There seems to be a misconception in the newspaper business that changes in your design require a lot of work and/or an outside consultant. It doesn’t have to be that way. Here are four things you can do right now – on your own – to improve your newspaper’s design. And they are not even directly connected to design.
1. PLANNING. The best design work occurs before the stories are ever turned in. This early stage of the issue is critical for effective design, and it underlines the fact that good design is not a cosmetic add-on or a frill.
Basically, you are just doing what you always have done: deciding how to present your information. Previously, the decision was largely whether you would send a reporter or a photographer to cover an event. Today, however, you need to consider many more choices: maps, information graphics, photographs, alternate story forms, polls, even audio or video for your web site and so on.
Take an afternoon away from your normal duties and see what you can do to enhance the system. What can you do to increase effectively the planning procedures? Is there a form you can use to get people to think about visual presentation early on? Can you create a stylebook/guide for reporters on how to create various ALTs?
This will pay off in better and easier design.
2. STOCK PHOTOS. Small newspapers usually don’t have the ability to be creative with photos. The secret here is to go to free stock photo sites and grab some photos ahead of time. Sure, you can search on deadline, but it makes sense to go ahead and grab some good photos for your library when you get a minute. Take the time to tag them well for searching later.
Then use the art in the paper and in staff blogs. The creative use of photos should not be limited because you don’t have adequate staff.
3. CLIP ART: Another time-saver – given the poor quality of clip art on the web – is to use clip art fonts. These are simply fonts that consist of scalable graphics. You can find all sorts of these by doing a Google search. An example is discussed at: http://tinyurl.com/yaoa2ff. There are a lot of free art and icon sites on the web. Again, get it ahead of time and put it in your library.
Because the art can be used as large as you wish, you have all sorts of options. You can use it as feature art on a special package or as small glyphs in an ALT package. Who needs an artist?
4. IMPROVE YOUR PRESS: Although it seems obvious, your design is only as good as your printing. Muddy photographs and poor color registration can ruin an otherwise good design.
Work with the pressroom folks to improve quality of printing. Check the inking of each unit, check the dot gain, check the color registration. Be sure you are preparing your photos correctly in PhotoShop. Basically, if you are not constantly improving your printing, you are getting worse. It is very easy to just accept the status quo. Bring your pressroom personnel onto the design team and challenge them to improve. Your newspaper will look better if you do.
I was going to list a fifth, non-design design improvement, but I couldn’t decide what to include. What do you think?
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Owner, News Design School
How about Better Communication for number five.
This could be as simple as getting designers into the editorial loop right from the get go.
Designers need to be asking questions and getting involved with the stories right from the moment they are pitched. Being able to openly communicate with editors and reporters to brainstorm different ways of telling the story visually will undoubtedly lead to a better final product.
Good point. Bringing in the visual people early on is a terrific idea. The visual people need to push it a bit, but the newsroom editors need to be the ones to make it happen.