NEW YORK TIMES, EDUCATING GENERATION Z COVER

The New York Times commissioned this cover for the Learning section, titled Educating Gen Z, accompanying a series of articles examining the widening gap between the cost of higher education and the financial aid available to families.

The image centers on a single, graphic gesture: a large “Z” formed through the negative space created by the tips of two graphite pencils. Referencing the familiar yellow of a number two pencil, the form communicates education in its most immediate terms, while allowing absence, pressure, and separation to define the letter itself. That void becomes the message, using reduction and contrast to visualize the structural gap at the heart of the reporting and translate an abstract economic problem into a clear, legible image.