Design thread .... v.2

I'm going the other way on the CP border. I think it makes the page pop.

 

I only did the CP, and I work on the copy desk in news, and was doing this on deadline, while i had an assignment as well, and was asked for a cutout to do as well...

 

Agreed.

 

Here's my sports front for Sunday. Rip it up.

 

At first glance the design is attractive ... and the cp looks like you put some thought into it. However, that headline is under the photo is horrific. I got caught on it three times before I could decipher it.

 

Fixed. Thanks man.

 

Not to hark on headlines, but I don't get the period.

Also I think you've got an awesome photo so why go with a loud frame that distracts from it?

 

Agreed. The period is unnecessary.

And why do all the photos seem so washed out? Some of the colors pop and others look like they are shaded to 50 percent.

 

It has to do with our press (or lack thereof). The photographers have to lighten their photos so much it's criminal because our ancient hunk of steel prints too dark.

 

Gotcha. What's the deal with that photo? Was that taken by one of your staff photogs? If so, that's way too badass to crop off the edges of the fire blur and run with a distracting border. If my photog came back with that, I'd run it five columns wide and get it above the fold, then worry about how the rest of the layout falls into place. It feels like you wasted a great photo by getting too fancy with the rest of the package.

 

Staffer took that. He took the guy out next to the lake (in case anything important caught on fire) at dark and slowed the shutter speed down with the club head lit on fire (rubber cement, I'm sure).

I wish the fire was in a full circle, but that was his cropping to cut off the fire. I put a feather on the outside of the photo, but I didn't crop the photo. He didn't make it too big, but I ran it as big as I could. The photo's still above the fold, though. The way it printed, you can look at it and still get a good impact, but I see where you're coming from. I hate gray mostly text fronts, though, and I was scared that would happen without firing up the layout a little bit because I didn't have a lot to work with.

 

I can't believe a photographer would work that hard to get such a great shot and then crop it like that. Just weird to me, I guess.

I don't think it's a bad layout at all. In fact, I rather like it. I was just curious about the photo.