David Salanitro	Clive Piercy, Ph.D
DJ Stout, Pentagram, Austin	C2

Although the idea of this issue is “thinking wrong,” we didn’t want to go too far in the opposite direction of what we thought would sell well. As clever as some of the riskier concepts were—i.e. Salanitro’s bathroom stall or Piercy’s MAD magazine spoof—we don’t want to risk alienating potential buyers on the newsstand.

C2 designers Daniel Choe, Tory Ford and Erik Cox devised this issue’s cover. It’s striking in that it’s very different from what we’ve previously done on STEP covers—using a close-up, cropped, black-and-white photo. It’s eye-catching and the starburst featuring the words “THINK GNORW ISSUE,” engage the viewer and invite them to see what’s inside.

John Bielenberg, a principal at C2 who led the charge on this cover experiment says of the design, “[The designers were] sincere about following the exercises to get somewhere but the final composition was not necessarily pushing the limits of the way [they like] to solve problems,” says Bielenberg. “I don’t think [they] would have necessarily used a baby or pink or Eames unless [they were] influenced by the process, but the way [they] solved it graphically is completely within a bias. However, within the language of STEP magazine covers, a picture of a baby’s face in black and white is definitely alternative.”

Bielenberg’s reaction to our cover choice: “It’s certainly the least risky or offensive of them all and isn’t going to alienate anybody. Who doesn't like a sweet little baby face? Even though it was created using a Think Wrong exercise, it isn’t a design solution that pushes past what might be expected from a STEP cover.”