Design thread .... v.2

This is what I'm saying, too, UP. For instance, on that Kansas page, I would have maybe stripped a story across the top and then created a centerpiece with the Kansas package 5 columns wide. You could have put more white space on the sides by putting a half column on each side - I noticed on the other page that you ran some of the stories 1 1/2 columns, so you're not completely locked into the columns.

I find this incredibly difficult to explain on a message board.

 

Gotcha. After I posted that I had the feeling that Luft's was the name of the team, but my first instinct was that Luft was a person or a place and it was in possession of something ... in this case "lifts," which didn't make much sense. Thanks for clearing that up. My take on your pages is that they're very clean. I'm sure you don't enjoy having that left rail and it certainly limits your options. And I'm with W-B, those pull quotes need to go. They look very early-90s. Just lose the box and keep the runaround. White space is your friend.

 

Don't be afraid to fail. You learn by experimenting, and even the best designers don't bat 1.000. Ultimately, the biggest challenge, especially for a young designer, is to be creative WITHIN the particular guidelines of your paper's style and design.

 

I think I understand what you're looking for. Don't know if I'd be able to implement it. As it is, the only reason I would have been able to get away with as much space as I did was lack of local to fill the space. If my memory serves, we had to run the BCS title game inside because we had an all-local front.

And it's actually not 1 1/2, it's bastard rule (love that term), three columns on four.

 

lede art. bigger is better.

 

I'll throw one out there just for fun. This is last week's sports front. Shrinking ad revenue means no color, but feel free to critique away.



Bigger version here: http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a118/palmerjz/1B_040908_FGNT.jpg

 

It's a clean, simple page, but I have some minor issues. You don't need a softball label when the subhed mentions softball.

Also, the subhed on the centerpiece is way too long. If you can't get across what you want to say in a subhed in less than 12 or so words, then think of something else to say.

And this is a personal pet peeve of mine, but I strongly dislike putting something in the middle of two legs of copy. I'd have put the pull quote at the top of the second leg, but I'm sure others won't have a problem with it.

 

Yeah, it's a pretty standard page, but that's kind of why I posted it. Anyone can pull out all the stops for a big feature centerpiece or a national championship, but I like to measure page designers based on what they do during a typical week with nothing interesting or important going on. Do they mail it in or do they still put out a clean and balanced page that looks good? I was hoping to see what folks had to say about this page, so thanks for the input, Doc!

As far as the criticisms go, I agree that the subhead is too long. I should have trimmed it down to two decks. Not sure why I went so long with it. I disagree about the pull quote in between two legs of text thing -- I think two wide legs of text without any element to break them up looks really dull. Try to imagine those legs without the pull quote. I think it would look very gray and bland.

Whatever, was just hoping to get this thread off the ground again. It looked promising for a day or two, but maybe those were just involuntary muscle spasms before it dies for good.

 

No one's been posting their own pages, and I know I'm reluctant to post someone else's work, for the same reason jgmacg doesn't like people ripping apart stories in an unsolicited manner. As long as people keep posting their pages, I'll be happy to provide feedback.

 

Is there any way to post PDFs of your pages for design feedback?

 

You can post a link. Otherwise, you need to convert it to a JPG and upload it to photobucket or imageshack.

 

OK. I'll keep that in mind.