The idea for a page representing a moment of silence came up a couple of weeks ago. Our 9.11 special section with all the color ran on the 8th and we were looking for an appropriate gesture for the 11th. The page was mocked up and pitched to the group planning our coverage and to the Costello family who owns the paper.

There is a powerful cinematic technique that plays violent action against a backdrop of serene, classical music. The dissonance between what we see and what we hear makes the violence all the more disturbing. A similar technique is at work on this page. The main visual thrust is a ghostly, fading, elegant "9.11." Color is soft and ethereal. But at the bottom of the page is a spare timeline of the four awful blows of Sept. 11, 2001, in the same understated typography: "Flight 175 crashes into the south tower..." The contrast between the refined typography and palette and the brutality of the words is wrenching. Without blaring headlines or imagery, this minimalist design taps into the reader's memory of that awful morning.