Design thread

Funny you should say that about the black box/yellow type. I hate it, too. But the SE made it, and mandated it be used every week during football season for two local games that didn't make the front page.

As for the cutout -- that's a fair criticism. I think in retrospect that the story would have looked better without the cutout, and instead with an info box like the one on the right side of the story above it.

The more I look at that page, the less I like it. The centerpiece is different, but not in a good way. I guess it's one of those things that's best tried and learned from.

 

For those of you wanting to check out some nice designs, Vince Chiaramonte of the Buffalo News just posted a bunch on NewsPageDesigner.com. I'm feeling particularly worthless right now. That dude has game.

 

His centerpieces are fantastic, as are his single-page covers. But on the regular fronts, his pages are very boring and grey outside the CP.

 

When I look at his centerpieces, I tend to forget there's a "rest of the page."

 

Don't you agree that's sort of a problem?

 

I wasn't serious. I was just saying that the guy is a hell of a designer, and his centerpieces rock. Are some of his pages heavy on the CP and not offering a lot of meat in the other areas? Maybe. But I looked at his pages he just posted, and I don't see the problem you mentioned in any of them. In fact, I think the biggest problem is those wide-ass columns they make them run.

 

I gotta disagree with you on Chiaramontet, too, Ellis. I love this guys stuff. His centerpieces are amazing. And as for the rest of the page, I don't see what you're getting at. His pages are clean, and while some of them are understated, I don't think it at all looks like he forgot the rest of the page. Maybe you could find an example and post it.

 

Blaze of Glory on Page 2, Patty's Day on Page 3 are the most glaring; especially with the stick going into the column on the left. I'm not knocking this guy at all. His stuff is waaaaay beyond what I can do at this point in my career; but I just feel there should be some incentive to glance at the rest of the page. I don't feel that way with some of his stuff. Just one man's opinion.

 

I can see where your coming from to a point, but I also know this: He's got to work with a cut-to-front column and still keep the page from getting cluttered. Too many gadgets, too many incentives, and the page will easily get cluttered, especially since one side of the page is going to be a column every day. A good designer knows when to add something extra and when to keep things clean. That's something I have problems with myself at times. Chiaramonte does a good job of keeping things balanced.

 

I don't think his stuff outside his centerpiece are all that plain, but I do think that perhaps his centerpiece is often so colorful and dominant that it mays you think the rest of his stuff is plain.

 

Here's one I think is good.

 

OK Rusty, I'll play.

Solid looking front. That's a lot of red. I'm assuming the type is more readable than it appears posted here. I don't like the frame around the package.

Not a big fan of scores in a headline; I'd rather drop that deck and get that into a subhead.

You think the prep art would work better in between the two stories and maybe move the fact box or whatever that is to the left side of the Cougars story instead of the right? Just a thought.