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There’s nothing like a little pressure—a STEP cover design for an issue to be distributed at the AIGA National Conference in Boston this September—to fuel some passionate…well…anxiety and designer’s block. The assignment was compounded further by the difficulty of communicating clearly and compellingly—in print—the essence of the best work for a medium based in the realms of interactivity, non-linearity, and motion.

Our initial solutions swung wildly from simply altering the red “X” icon used when an website image doesn’t load, to photographing a whole cover design off our monitor, projecting a browser screen 50-feet high on the side of a building, and doing a sitemap diagram of the creative process. These all seemed fun and appropriate but most were too complex for a magazine cover and none addressed the “best” aspect whatsoever. We threw out all the clichés that might help—trophies, ribbons, medals—hoping that they would fuse well with one of first ideas, to no avail. Our problem was a lot of alluring shells, very little core story.

Finally a sketch was done of a “loading bar” for a website that doubled as a “gauge of greatness.” The solution refers to websites, mostly avoids clichés (you can argue this), and also speaks to the idea of “the best.” We then shot the image at an angle (to add some drama and leave space for cover lines) directly off the screen to give it a tactile quality. There is something very alluring about the texture of the LCD pixels in the image. We had some discussion about the use of Mini7 versus other options and how the pixelization seemed to be inferring older bitmap technology. In fact the font is one of the more common fonts used on the web, designed for legibility at small sizes. In our usage we just happen to be zoomed in and this exposes its true character. So it seems appropriate.

We only presented the one idea because we felt it was THE solution and we didn’t feel it necessary to have back-up ideas (see image 1). The concept was accepted with the caveat that the blue textured screen was too dull. While we disagreed, we understood the issues. And so we struggled with finding another image that would work. We wanted a screaming mouth behind the loading bar because that’s how we felt. It was a busy week at the office.

What simple image would work, not distract from the idea, and be legible? What would logically appear behind a preloader bar? Ultimately we decided on an image and sold it with the caveat that it was nothing illegal or obscene (see image 2). Now, aren’t you just dying to know what the image is?

UPDATE: Cover image revealed!

Since so many people have asked, here's the photo that was pixelated for the Sept/Oct cover of STEP.

According to Adam Brodsley, "This is John Bielenberg drinking the national beer of Costa Rica (Imperial), during the Project M Costa Rica last summer. We were driving on private roads (I am trying to downplay the fact that he was drinking a beer at the wheel) in the Santa Rosa National Park trying to avoid running over the millions of frogs that came out with the first rains. The "M Costa Rica" book is printing right now."

If you look closely at the cover and imagine the photo of Bielenberg tipped about 90 degrees, you'll see how it works.

Bielenberg granted STEP permission to reprint this photo on our website, saying, "At least it's out of the jurisdiction of the U.S. police!"