Design thread .... v.2

Hey Willie, thanks for the feedback. I realized the bottom cutline should have been ragged left as I was uploading it to this site, but it was too late to change it. Just a stupid oversight on my part.

As for the cutout ... well, it's sort of a gamer and sort of not. Since I took over at this weekly almost two years ago I've been making a strong push to discontinue traditional gamers from our coverage. We tried an experiment where we would publish true "gamers" on our web site at night after games, then publish more week-in-review/look-ahead stories in the actual paper. No one seemed to notice or care and it was WAAAYYYY more work for this one-man shop, so I stopped doing it. To get back to my original point, none of the stories on this page are "gamers" even though the headlines might read like it -- not sure if that changes your opinion of the cutout or not.

Thanks again for the feedback. I'm hoping for more, but understand this isn't the place for everyone to post their pages for criticism, a la the Writer's Workshop. I do miss the way the old Design Thread was before it devolved into an argument between BYH and everyone else. So I'll be on the lookout for pages I think are good or bad and try to post them here as often as I can. Hopefully we can keep the debate lively (and on topic).

 

Actually, Jay, that goes against what I've been told over the years, which that the eye moves in a clockwise circle, starting upper right. To lower right, to lower left, to upper left, then inside.

 

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It's been a while but I'm pretty sure I was taught the S theory like Jay (and that's what I was alluding to, though rather simplistically.

I didn't fully subscribe to it, though, because I always find myself going to the top left hand corner first (never top right) and then reading like a book, especially if there is a headline stripped across.

 

On Bob's page.
The CP package is good, nice way to dress it up and plenty of entry points. You might have thought about using a different font for the headline though.
My only complaint is pick a grid and stick with it.
The top third is six on six. Everything is bastarded, that isn't a bad thing, like in the CP, but I just like a consistent grid, so the story beside it would have been two on two.
I also like a cover when you don't have every thing jumping.
It might have been a time constraint, but instead of having that story in the bottom right hand corner, you might have thought about making that an art element and running the story inside.
If you had them, run the mugs of the six going to state, with their names and a graf on why and for what sport. Also include the listing of where the state tournament sites will be, then refer to the story inside.

 

OK, I understand it's not a true gamer, but ...

There's nothing I hate more than a cutout with a gamer.
Except maybe a cutout that's just floating on the page with no base.

 

Agreed. That girl is neither Bob Beamon nor an astronaut. She needs some sort of anchor, preferably standing on the line at the bottom of the story.

 

Hey guys, these are the four pages I designed for a small special section for the NJCAA Division III World Series. Our local JUCO hosted the tournament and is in it for the first time.

A few things: That is an ad at the bottom of the front page.

Also, I don't know why Page 2 looks like that. It's a normal broadsheet page.

Page 4 is ugly, I know, but we had to get a lot of info. on the teams in the tournament.

Bring on the critiques.

 

I really like the cover, aside from the ad, probably a couple too many lines of type, though. It can be hard to read white type on black.

Your photographer is obviously trying to do something different each time out but with all the shots either from the ground or on top of a stepladder, it's having the reverse effect. They all look the same.

For instance, the twins story provided an opportunity to do something original, yet it was another shot from the ground.

I don't really understand the One Shot or the greying of the page ... there doesn't seem to be a consistent theme with the package that I can tell. The photos don't match the title and I'm hoping the title matches the story which seems to be about firsts and not onlys.

I also don't understand the ...and twins.

Just to sum it up, it's all very pretty but it could have been better with a theme (even an ever-so-subtle one) to tie it all together.

Hope that helps.

 

I liked the page better the first time when Luke Knox did it a few weeks ago.

 

Wow. Not even two months apart.

 

On second thought, I don't know if it's that big a deal ... especially if the papers are vastly different in size and not even the same state. I "imitated" some of the bigger papers when I was coming up ... it can be a helpful tool, but you still have to learn why something works or doesn't work. As I said before about this section, there were a lot of unrelated components put together ... no consistency ... if you really want to grow as a designer you will learn how to come up with your own concepts that match your subject matter - not just because you saw somebody else do something cool.

It's a growing process.