Hasta La Ideas

Illustration agents Dutch Uncle Tweeted what appeared to be a saucy new Time Out cover yesterday, created for the magazine’s new sex issue by illustrator Noma Bar. So it was much to our surprise that Time Out arrived in London this morning with a blank cover instead.

Shown above is what was purported to be Noma Bar’s intended sex issue cover, in all its naughty glory. However Time Out appear to have had a last-minute change of heart, instead running the below blank cover, underneath a cover wrap.

Noma Bar’s original cover illustration has been moved into a feature, with text overlayed.

Time Out say that the replacement blank cover is part of a #SexUpMyCover competition whereby readers are encouraged to doodle their very own naughty cover, which they can then Tweet. The best illustration, as judged by Time Out, will win an iPad mini, apparently. The Time Out team have kindly provided some examples of their work, to get people started.

According to Time Out’s editor Tim Arthur, on Twitter, the original design was moved to a feature to “give it the most impact”, and to allow Time Out to run their draw-your-own-cover competition. Hmm, or else someone got cold feet. The magazine is distributed at tube stations so perhaps it was felt that, despite the cover wrap, Bar’s image was just too much for the travelling public?

We have approached Time Out for comment, and will update the story as we know more.

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