Willie Williams, known to U2.Commers for his road diaries and to everyone else for designing U2's live shows, is named an 'Innovator: Forging the Future' in the new edition of Time Magazine.

The global news weekly, celebrating visual artists who are 'showing us new ways to see and hear', recalls that in 1977 all Williams wanted to do was to 'get out of Sheffield, England.' He never looked back after hooking up with U2 in the early 1980's.

'Ever since, Williams, 46, has moved with U2 from clubs to arenas to stadiums, revolutionizing concert visuals at every step. From the seven Trabants (compact cars built in East Germany) he hung from the rafters of U2's early '90s Zoo TV tour to the giant beaded LED curtains of the recent Vertigo shows, he has turned concrete caverns into spaces that drip with mood. And when the music starts, Williams, who pioneered the integration of video and light into a single element, turns the sets into an extravaganza that enhances but never competes with the sound.'

Read the rest of the piece in Time here