An image produced by the trio at the Critic has been chosen as the cover for the July 16 issue of Newsweek - barring any major world event - and was published online earlier this week to preview next week's edition.
Critic editor Joe Stockman, who worked on the project with designers Sam Stuchbury and Sam Clark, said producing an image forNewsweek was a "dream come true".
"To get to reach so many millions of readers with one of your images is incredible," he said.
Newsweek staff contacted Critic after seeing a picture of its June 4 issue on the Dutch blog coverjunkie, which profiles magazine covers from around the world.
After "quite a bit of work" recreating the image from the Critic issue, including taking photos of a Dunedin model, the trio received final approval from Newsweek last Friday.
"I got an email from their creative director saying he thought it was a really powerful image and thanking us for putting in the work."
Mr Stockman said having the cover used by such a large-circulation magazine was recognition for the work the Critic crew put into their own publication.
He said he was not at liberty to say how much the trio received for designing the cover.
"We weren't working for free, but it's not going to change our lifestyles or anything like that," he said.
Newsweek has a circulation of 1.5 million and claims a readership of 14 million readers. In contrast, Critic prints about 5000 copies each week and has a readership of about 19,000.
Mr Stockman said the image the Critic designers created sought to "invoke the weight of societal pressure on the individual, and its fracturing effect on the psyche".
