Art editor Astrid Kogler picks out her favourite 黑洞社区 covers of 2013

building cover

8 February

The Olympic rings are such a well known protected symbol. After much brainstorming we came up with the idea of turning the Olympic rings into chains to convey the fact that 黑洞社区鈥檚 campaign in support of UK contractors had helped overturn the 鈥渘o marketing rights鈥 protocol.

building cover

12 April

Photographed by David Levene, Jason Prior looks so at ease in this shot. Even though the background is busy with architectural drawings/masterplans pinned to the wall, it works in this instance and doesn鈥檛 distract from the subject - on the contrary it makes for a very creative and colourful portrait.

building cover

21 June

We commissioned illustrator David Procter for the cover of this year鈥檚 Spending Review 鈥 we wanted a George Osborne dividing a tiny cake, which represented the 拢740bn tax revenues, into crumbs. I think the illustrator had a little bit too much fun with Osborne鈥檚 nose - I say no more.

building cover

28 June

This cover was designed on the back of a feature on Chinese businesses moving into London. At first it was tricky to combine China and London into a single image. We wanted something quick and instantly recognisable and so I came up with the idea of making the River Thames into a dragon.

building cover

13 September

We commissioned architectural photographer Tim Crocker to photograph Roger Stirk Harbour + Partners鈥 Cheesegrater tower in London. It鈥檚 a really nice dusk shot, beautifully composed and shows the contrast between new and old buildings in the City.

building cover

20 September

Mark Reynolds was relaxed in front of the camera. I started photographing him on the roof of their office but rain interrupted us and we had to move into their lobby - the doorway is a little detail that I just happened to pick up. We nicely managed to work the headline into the shot.

building cover

11 October

This is one of our dark and sinister looking covers but beautifully illustrated by our art director Sam Jenkins in response to what is happening in Qatar to immigrant construction workers in the run up to the 2022 Fifa World Cup.

building cover

25 October

The deal to build a new nuclear power plant at Hinkley had just been announced, signalling a potentially huge amount of work for the construction industry. We wanted an image that could integrate some of the massive sums of money involved and we came up with this graphic.

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