Here is a quote from a newspaper design expert aimed at helping you do a better job of laying out your pages tomorrow:
“Each design decision must reflect the spirit, mood and meaning of the story or stories being displayed. The design should reflect the philosophy of the content of the paper. The philosophy of a paper reflects the audience it serves. Then, the design reflects the content.”
Huh?
I have a lot of respect for this person, but the statement smacks of what is wrong with the field of newspaper design in general and the Society for News Design in particular: It doesn’t really tell you what you should do in hands-on, practical terms.
Philosophy of the content? When I am covering garden club meetings, school board schedules and the local golf course annual tournament? What exactly does “design reflects the content” MEAN? How does knowing that help me put this darn thing together?
Here is a tip that will really help you in a more practical way. More are coming in the next few weeks.
Create spacing guidelines. Good newspaper design is based on a rigid grid, which is basically just a series of horizontal and vertical lines to which you align your content. Your body type is basically horizontal lines, spaced incredibly precisely with your linespacing number and aligned on one or both sides of the column just as precisely.
The design falls apart when you don’t follow the same precision when you place the various elements — stories, headlines, photos, cutlines, etc. — on the page. InDesign’s snap-to grid command can help (although sometimes it actually gets in the way), but it’s frequently up to you to place the elements with the proper spacing.
Create written guidelines for how much space you want between elements on your page. Then follow them. The general philosophy is to have comparatively more space between unrelated elements than between related elements. Your basic spacing should be your column gutter, which is usually between 1 pica and 1p6.
Here are some examples, if your gutters are a pica:
- space beneath the nameplate and section flags to first element: 2p
- space between a headline and the story it goes with: 1p (give or take a smidgen, depending on type size)
- space above a headline to the element above: 1p6
- space framing an element inside a box: 1p6
- use 3p or so to give extra framing white space to special packages on section fronts
This approach will give your layouts the look of professional consistency while guaranteeing you build in enough white space to let your content breathe a bit.
Finally, this doesn’t have to be incredibly time consuming. I imagine you are thinking about having to drag those doggone guides from the rulers and trying to set those up right. There’s an easier way.
spacing boxes
Make a number of boxes (I use the color red) that are the various sizes you need on your page: 1p, 1p6, 2p, 3p, etc. Put them on the pasteboard or in your ID library for ease of use. When you need to space properly, drag one to the spot on the page, scoot the elements to the proper distance and then drag the box back to the side.
I have a brief little video that shows you exactly how to do this. Have fun!
If you have any questions or comments, e-mail (bob
newsdesignschool
com) me. I’d be happy to help.
If you liked this post, take a look at these 5 tips for newspaper layout.
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