Esquire, October 1966

One of the boldest moves Harold T. P. Hayes (1926–1989) made during his ten-year tenure as Esquire’s editor was to hire adman George Lois to design the magazine’s covers. Though Esquire used quite a number of in-house art directors in the 1960s — notably Sam Antupit (1932–2003) —, Lois worked on his own, crafting each month’s cover from his office at PKL (Papert, Koenig, Lois), the ad agency he had founded in 1960 with copywriter Julian Koenig (of Volkswagen fame).

The stark, uncompromising October 1966 cover is considered a masterpiece of “Big Idea” creative acumen, hinting at the horror of the Vietnam war as seen from both sides: the Vietnamese civilians suffering vicious “collateral damage”, and the young and ill-prepared US soldiers thrown into action just fresh out of training. The titling typeface is Bauer Bodoni, while all additional information, above and below Esquire’s iconic masthead, uses Morris Fuller Benton’s Franklin Gothic No.2.