The cover, depicting the silhouettes of the Twin Towers against a dark background, is part of journalism history as well as one of the most famous images
On September 11, 2001, François Mouly, art director of The New Yorker, was at her home in SoHo when she heard about the first plane that had hit the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. After she and her husband, acclaimed cartoonist Art Spiegelman (creator of Maus), got their two young children out of school and the family was safe, she went straight to the magazine’s headquarters. David Remnick, the editor-in-chief, had invited her to launch a special edition.
That cover, depicting the silhouettes of the Twin Towers against a dark background, is part of journalism history and one of the most famous images ever published by The New Yorker. In fact, a perfect combination of design, subtlety and timeliness.
Without using images or words, Françoise Mouly knew how to convey what millions of people felt on that fateful day.
Françoise Moulin was born in Paris 66 years ago, but has lived in New York for more than half her life and alternates between her work at the magazine and her role as publishing director of the children’s comics publishing house ‘Toon Books’. Between 1980 and 1991, together with Spiegelman, he published the comics anthology magazine “Raw”, a cult publication that was a major landmark for the industry in New York.
In the nearly three decades she’s been on the cover of The New Yorker, she’s seen her country—she’s also an American citizen—and the world change hundreds of times, and she’s been there to provide the necessary ingenuity, sharpness or sensitivity to tell the story in a unique style.
He admits that the most daunting challenge is to capture the essence of a historical moment in a unique way by choosing the right illustration. “Feelings cannot be created, but we can give people an image to identify with”, she explains to “El Pais”. When Barack Obama won the election in 2008, the cover created by Bob Stake depicted the Lincoln Memorial in Washington – which also commemorates Martin Luther King – under a huge bright moon that was also the “O” in the headline. “It captured everyone’s emotion because it felt like it was historic, it felt like a new era,” he says.
In November 2016, after Donald Trump’s victory, the cover instead depicted a scene on the Manhattan subway, where a man was reading the newspaper.
Mouli stresses that a good cover doesn’t have to relate to an article on the inside pages. “The cover is a story in itself, to be understood in ten days or ten years,” he explains.
Her office – located on the 23rd floor of One World Trade Center, where the Twin Towers used to be – is considered the most creative in the magazine’s headquarters. Resembling a gallery, hundreds of illustrations hang on the walls, showing the constant dialogue she maintains with the artists to create the covers.
For many artists, publication in the New Yorker is a reward in itself. What she is primarily interested in is showing the changes in our society, but also what it is like to live in this era.
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With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
