--- title: Time Magazine Covid Winter Cover Illustration description: How London-based artists Sean Freeman and Eve Steben created the illustration for TIME's "Covid Winter" cover. canonical: https://time.com/5914074/covid-winter-time-cover/ author: D.W. Pine article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-11-19T22:22:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:55:33.951Z article:section: Health og:title: The Story Behind TIME's 'Covid Winter' Cover og:description: How London-based artists Sean Freeman and Eve Steben created the illustration for TIME's "Covid Winter" cover. og:url: https://time.com/5914074/covid-winter-time-cover/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfdd729138a89947/698a147b09208fcdaf417639/INT_TIM201130_EUROPE.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1875 og:image:height: 1055 og:image:alt: The Covid Winter Time International Magazine Europe cover 201130 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Story Behind TIME's 'Covid Winter' Cover twitter:description: How London-based artists Sean Freeman and Eve Steben created the illustration for TIME's "Covid Winter" cover. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfdd729138a89947/698a147b09208fcdaf417639/INT_TIM201130_EUROPE.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Story Behind TIME's 'Covid Winter' Cover > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [D.W. Pine](https://time.com/author/d-w-pine/)  ## D.W. Pine Pine is the Creative Director at TIME. Nov 19, 2020 10:22 PM UTC  Photo-illustration by Sean Freeman and Eve Steben for TIME  by [D.W. Pine](https://time.com/author/d-w-pine/)  ## D.W. Pine Pine is the Creative Director at TIME. Nov 19, 2020 10:22 PM UTC For this week’s cover on [how Americans are reacting to the current surge in covid-19 cases](https://time.com/5913620/covid-third-wave/), we turned to London-based artists Sean Freeman and Eve Steben to capture the bleak forecast ahead. The duo, who form [There Is Studio and specialize in combining typography and photo illustration](https://www.thereis.studio/), created an eerie, foreboding sense of isolation with a frosted window outside their east London home.  Artist Eve Steben creates the cover for the Nov. 30 / Dec. 7, 2020, issue of TIME. Courtesy of Sean Freeman “Creating a cover about lockdown while in lockdown is an interesting artistic and production challenge,” says Freeman, who produced the image in less than a day. “We created this against the clock, within our own small isolation bubble —using our own windows, as well as a tremendous amount of prop snow, shot during a grey, but rather warm London day.”  Artist Sean Freman works on the Nov. 30 / Dec. 7, 2020, issue of TIME. Courtesy of Sean Freeman This is the eighth TIME cover Freeman has designed, including the iconic [“Bitter Pill” cover (Mar. 4, 2013)](https://time.com/198/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/) and the [“Last Days of Osama Bin Laden” cover (May 7, 2012)](https://swampland.time.com/2012/04/26/the-last-days-of-osama-bin-laden/).  Photo-Illustrations by Sean Freeman for TIME “We’ve felt the harsh reality of covid quite personally here with Eve getting seriously ill from it at the beginning of the pandemic, as well as some friends and family catching it here and abroad,” added Freeman. “On the other hand, the situation also brought some positivity for us.” “Enjoying life at a different pace, also this heartwarming sense of community, cooperation and camaraderie that covid has brought in our neighborhood and beyond, have been a solace. 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