This special issue of The New York Times Magazine, called “The Year in Ideas” viewed the year 2001 as the latest volume in the encyclopedia of human innovation. The issue was designed to resemble a classic dictionary. The cover was made in cloth binding and photographed as a trompe l’oeil to include the three-dimensional texture of the cloth cover and the depth of the inside pages. All the stories were presented in alphabetical order, with the dictionary tabs on the left and right. The illusion of page depth was preserved throughout to create the perception of being in an actual encyclopedia. Photography and illustration were commissioned to reflect the diagrammatic and explanatory form of 19th-century illustration.

“This is really inventive magazine design. You just can’t get enough of it.”