home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- <text id=90TT2425>
- <title>
- Sep. 10, 1990: From The Publisher
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- Sep. 10, 1990 Playing Cat And Mouse
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- FROM THE PUBLISHER, Page 18
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> Few tasks on a magazine are as important--or difficult--as choosing the image and words that appear on the cover. In
- a few seconds, they must interest the reader in the issue. The
- challenge is greatest when we deal with topics that are
- conceptual or, as is the case this week, when we return to a
- story that has already been the subject of several covers. This
- is our fifth in a row on the crisis in the gulf, a record
- unmatched since the Korean War.
- </p>
- <p> The responsibility for covers often falls on deputy art
- director Arthur Hochstein, who has had to come up with designs
- week after week that are striking and original and that
- underline different aspects of a similar theme. "A magazine
- cover is like a poster," Arthur says. "At its best, it conveys
- a powerful message clearly and quickly through a combination
- of pictures and words." Hochstein, 37, is comfortable with
- both. After attending the University of Missouri School of
- Journalism, he began his career as an editor and designer at
- a weekly newspaper in his native St. Louis. He eventually
- focused on design because, as he puts it, "What I enjoyed most
- was putting the pieces together." He was graphics editor for
- the now defunct St. Louis Globe-Democrat before coming to TIME
- in 1985. Among the cover-subject designs he is proudest of are
- the sun ("Great Ball of Fire") in July 1989 and White House
- chief of staff John Sununu ("Bush's Bad Cop") in May 1990. If
- you haven't already figured it out, Arthur has an inveterate
- love of wordplay. As he might say: Read my quips.
- </p>
- <p> Hochstein is a whiz on our Apple Macintosh computer design
- system. After he and designer Leah Purcell have received a
- cover image, they can lay it out and display it in minutes, vs.
- hours only a few years ago. Then, thanks to the technology,
- they can try numerous variations on the image and the text.
- They have even created entire covers on the Mac. One recent
- example: "Starting Over," for a story on the end of the
- Communist Party's monopoly on power in the Soviet Union. It
- juxtaposed a photograph of Mikhail Gorbachev with an archival
- picture of Lenin.
- </p>
- <p> "When it comes out, the cover of the magazine usually looks
- straightforward and simple," Hochstein says. "But it actually
- is the end product of a tremendous amount of work. This is a
- perfect blend of what I was trained to do and what I'm
- interested in. So this is the perfect job for me." We agree.
- </p>
- <p>-- Louis A. Weil III
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-