Design thread

Re: Design thread *updated 10/4*

The fold is just a figurative demarcation line.

Separates priority from non-priority.

 

Re: Design thread *updated 10/4*

Doesn't even do that.

A story lower right is going to be noticed before a story upper left.

 

Re: Design thread *updated 10/4*

I swear I'm the exception to those rules.

I notice the stuff along the top, then the centerpiece, then go left to right, top to bottom, like I read. I don't go clockwise.

 

Re: Design thread *updated 10/4*

My sight doesn't work that way either, IJAG.

shotglass, I am not contesting the theory, but where is this from?

 

Re: Design thread *updated 10/4*

There actually have been tons of studies. It's a proven thing. I just don't fit in that way.

It's something like the average reader sees (shottie, correct me if I'm wrong) headlines, then pictures, then cutlines, then finally copy. And it's all done clockwise.

 

Re: Design thread *updated 10/4*

Yes. And I can't quote where I've seen them. It's just been knocked into me since college and beyond.

 

Re: Design thread *updated 10/4*

Oh yeah...and apparently a picture of a baby polar bear would draw the most attention. I can't remember why...but it would.

 

Re: Design thread *updated 10/4*

Give me a front page with a baby, a beautiful girl or a baby polar bear, and I'll give you a front page that sells. -- William Randolph Hearst.

 

Re: Design thread *updated 10/4*

Then again, he said that the big headline makes it the big news.

 

Re: Design thread *updated 10/4*

HE WAS RIGHT.

 

Re: Design thread *updated 10/4*

I'm new here, so I apologize for being opinionated right off the bat. Anyway, I think people automatically scream that they hate shaded boxes because they were taught by some d-bag managing editor to hate them. See, the ME went to a convention where a speaker from some Insitute or Thinktank or Prestigious University told them screens were passe (sp?).
Sometimes screens can look great. What you want to avoid is that blue screen, 1970s spot color look that is just plain cheesy. The screen in this thread looks fine and dandy to me.

 

Re: Design thread *updated 10/4*

Welcome, Dessens.

I would agree. Screens, used well, are very, very valid design tools.

The differentation people need to make, and many new designers don't, is the difference between real, earthy colors and "comic-book" colors. When I first started designing, I remember doing a six-column story box with plain 100% yellow and plain 100% cyan. Needless to say, it was awful.

But you do a colored grey (like 8-8-8-0, not 8 percent black), or a light tan or sepia, screens work.

Best thing a design guru can do, and what ours did when we redesigned, was to create a color palette for the newspaper. A LIMITED color palette. We have just four colors that are acceptable for screens, about 18 colors overall. We make exceptions if we want to nail school colors in a graphic or something like that, but that's the only time.