The Economist Magazine Christmas Cover For 2023

 

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DECEMBER 23RD 2023

SUBSCRIBER ONLY Cover Story How we chose this week’s image

Josie Delap Christmas editor

As a journalist whose focus is on words, I never fail to be impressed by the creativity and vision of The Economist’s graphics team (they, in turn, regularly despair of my aesthetic ineptitude). That artistry is given full rein in our end-of-year double issue—and nowhere more so than on the cover.  As always, the Christmas cover eschews the news in favour of an image inspired by the special features that fill half the issue. This year these pieces cover, among other things, the intricacies of buying shoes online in Indonesia, how climate change is affecting viticulture and the adventures of a young Winston Churchill in Africa.

Another story, on why economists love “Robinson Crusoe”, inspired three possible cover ideas. The first featured the eponymous hero stranded on his island with a bottle of wine and a whale in the distance, visual references to two other pieces in the issue. It was charming, but lacked a sense of seasonality.

The two alternative designs drew on two other stories that nod to the sea—about the history of navigation in Oceania and on China’s evolving love affair with the beach—but used as their central image a Christmas tree bauble. The first of these showed the ornament floating in the water, its top emerging as Crusoe’s island and the whale swimming below. The second used just the top of the bauble, bobbing along with Crusoe teetering on its edge. Both were fun, but neither quite worked.

Another cover image was based on the artwork that accompanies a piece about how a children’s story about gay penguins was caught up in America’s culture wars. The illustrations are delightful, but felt better suited to a cover timed around Valentine’s Day than Christmas.

Fortunately, the ideas kept flowing. One drew on that story about Chinese people’s fondness for the beach. The image depicts a snowglobe containing a holidaymaker reclining on a deckchair as the snow swirls outside—a neat inversion of the typical ornament. It was wintry, but had a sense of the unexpected. It nodded to a story without giving too much away. It could work.

The final option was completely different. For an article about women finding fame online with their DIY skills Joanne Joo, a Chinese illustrator based in Thailand, produced a set of wonderful illustrations using 3D figures. The cover she designed featured several of the characters our journalists had written about throughout the issue, working together to decorate a log cabin. It had two strengths. First, its visual references to different stories helped convey the extravagance of the issue. Second, its mood of joyful warmth felt appropriate at this time of year.  Joanne’s first version worked well, but the details needed refining. Donald Trump, a horrifying fairy perched atop the Christmas tree, is not sufficiently recognisable. Nor are Churchill or Crusoe. The woman kneeling with a shoe box could be holding a box of anything. And the wall on the left looks sad and blank in contrast to the colourful jumble of the rest of the picture.

The final iteration was better. Churchill is more Churchillian, Crusoe more Crusovian. St Donald has a quiffier quiff. A wine rack and a stack of logs make that back corner feel less empty. A final round of edits fixed the final niggles: the ostracised penguins at the window are brought in from the cold and the shoes made more apparent. The cosy scene is set. It includes hints to each one of the Christmas stories in the issue—can you spot them all? Answers are below if you’re struggling. I hope you enjoy our holiday extravaganza. Happy reading.

Christmas cover answers: 1. Christians’ love of Trump 2. How global warming is changing wine 3. On safari in South Sudan 4. Famous women DIY-ers 5. The best sailors in the world 6. The moral philosophy of climate change 7. How Ukrainians are coping 8. The truth about Flight MH17 9. Farewell to Hollywood’s lions 10. Why Tamil movie heroes become politicians 11. E-commerce in Indonesia 12. A parable of modern America 13. The price of a whale 14. Churchill’s adventures in Africa 15. Why economists love “Robinson Crusoe” 16. China’s new love of the beach 17. What tractors tell you about AI 18. Gabon on the prairie 19. Drilling for hydrogen

Cover image • View large image (“Christmas double issue”)