Design rooted in content

Illustrator Steve Brodner captured the cover selection process at TIME magazine. Flanking me are Executive Editor Steve Koepp, left, and Managing Editor Walter Isaacson.

Illustrator Steve Brodner captured the cover selection process at TIME magazine. Flanking me are Executive Editor Steve Koepp, left, and Managing Editor Walter Isaacson.

Arthur Hochstein Design+Image was created in 2010. Previously I was Art Director of TIME Magazine for more
than 15 years, responsible for all aspects of TIME’s design, managing and guiding its talented staff.
My main focus was on covers.

In 2010 I left TIME to start a consulting and design firm, Arthur Hochstein Design+Image. In the next two years I consulted with Bloomberg Businessweek (with Norman Pearlstine and editor Josh Tyrangiel) and Newsweek (with Tina Brown) during significant transitional periods. I continue a creative relationship with Time Inc.’s expanding book division, Time Inc. Books.

Creative Director and design blogger Robert Newman wrote on the website of the Society of Publication Designers:

“Arthur Hochstein was the art director of TIME magazine from 1994 to the end of 2009. He created over 1000 covers during that time .... Hochstein created what I consider the greatest contemporary body of cover design at any one magazine over the past 15 years. Hochstein’s TIME covers are by turns momentous, funny, pointed, provocative, intelligent, and highly creative. They feature the top photographers (and occasionally illustrators) in the business, along with Hochstein’s own considerable creative Photoshop work. To my mind this is as close as contemporary American cover design will get to the legendary work of George Lois at Esquire in the '60s and '70s ....There’s a sense of creativity, fun, excitement, passion, and ingenuity that is lacking from many of today’s highly-scripted and tested magazine covers.”

I won many industry awards, including the 2006 and 2007 ASME Awards for Best Conceptual Cover. Also, two covers I designed were on the ASME list of the top 40 covers of the last 40 years.

Other recognition includes: Gold and Silver Medals from the Society of Publication Designers, multiple awards from Communication Arts, AIGA, the NY Art Directors Club, The Covers Only Show, Print Magazine Casebooks and Regional Design Annual, Graphic Design USA and others.

All good work is rooted in concept, clarity and a shared sense of the human experience. I often writes cover lines, heads and titles—many examples are on this website. I enjoy being a full partner in the creative process.