like the structure, the grid, the black and white and the use of strong pictures.

-2. BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK:
November 1st 2010 "Coke in Africa"
Art director: RICHARD TURLEY
It's one of my favourite magazine. Richard Turley is remaking magazine covers with unexpected images, shaping the editorial panorama and changing our perceptions not only of design, but of business and its players.

-3. NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE:
July 6th 2010 "The next Afghanistan?"
Art director: AREM DUPLESSIS
Probably the best newsmagazine in the world. I love the new redesign, the minimalism and the elegance.

About Francesco Franchi:
Francesco has been a design director at IL from 2008 till now. Before that he designed at the well known Leftloft designagency. He and his teams won numerous publication design honors and awards, read all about it on Francesco's Linkedin page

Finally, a sweet tip:
"I always check thisisdisplay.org, a curated collection of important graphic design books, periodicals, advertisements and ephemera. Nice website layout."