NYT MAGAZINE COVER
I was challenged to make a mock cover for the New York Times Magazine based on an article of my choosing. The goal was to make an artistically expressive piece that is also an effective work of design.
Final cover design, created entirely in Illustrator
I chose a science article that overviews the Fermi Paradox, which is the conflict between the abundant probability of the existence of intelligent life in the rest of the galaxy, and the stunning lack of physical evidence. In other words, if aliens exist, why have we never seen any of them? This concept has intrigued me since high school, so I was excited to design an illustration about it.
I started my process with research and sketching. I researched what things the physicist Enrico Fermi first pondered that ended up formulating the paradox, the mathematical probabilities of life existing on other planets/galaxies, the theoretical qualifications of more advanced societies, as well as the possible reasons Earth has had no contact with other beings as if they do exist. This information allowed me to brainstorm ideas for how to visually depict the concept.
For my initial thumbnail sketches, I experimented with a few ideas. I experimented with creating my own alien civilizations, a scenario in which humans actually do interact with aliens, and an alien-related theoretical structure - a Dyson Sphere.
After revising those three ideas, I decided to create an alien city as I thought that idea would be the most versatile and narrative to the article. I brought my sketch into Adobe Illustrator along with several reference images of other people's interpretations of what an 'alien civilization' would look like. I kept in mind several things while illustrating my alien planet, buildings, and composition: these beings would have zero influence from human society or their innovations, the materials used to build the alien society are likely found on the same planet unless they are capable of interplanetary travel, and there should be a contextual way for us to be able to see this city.
My final concept and design follow the idea that we are looking through an extremely powerful telescope that happens to be zoomed in on an exoplanet inhabited by aliens, and we are viewing a tiny section of their life. To finish up the design, I added the NYT Magazine logo, the article title and issue, and my signature. Then I created a couple of mockups to envision a real issue with my cover on it.
