I know there has to be a light bulb joke in here somewhere, but in the meantime, I will say in all seriousness how much I dig 'The 9th Annual Year in Ideas' cover of the New York Times Magazine. I think I have never seen light bulbs shot from above like this and how often do you get to say the words “I have never seen…?” The bulbs form a thought cloud. What a great uh—idea!
In the name of thoroughness, I checked to see if, in fact, there are any appropriate light bulb jokes. I just visited--you guessed it--lightbulbjokes.com and sure enough there is one for art directors.
Q: How many art directors does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Does it have to be a lightbulb?
Well, no it doesn’t have to be a light bulb. Last year they put Einstein on the cover of the 'Ideas' issue, and a few years ago they used a blackboard covered in equations à la A Beautiful Mind. But the truth is, if you want to communicate ‘idea’, the clearest, handiest, image really is a light bulb. So the answer to the art director’s question (which was an answer to a question) is ...
A: No, but I’ll be darned impressed if you can pull off using one in a non-cliché image.
I am darned impressed.
Photo illustration by Reinhard Hunger. Set design by Sarah Illenberger.
