Posted by: Stephen Baker on January 14
Here are a few more mock-ups I did for the math cover. By the way, we have highly able art and design staffers at BW. It’s not normal for writers to mock up covers this way. I just did it to tinker with language and concepts. As you can see, I was experimenting with different approaches.
This one, while provocative, was not considered highly appealing.

This one, while both provocative and appealing, seemed a bit… off message.

This looks to me more like something The Economist would put on its cover. The one difference: My shameless self promotion in the cover language.

I knew this one was too quirky. Didn’t even show it to anyone.

For a while I was playing around with language involving slate and abacus. It was a bit oblique for a mainstream magazine, I decided, so I kept it to myself (until now).

Just for contrast, here’s what you get when the pros get involved. This one is by art director Jay Petrow.

Now I really wish I studied Calculus.
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