News Design School » Design

Alternate story formats aid newspaper layouts

Bob — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:56:56 +0000

I am a real believer in presenting information in a variety of ways. Good newspaper design almost requires you to do this.

Whether you use a map, an information graphic, photo, photo/story, a story or whatever, you need to be sure you are using the best tool for the story-telling job at hand.

I am also a big fan of alternate story formats or ASFs. This photo or visual based presentation of a story was very popular some years ago, but it seems that some papers have forgotten about using it.

Here is an example and how it was done in a brief video.

Culture and color in newspaper design

Bob — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 14:47:24 +0000

I was looking through the Newseum list of front pages this week when it occurred to me that culture has a lot to do with the colors used in newspaper pages and maybe even the design awards newspapers win.

The Brazilian and Mexican pages, for instance, were alive with lots of bright reds, oranges and yellows. The German papers were, on the whole, more type heavy, less colorful. I realize that this is oversimplification at its finest, but it got me to thinking about papers in the U.S. How do they reflect our various cultures? Or do they at all? Does culture play a part in what’s considered good newspaper design?

What’s your take? Share your pearls of wisdom below the samples.

Handy dingbat fonts for newspaper design

Bob — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 20:27:29 +0000

I love dingbat fonts as a replacement for clip art. So much of the free clip art — heck, even the paid clip art — available on the web is tacky. At best. One can actually find some great stuff in dingbat fonts.

They are highly scalable, easy to keep track of (hey, they are fonts), and have many uses. A good listing of some of the best can be found here. I love the ink splots and the butterflies.

I discussed how to use them for clip art and how to colorize them in a past post.

Enjoy!

Don’t just phone it in

Bob — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 14:10:06 +0000

I live in Jacksonville, Florida, home of the National Football League’s Jaguars. The players have received lots of criticism recently for seemingly not showing up for the games and playing with a lack of intensity.

In other words, people think they are just “phoning it in.” People also think this is especially egregious because of the millions of dollars many of the players make.

I don’t think anyone, even the lowest paid worker in the country, ought to just phone it in. You owe it to yourself, and not to anyone else, to work your hardest, to do your best every day. That’s a great question to ask yourself at the end of the day: did you do your best?

As a journalist involved with newspaper design, it is easy to just toss together a page instead of considering whether you are telling the stories of the day in the best way possible. Each day is an incredible challenge to bring readers the best presentation, given the facts, and whether it is on A-1 or B-12.

In today’s world, newspaper design is incredibly important, even though many publishers don’t seem to think so. It can make the difference between keeping or losing readers.

Get excited about the important work you do on behalf of the readers. Don’t just phone it in.

Typography basics for newspaper designers

Bob — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:38:05 +0000

One of the biggest problems I see with newspaper journalists new to newspaper design is the lack of understanding about type and how to adjust it.

Here is a short video I made last year to try to introduce newbies to some of the InDesign adjustments one can make to improve the looks of their pages.