Pentagram

‘The Illustrated History of TIME’

Book Design

Design of a book that tells the magazine's story through hundreds of images from its archive.

Since it began publishing in 1923, Time magazine has documented the world's most important events, personalities and discoveries. Now the magazine is itself chronicled in TIME: The Illustrated History of the World's Most Influential Magazine, published by Rizzoli. The book is a compendium of Time's iconic covers, award-winning reportage, photography and illustration. It is also a highly readable history of journalism, magazines and editorial design as experienced by the definitive newsmagazine, with recollections by many of Time's current and former editors, reporters and photographers, as well as frequent newsmakers like Henry Kissinger, Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg and others.

Pentagram has created a clean, journalistic design for the book that tells the magazine's story through hundreds of images from its archive. The designers worked closely with Alberto Oliva and Norberto Angeletti, the book's authors, and Michele Stephenson, Time’s photo editor from 1987 to 2006. Arranged chronologically, the book traces the magazine from its founding to the present, with chapters devoted to its coverage of major events like World War II and 9/11, its evolving approach to journalism (founders Henry Luce and Briton Haddon were "the original aggregators," writes current managing editor Richard Stengel), and its periodic redesigns, including the integration of the magazine's print edition with the Web. The book also includes entertaining looks at Time's top-10 best-selling issues and a review of its "Persons of the Year" from 1927 through 2009.

Client
Time Magazine
Sector
Publishing
Discipline
Book Design
Office
New York
Partner
Luke Hayman
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