Design thread

Re: Design thread *Updated 2/25*

The San Jose Mercury News has been doing daily wraps for the Olympic coverage.

This is one of my favorites:



Thoughts?

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 2/25*

Pretty nice. The bottom things have too much type, however.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 2/25*

Carrie, glad you brought those up.

As much as I tired of these Olympic Games, I could look at the Oly sections from the Merc, Plain Dealer and Boston Globe (to name just a few)every day. Some great stuff being done. And SJ was consistently clean, smart and kept it simple. FWIW, I don't think it's too much type at the bottom; those look like mostly standing items and not inside refers, so it seems an appropriate amount of space to tell a quick-hit story.

I liked a lot of their covers, and I'll add my favorite here as well.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 2/25*

Maybe it's just because I saw it a ton during my recent time in Syracuse, but don't those stories at the bottom look like the stories that run on the cover of the redesigned Guardian?

Again, it could just be me.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 2/25*

I like the Jacobellis/hockey page better than the Coehn page but have a couple pronlems with both.

The type wrap under the photo at the top of the page just drives me crazy

The left rail on the Cohen page has way too much going on....why do you need 2 drop heds, that stupid square pic, and two cutouts yet only about an inch-and-a-half of type?

I like the bottom highlights/reefer package just fine

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 2/25*

I agree with the man.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 2/25*

Thanks, all, for the (mostly) kind words about our Olympics wraps. It's been an adventure, and today's my 16th straight day designing them, so I'm more than a bit rummy at this point, but I'll try to clear up at least one thing... and then get out of the way to allow more discussion on these and other pages.

I thought we layered this package about as well as we could have while still getting a strong presence for a great photo.

If you'll look closely, each of the dropheds conveys a different bit of the story: The first one expands on the main hed's idea to get more detail on the falls. The second one talks about the winner, who was featured in the lead photo on 1A that day, and also in that "stupid square pic." Since we used a story focused on both Cohen and Arakawa, we thought it important to get Arakawa's face out there, too. The cutouts perhaps didn't work, but they added another bit of information we couldn't get into display type elsewhere: That the two other American skaters finished sixth and seventh.

And, for the record, that's about 4.5 inches of type; only slightly less than the 5 inches we usually shoot for here.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 2/25*

There is no way that is 4.5 inches of type.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 2/25*

Good explanation tball but still far too many elements for my taste. US skaters who finised sixth and seveth in cutouts? Who cares.
And those little square pics are another pet peeve of mine. I just don't like them and it's one more "layer" before you get to any copy.
Trying to get everything out there can get distracting.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 2/25*

You're right: I just opened the page up in CCI and that is, in fact, exactly 4 inches.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 2/25*

A very elegant page. To my eye, not too distracting at all, nor too many elements.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 2/25*

Almost every page can benefit from having one element removed. The cutouts of the also-rans on the Merc page (two pages up) qualify for that treatment.

(Edit: Crap, I hit a page break. I'm talking about the page with the figure skaters. :-\ )