My father-in-law purchased a recent copy of Time Magazine featuring Billy Graham on the cover. Now, this may be the graphic designer in me making an issue of nothing, but take a close look at the layout of the cover art. Notice anything odd about the overlay of Billy’s profile over the TIME masthead? At best, Billy’s sporting some cat ears… at worst, Time Warner gave Billy some devil horns.
I’ve shown it to a few people now asking if they notice anything strange, and no one saw the horns until I pointed them out, but once I did, they really stood out to them. I am convinced that this was not an accident. The person that created this layout knew exactly what they were doing when the placed the photo in relation to the TIME masthead in this particular configuration. Think about it. Every week, that is their primary job — to marry a thematic graphic or photo with the TIME masthead in an eye-catching/pleasing fashion while instantly conveying the content of the feature story. Trust me, they take painstaking effort to overlay the image on the TIME masthead just right. For the August 20th issue, it was “just right” to give Billy some horns.
Given my presumption that this design decision was intentional, the next question is whose intent was being executed? Did the designer unilaterally have some fun with the layout? Or did a creative director in association with an editor and the story’s author authorize the devil-horn layout because they wanted to subtly (or not so subtly) communicate something about the tone of the article?
You decide. Here’s a link to the article: “Billy Graham, Pastor in Chief.” Feel free to comment. I want to know if you think the devil horn layout was intentional, and if so, who intended it and why.
One Comment, Comment or Ping
Eric Wakeling
I say it was intentional, but potentially not malicious. From most graphic artist that I know, they seem to have a sense of humor. I think there is some definite snickering behind closed doors.
I’m happy to see you blogging!!
Sep 23rd, 2007
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