New York, March 24, 2008

One of the biggest stories in New York this year was the fall of Governor Eliot Spitzer, after the stunning revelation that he had patronized a prostitution ring. New York’s March 24, 2008 cover treated the scandal in a bold yet disarming way that managed to make news itself—telling the story of the governor’s fall with a wry and unflinching point of view. Looking for personal, opinionated perspectives on the topic, the magazine solicited visual commentary from artists, graphic designers, and advertising creatives, providing them with five photographs of Spitzer to work off. Artist Barbara Kruger’s graphic interpretation on Henry Leutwyler’s photograph—the word “BRAIN” in a bright-red box with an arrow pointing to the area of Spitzer’s anatomy that seemed to have been thinking for him—was quickly selected, thanks to its directness, humor, and simplicity. The cover required no headlines. The image succeeded powerfully all by itself.

Interview, June/July 2008

The June/July cover of Interview was inspired by the fact that the issue was dedicated to the magazine’s founder, Andy Warhol, who would have been 80 years old in August of that year. The magazine chose designer Marc Jacobs as the cover subject because of what he represents: someone creative who, with his work, his collaborations, and his perpetual inventiveness has come to blur the boundaries of art and business in his field, much like Warhol. Co-editorial Director Fabien Baron, photographer Mikael Jansson and stylist Katie Grand worked to design a cover that would not only feel contemporary, but also articulate ideas about Andy’s influence on the culture in a visceral way. The results were poignantly, brilliantly—and appropriately—pop.

The New Yorker, October 8, 2007

In “Short Stance,” artist Barry Blitt combined two headline-grabbing news stories to create a powerful satirical image. In Blitt’s illustration, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who declared “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country” during his controversial speech at Columbia University in late September, is pictured in a bathroom stall, receiving a “foot-tap” from his neighbor—an action that made headlines after Idaho Senator Larry Craig’s arrest in a Minneapolis airport bathroom in June 2007.