Design thread

Re: Design thread *Updated 3/25*

No reason to put names out in the open.

I'm sure there are designers who think every single design is brilliant - just as I'm sure there are writers who think every single word is pure gold. But to generalize that all or the majority of them are that way is wrong. I don't know a single designer who won't admit to designing a page that just didn't work. In fact, this very threat seems to prove that since there's lot of good discussion both commending and critiquing designs.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 3/25*

And a lot of murderous-rage hate ...

I'd post one of my pages, but there really ain't much special about them.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 3/25*

As a page designer, I don't think that everything we do works. In fact, I think a lot of stuff I do DOESN'T work. I'll just say that our pages are set up THE DAY BEFORE, so things sometimes stories don't fit into the nice neat package I have thought up, so I have to go back in and change things. I have put plently of pages out that I am not proud of, mainly because they don't look as good as they could. But hell, they work, all the copy is there, and we are on time or EARLY on deadline. The claim that designers don't work hard is a load of shit, plain and simple.
Personally, I don't think DP is a deisnger, I think he's a writer. I don't think that his views come from a hatred for designers, but maybe from sitting in a room with a consultant that tried to tell him and the rest of the paper how things should look, and that look displeased him.
If I'm work DP, I apologize and would like you to correct me on your background.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 3/22*

I agree. Too often designers are asked to sugarcoat bad content over and over. Tricking readers into thinking this is a great package, because it has a nice cutout or burned in headline. 

Personally I am sick of reading some newspaper columnists old take on something that happened 3 days ago, with regurgitated opinions we have heard 3-6 times in other places already.  But its those same columns we are asked to make look good over and over, because supposedly readers care what our hack columnists have to say, even though its rerun opinions or old facts. (Did you know theres a sandwich named after Roethlisberger---- you would have found out in our piping hot story this year)

You can get blogs or TV commentary on something minutes or hours after events, but newspaper columnists feel the need to do it 2 days from the event, which lands on doorsteps 3 days after. (Thats how it is at my paper anyway)

I always look to the Wall Street Journal which has excellent content, but mostly a grey cover.

Drudgereport.com is one of the least "design-friendly" websites, but has great links and story placement, and huge hits.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 3/25*

What do you all think of these? The first is from the Gwinnett Post, the second from the Atlanta paper. Isn't there some kind of ethical problem here, especially given the fact that they're in the same market?

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 3/25*

I saw the Gwinnett page on Newsdesigner and my first thought was they liked the NCAA "Little Guys" page so much they just stole it.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 3/25*

I think the AJC page should be penalized for listing a No. 3 seed as a bracket buster and then using every cliche in the book on the cover.

Nothing like spending tons of time deciding on the cover and then taking 2 minutes to write the content for it!

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 3/25*

No problem with it. It's a cover for a special section, like a magazine cover. It's not supposed to have deeply-thought-out copy on it.

But the AJC clearly botched the middle uniform choice --- Gonzaga doesn't count as a bracket-buster anymore. In retrospect, Mason would have been the proper choice but at the time of publication nobody could have predicted a Final Four run for that team1. You could have made a good case for UW-Milwaukee.

1Or even surviving the first weekend, for that matter.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 3/25*

I can read Gonzaga and Bucknell. For the life of me I can't figure out what that third jersey is. Anyone?

Those look stunningly similar, indeed. Not sure about ethics but the Post looks kinda bad here, even if the idea is (gag me with a knife) cute.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 3/25*

I think the other jersey is Wichita State.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 3/25*

Given that these are about the sixth and seventh "little kid" special section covers I've seen around the country in the past year...including Houston and Minneapolis...

They're close. But different.

Closer than I'd be comfortable with, but I'm usually more touchy about this than most folks.

Ethics? They're not identical, just the same cliche, used to express different ideas.

It's the same as seeing "a little XXXX goes a long way" in the leads of a story on college hockey and a story on baseball.

To me, anyway...

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 3/25*

Wichita State.

EDIT: Dammit Smokey, beat me to it.