'A different type of president': TIME magazine's creative director on the tricky task of covering Trump

Australia Broadcast Center

27-05-2025

It's been said that the cover of TIME magazine is the most important real estate in journalism. For more than 100 years, the publication's covers have helped to encapsulate the news into one arresting image every week.
Using the now-iconic red border, the covers can be shocking, controversial and always thought-provoking.
DW Pine, the magazine's creative director, has been the man responsible for bringing these covers to the world since 2001. He has put some of the world's most recognisable faces on TIME's front page, including Steve Jobs, Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama and Pope Francis.
Pine, who has overseen more than 1,000 of TIME's covers, told ABC News Breakfast the incumbent US President Donald Trump has created a unique challenge for the magazine.
"We have an interesting relationship with him," he said. "He has famously said that he only likes about 25 per cent of the TIME covers, so from where I sit I think that's actually pretty good."
Pine says the magazine is approaching Trump's second term differently to his first.
"The first term… we had never seen anybody like him in the United States as the president, at least not in modern day. So we presented the visuals the same way. Lots of scandals, lots of chaos."
Pine's favourite Trump cover is the magazine's 'Nothing to See Here' publication from February 27, 2017, just after he was first inaugurated. It portrays Trump subsumed in a thunderstorm in the middle of the Oval Office.
"What's great about this cover, is that it's a perfect place for a TIME cover to be," Pine says.
"If you're an opponent of the president, you look at that and see all the chaos he's created. And if you're a supporter of his, you see how resolute he is sitting behind the Resolute desk as all the chaos rains around him."
Pine also worked with artist Edel Rodriguez to produce the August 22, 2016 cover, titled 'Meltdown', which attracted worldwide attention.
"We did eight different covers that was just this single orange and yellow take. We used that quite a bit throughout. It's a tricky balance because you have to treat it with respect.
"I actually looked back at some of the old covers and how we treated presidents over the last 100 years and made sure that we were still in keeping with treating the office with respect, even though he was probably the most and still is a different type of president for the United States."
Under Pine, TIME also ran its 'Aisha' cover on August 9, 2010, which depicts an 18-year-old woman from Afghanistan, whose nose was cut off by the Taliban.
Pine says it was a "very important" image for the magazine.
"It's really, really difficult to look at," he told News Breakfast.
"She was trying to flee abusive in-laws. The story wasn't really being told at that time.
"The editor-in-chief, Rick Stengel, at the time went to child psychologists to make sure what we were doing was okay, that when kids saw this image they were going to be okay with it.
"It was important for us to put that on there, even though the visual was very difficult to look at."
DW Pine first joined TIME in 1998 as design director before becoming creative director in 2010, overseeing a staff of art directors, designers and researchers.
He says each morning starts with a staff meeting where the day's biggest news stories and current events are discussed. Those meetings inform who, or what, will grace the magazine's cover each week.
Pine says picking a cover is a weekly challenge that he loves, and one which ultimately helps readers "crystallise this complicated world we're living in".
"You get together and figure out what's the important news of the day. And from there, the editor-in-chief and some others decide who is the person.
"We tell a lot of stories through people. We found that their lives and experiences are a great way to be able to tell the complicated stories of today and be able to create a really visual storytelling that's what is important for a TIME cover."
Pine says the magazine's bold covers are even more important today than when TIME was founded in 1923, calling it a "dream job".
"I think people nowadays are really in need of a trusted news source," he says.
"I get to work with some of the world's best artists and photographers to help us fill this canvas every single week.
"That teamwork, that collaboration process… it really makes it fun to do."
DW Pine will be speaking about his career and creative process at Vivid Sydney on May 29.