Early on, it was decided that our cover story would be about activist-design—what we’re calling ‘public-interest architecture.’ We wanted to convey the power architects have on their local communities, and ultimately on the world. But visualizing this idea was not easy—there was no single image in the story that captured it. So we contacted Chris Ro, of the graphic-design studio ADearFriend, whose ability to illustrate conceptual ideas had long impressed us. He came up with a slew of possible solutions, but in the end we all agreed on one: his illustration of an architect’s hand holding up our fragile planet is both striking and thought-provoking. As the earth opens up—like a hopeful version of Pandora’s box—the world is remade by a new generation of activist architects.

We were impressed with Volume when we collaborated with them on the February 2007 cover. So when we wanted a San Francisco-based graphic-design team to work on our September cover, they seemed like the obvious choice. Read more…

The alternate cover, pictured above.

“Some ideas come and go, others just won’t go away,” associate art director Dungjai Pungauthaikan says about the design of this month’s cover. Read more…

When we received the contact sheets from our photographer, Anna Knott, we were excited about the possibility of putting Jeanne Gang and her Aqua tower on the cover. But the art department couldn’t get any shot to work by itself, so we pursued another direction: juxtaposing Gang, George Lois style, into the skyline. Read more…

Why not lead with Hawaii? That’s the question I asked the staff when discussing the cover of our May issue. Read more…

We knew the cover would center around Alice Waters and our story on four famous chefs discussing the design of their professional kitchens. The conceit was clear, but consensus was not. Read more…

We tried to collaborate with Peter Mendelsund last year but ran into scheduling conflicts. Then I saw five of his book covers at the AIGA’s 50/50 exhibition, and it reminded me to reach out to him again. Read more…

This month’s cover features British designer Tom Dixon. He sits in his Wingback chair inside Shoreditch House, a space he designed in London. There was the typical difficulty in setting up an overseas shoot during the holidays. Read more…

Kaleidoscopes and hammers and snails, oh my! “This cover is one of dozens of designs that the art department created for the Smart Environments issue,” assistant art director Lisa Maione says. Read more…

We asked eight designers to select the space that inspires them the most (and it couldn’t be one that they designed). The responses were surprising, captivating, and—best of all for the art department—well documented. At the end of the process, we had seven diverse projects and spectacular photographs for each. We were able to make three covers, using three different fonts for the word favorite to help reflect each space. This is the first time Metropolis has run multiple covers to promote a single story. Read more…