From the Publisher

By Louis A. Weil III

Few tasks on a magazine are as important -- or difficult -- as choosing the image and words that appear on the cover. In a few seconds, they must interest the reader in the issue. The challenge is greatest when we deal with topics that are conceptual or, as is the case this week, when we return to a story , that has already been the subject of several covers. This is our fifth in a row on the crisis in the gulf, a record unmatched since the Korean War.

The responsibility for covers often falls on deputy art director Arthur Hochstein, who has had to come up with designs week after week that are striking and original and that underline different aspects of a similar theme. "A magazine cover is like a poster," Arthur says. "At its best, it conveys a powerful message clearly and quickly through a combination of pictures and words." Hochstein, 37, is comfortable with both. After attending the University of Missouri School of Journalism, he began his career as an editor and designer at a weekly newspaper in his native St. Louis. He eventually focused on design because, as he puts it, "What I enjoyed most was putting the pieces together." He was graphics editor for the now defunct St. Louis Globe-Democrat before coming to TIME in 1985. Among the cover-subject designs he is proudest of are the sun ("Great Ball of Fire") in July 1989 and White House chief of staff John Sununu ("Bush's Bad Cop") in May 1990. If you haven't already figured it out, Arthur has an inveterate love of wordplay. As he might say: Read my quips.

Hochstein is a whiz on our Apple Macintosh computer design system. After he and designer Leah Purcell have received a cover image, they can lay it out and display it in minutes, vs. hours only a few years ago. Then, thanks to the technology, they can try numerous variations on the image and the text. They have even created entire covers on the Mac. One recent example: "Starting Over," for a story on the end of the Communist Party's monopoly on power in the Soviet Union. It juxtaposed a photograph of Mikhail Gorbachev with an archival picture of Lenin.

"When it comes out, the cover of the magazine usually looks straightforward and simple," Hochstein says. "But it actually is the end product of a tremendous amount of work. This is a perfect blend of what I was trained to do and what I'm interested in. So this is the perfect job for me." We agree.