Design thread

Re: Design thread *Updated 12/3*

I've done a few of those cutouts that I think worked, but usually, it's when someone is pointing or has an arm extended... i don't know, maybe I'm crazy.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 12/3*

Nah dude, I trust you.

I could see it where, like you said, there's some kind of extension from the photo...here, especially on the Lehigh photo, there's no such deal, and it looks odd.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 12/3*

I'm not as bothered about the top photo fading into white and then the rule. Though it's not connected to the rule, it gives a feeling that it's tied to the box because it's fading into it.

The bottom ones look awful.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 12/3*

ok, why don't you folks help out and say what they should have done differently to make this a better page?

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 12/3*

I wouldn't have used a cutout for the centerpiece. While in some cases it's OK to fade out to white on a cutout, I always like to ground the persons legs, etc. into a rule. Here it just looks like he's floating.

I think you could keep the top portion of the page as is, except use a horizontal photo with the story on the right.

As for the bottom part, the art hed/kicker hed is much too small. Headline hierarchy is definitely missing in this case, but I think if you made the art hed larger it could help the package. The idea of a cutout on each side isn't a BAD one, I just think they need to be full cutouts instead of just appendages emerging from the photo. Also, the gutter between the two stories in this package is way too wide so it forces the stories apart. Why bother linking them with the same art hed then?

Also, the use of full cutouts would negate the need for three-line cutlines at the bottom of that package which seem extremely unnecessary and too wordy.

The dek/sub hed on the left of the bottom package also needs to run the width of the columns like the one on the right instead of following the clipping path on the cutout.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 12/3*

what if he isn't using quark? or doesn't want the little martian guy to come out and zap the stuff?


the thing about cutouts, as I've learned, is to use them sparingly and for a reason (see the shawn alexander page). you want some action, something to wrap the text around.

here, you have none of that.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 12/3*

I always encourage designers to show initiative and try and come up with creative and fresh designs.

However, it's always nice to have someone tell you that what you've done just doesn't work. Though sometimes I just want to take Photoshop away for a while ...

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 12/3*

I guess my first instinct about this page comes from the flag . . . FOCUS. Yes, the cutout on the centerpiece is big, but there are about four or five elements competing for attention on this page. The column si is just really not working. Is this a specialty sig for this colunm only, and if o, why. Either way, it is different enough for me to look at it and wonder why I am spending time looking at the back of someone's bald head. Then you have the rail on the side that really should just get out of the way since it is the least worth info on the page, but it is brought out to the forefront with a bold color screen. Then you have the competing cutouts at the bottom that, while they provide a bit iof symetry on the page, just don;t work for the reasons specified above. There's a bunch of competing going on and for no apparent reason. A page headed off with football focus has very little.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 12/7*

From the Plain Dealer:



I like what they did with the Braylon Edwards package. Panels are always a refreshing change, in my opinion.

Thoughts?

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 12/7*

dammit, I'm good enough to design for the Plain Dealer.

Ok now that that's out of the way.


I, too, like the Edwards package. Is it me or is the bugger on top of the Edwards package too light?

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 12/7*

I like the page. The images tell the story and that's not something most papers can coordinate well because you don't always get the shots you want.

One nit ... all the art is horizontal or square-ish. Wouldn't it be nice to have something vertical in contrast?

That's all.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 12/7*

As much as I dispise Cleveland (for football reasons anyway), I like the page. I really like the sequence of shots, but I'm not sold that it tells the story. I guess I'm looking for more of an awkward bend in the knee in that last shot, and the bend is missed altogether. The final shot is of him moving to the other leg. If it tells the story, it missed it on that last one. However, for the semantics of the page, I think it is a very clean and clever take on the game.