Design thread

I'm not a big fan of running photos with one-column stories. I try to reserve the one-column spaces on each rail for stories without art. When you run it with a photo (like you have above), a casual glance implies that the photo of blazing fire goes with your "County to air drug-testing policy" story (despite the rule you've used to separate them). If you've got good art (like the oil fire) and a lengthy story (like "Energy company hits gusher") you should find a different location for it and run a boring story without art down the rail.

Another quick thing. When you slap a deck on a story (like "County to air drug-testing policy") make sure the story is deep enough to support the deck. In the example above, there's only two lines of copy after the byline before it jumps back up to the next column. That's not enough for my taste.

Sorry if it seems like I'm being harsh. I'm just trying to give you some constructive criticism. I like most of what you've done, but a few minor things here are just pet peeves of mine.

 

Wish I could have left the quote box in the bottom story, but the whole story fit and didn't have much jump room, and enough jump to warrant leaving it.... oh well.. opinions would be nice.

 

I don't have a hell of a lot of experience in page design (about a year) , but I think your pages are pretty good. On this last one, however, I can't understand why the bottom story is only 5 columns in a 6-column layout.. I think it looks a little weird to me.
Don't get me wrong, your pages are really good, this isn't me destroying your work. I just wondered your thought in designing this page.

 

I actually think it would have been wrong if you ran six legs on six columns. Doing that would have created a gutter with the one-column story above it.

I like the way you're putting more air in your centerpieces. If it's not against your paper's style, try centering the text inside your quote boxes.

 

The only reason is I just simply wanted to run it five over six... It makes copy look different than the one column story on the left hand side and the center piece story.. Gives the copy a different look than just the normal one column format.. I like to use bastard measures at times...

 

yeah, we do ragged right on our quotes.. already tried that... i did centered quote boxes at my old gig.. but oh well...

 

i like (being a) bastard, too

 

word... i think the last page i've posted is the ninth section front i've done at the new gig. and i've been there since early-march. before that i was laid off from my previous gig for over 4 months, so i'm still getting "used" to paginating again... if that makes sense.

 

didn't really like the way this page turned out, but oh well...