The most important piece of furniture in TIME magazine is the iconic red border around each cover. Even in special issues, they incorporate the red border, just in different forms – although it doesn’t happen often.
March 4, 2019 cover of TIME
Special Cover of TIME from June 11, 2018. The red border is still present, just not in its traditional form.
Inside TIME:
Folio: TIME uses a traditional folio at the bottom of most pages, with the exception of opening spreads. This is to help navigate the reader throughout the issue.
Bylines: Bylines in TIME are always present in each story, but their placement depends more heavily on the design of the opening art or photo placement. Below are three very different examples of bylines in a single issue of TIME. The bylines are more flexible in terms of design, as long as they are in the beginning of the story.
Cutlines: Similarly to bylines, cutlines are pretty standard throughout TIME. They move throughout the page, but are usually present at some point throughout the story, depending on the other elements on the page. Below are two different examples of cutlines and photo captions from the most recent issue of TIME.
Section Fronts: Most section fronts of TIME, like “Time Off,” “The View,” or “The Brief” are surrounded by a black box, and usually features one large image that bleeds off the page, or a large pull quote from the section’s main story. On the bottom of the page, stories from the section are represented with headlines. Below are examples from the March 4, 2019, issue of TIME. Each of these attributes- whether it’s a large image, or a revealing pull quote, are used to draw the reader into the most important story in each section.
Each section also as markers on the top of each page.
Table of Contents: Although the table of contents in TIME is pretty straightforward, one important piece of furniture is the lines that separate each section. This helps distinguish the sections from one another and helps navigate the reader’s eyes from one point to the next.
Overall, TIME uses pretty traditional furniture, mostly for the purpose of guiding the reader throughout each issue.
