In the time it takes to read this sentence, your brain could have processed yet another visual. The average person is presented with roughly 10,000 images daily, mainly through advertisements, social media, news, product packaging, and websites. Breaking through the visual clutter is a challenge that requires a keen understanding of human attention and the visual landscape we navigate, especially since most of those images are now carried in our pockets. In this saturated environment, the key lies in creating something that grabs the viewer’s attention and holds it. 
As the Creative Director of TIME, responsible for designing the red-bordered cover of the 100-year-old publication, I spend most of my time staring at a blank white space smaller than a piece of paper. It’s been called the “most important real estate in journalism”. The design has undergone several transformations throughout its history, but the commitment to visual simplicity and impact has remained constant.
Of course, nearly all the thousands of images we face daily are gone in an instant, so I’m pleasantly surprised when a cover can break through and grab people’s attention. The mission is to be clear, simple, impactful, and occasionally provocative, putting the iconic red frame around what’s important. To that end, I approach the cover design as a journalistic poster.
When an image or design embraces visual simplicity, it creates space for the mind to roam. It invites us to engage more actively, to interpret and connect with the work on a deeper level. It’s like a pause in the noise, a moment of clarity, where the viewer’s experience becomes just as important as the visual itself.
Visual simplicity is about more than aesthetics – it’s how it shifts our perception, allowing us to focus, reflect, and engage with a subject or an idea in a clear and open way. It’s the beauty of the quiet spaces and the moments that don’t demand attention but speak volumes.
Not everyone has a red border and a global audience of more than 100 million, but the principles of visual simplicity are relevant to everything we create. Here are two key lessons from my experiences that I hope will resonate as you seek to make the most out of your own creative or innovation process:
At TIME, we’re fortunate to collaborate with some of the world’s best artists and photographers, but the “blank white canvas” seemed incredibly daunting to fill when I started my job in the late 1990s. It wasn’t until my young daughter and I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, just around the corner from our offices at Rockefeller Center in New York, that I started understanding it. 
In one of the gallery rooms, two oversized white canvases hung high above my daughter’s blank stare. “Look at this,” she said with a smile, “someone forgot to paint it.” I laughed and agreed, rolling my eyes. How is this art?
Robert Rauschenberg’s White Paintings, created in the 1950s, are among his most iconic works and stand as a radical exploration of what art could be. At first glance, as the title suggests, the paintings are entirely white – seemingly devoid of anything. However, their significance lies not in the blank space but in what that blankness invites the viewer to consider. Since that day at MOMA, I have thought more about that painting than any other visual.
Rauschenberg, who coincidentally designed several TIME covers (including one as the first living artist to feature on our front page in 1976), took the idea of the “blank canvas” to its extreme. Yet, the simplicity of white paint on a white canvas demonstrates that art doesn’t need to be full of obvious content to be meaningful. Instead, it focuses on the process, context, and interaction. Rauschenberg loved that the painting collected dust and turned different colors depending on the time of day. What at first appears to be nothing creates a space for the viewer to imagine more.
For our cover, I find it critical to spend most of my time thinking about what not to include. I constantly edit my ideas. Constraints encourage you to dig deeper to discover creative solutions you might not have previously considered.
Those constraints also include limiting my tools. I use two fonts – a specially designed serif typeface called Haffner and a commonly used san serif called Franklin. This constraint helps me focus on what we want to say and how we’re going to say it visually. I limit my color palette to black, white, and red. I don’t have to spend time thinking about those things – it’s like walking into an ice cream shop with 31 flavors and knowing I will always order the mint chocolate chip.
Simplicity brings focus. But it requires a mastery of restraint – the ability to decide what to remove and what to leave untouched. It’s not just about using fewer elements; it’s about using the right elements in the right way. Every detail matters, even if it appears minimal.
A recent example of this visual simplicity is our cover of Elon Musk sitting behind the resolute desk (24 February). The image, which garnered worldwide media attention and a response from US President Donald Trump, was simple. The cover story focused on the many ways Musk, who is not an elected official, was amassing power as he and his team began dismantling the federal government. We tried several headline directions and had other visual elements sitting on the desk, but in the end, it was important to be visually clear – Musk, holding a mundane cup of coffee, comfortably seated in the world’s most powerful chair.
Creativity thrives in simplicity. When faced with limitations, it’s easy to get caught up in trying to do everything at once. Focus on the most important aspects of your project, stripping away the unnecessary. It’s about finding ways to turn the noise into something powerful and impossible to ignore, much like the Rauschenberg paintings.
I am often asked where ideas come from. It’s not an easy question to answer, but I’ve learned they typically don’t come from brainstorming meetings or ideas sessions. They can happen anytime, anywhere, often when you’re not even thinking about them. Inspiration can strike while walking down the street, taking a shower, observing trends, or through persistent trial and error. Ideas are born from a seemingly endless combination of sources.
Usually, my first ideas on a project turn out to be the best, but creativity can also take time. Constraints may lead to frustration, but it’s crucial to trust the process and keep refining the idea. Breaks in the action are beneficial, and distance from a project allows you to return with a fresh perspective. Even during stressful deadlines, I would occasionally leave the office (Central Park was close by) for a short walk to clear my head and trust that new ideas would emerge. And they always did.
However, having lots of ideas doesn’t mean they should all survive or be presented. During my first few years at TIME, I worked hard to present dozens of different options and visual directions for the editors to choose from, thinking I was doing them a favor by offering lots to choose from. I didn’t realize I was just inundating them with more images. It took some time for me to understand that the value I added was in visually editing the process. 
Ideas also benefit from collaboration. When working with artists, I generally suggest a direction they should explore, but I always want them to bring their talents and thoughts to the project. Creating visuals in isolation is challenging when the aim is to resonate with a wide audience. And while collaboration often yields the best results, it’s also important to strike a balance. The phrase “too many chefs in the kitchen” is certainly apt when it comes to design.
Visual – and creative – simplicity involves a great deal of thinking, but don’t overthink it. Limit your options (mint chocolate chip). Be bold and memorable (Rauschenberg). Trust the process (a walk in the park). Just a few simple steps to help us all grab people’s attention and hold it.
The pandemic sparked a shift to remote work that’s proving hard to reverse. According to Prof. Manju Ahuja, hybrid models are the new norm—driven by employee expectations, technological advances, and a changing...
As campaign disasters at Apple, Bud Light, and Jaguar demonstrate, boards shy away from marketing oversight at their peril....
Audio available
Command and control kill. If you want your employees to express their creativity, build corporate playgrounds where they can experiment, take risks, and embrace failure....
Professors at IMD recommend books exploring the world of art to help you think in more creative ways....
Explore first person business intelligence from top minds curated for a global executive audience