NY Times: "Hot's Not Cool"

British Steve and I designed a companion graphic for William Safire's On Language column in this week's New York Times Sunday Magazine. The project was part of their annual college issue, so all of the image-making was the product of current undergraduate or graduate students.

Our task was to design the column title, without any logical restrictions beyond reasonable legibility (for example, it didn't have to translate or in anyway interpret the meaning of the article). We perused back issues and saw a lot of digital solutions, the least interesting of which tried to create a connection in the graphic to the article, but we opted for something more playful, building a diorama of sorts, that measured more than fourteen square feet. All of the type elements were built from Play-Doh, Legos or stray toys, with additional decorative toy elements and a tinsel ocean. The end result was a lot of fun to do and I think it really stands out when held up to past issues. Below are some close-up shots that capture some of the detail lost in the overall picture.