We began planning the page three weeks ago with preliminary discussions about what it should look like, how many stories, what kind of tone it
should have in words and images. A number of content editors, a photo editor, the graphics director and myself (senior editor visuals) were
involved. We initially came up with the idea of a four-page wrap.

The main obstacle was an inability to come up with what we thought was the right image for 1A: something evocative of the emotion of the day, something that didn't repeat the horrific images from last year, something that was symbolic and didn't focus on one person or one place. We started with a file photo of a man and his son holding candles (no faces) and later switched to a shot of a candlelit memorial with the New York skyline in the background.

We wanted the page to be provacative, but simple and classy.

Here is another newspaper willing to take a presentation risk for a big story. Everything on the surface of this front page is unusual -- the gray background extending beneath the nameplate, the column that starts with lines from Yeats, the exploded body type. The image is old, but it's not a file picture that's been widely seen, and it does convey people connecting to deal with unspeakable loss. Perhaps the best part of this page is the discipline at the bottom; a host of unrelated stories are promoted in an orderly, subdued way, giving the top part of the page its visual due. Powerful pages require tough choices, and this staff made them.