Design thread

Re: Design thread *Updated 1/28*

Some papers have a policy on all ragged-right fronts. I like it. Let the words breathe, especially for a one-column element.

The score bugs are not sharp.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 1/28*


A dinosaur like me just isn't into the whole "white space" menality that seems to have taken hold of today's designers.

Yes, in a front-page centerpiece it can have a nice effect.

But people at my paper these days are creating white space just for the sake of white space. The other day we had a hockey jump with a photo on a usually tight NHL page. The jump was given a generous 2-pica border on each side of the rule (which means it was 3 picas removed from the pieces of type immediately to the left and right.

Because of that, a photo that could have run 22 picas instead runs 20. May not sound like a lot, but that's a 10-percent reduction in a photo that was already a little small to begin with. And for what? What are we gaining by making "design" decisions like this?

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 1/28*

"Amen," says the choir.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 1/28*

I'm not so much for the balanced white space thing as I've come to like extra air between stories, a little extra vertical space. I've seen how that can work well. But only if it separates two disparate subjects; that's the reason I do it.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 1/28*

I had the occasion to read today's New Mexican, so I was able to see the inside sports pages. The centered subheads and centered mug shot captions are still killing me, but here's what really got me: all the 'notes' sections have the first brief in a serif font and the remaining briefs in a sans-serif font. Same point sizes, within the same copy block. My eyes were in pain.

To balance, I did find the structure of both the sports front and insides to be very solid and easy to navigate. Good use of dominant art and smaller pics.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 1/28*

A question for those that have kids signing letters of intent. Where do you play those? We are going to have two-three big stories on our front page of kids signing to D-I schools and the local D-II college. I've been stirring things around in my head, but part of me just doesn't think this is as big as we are playing it up to be. We're not talking USC or Texas here, just a D-I program. Where does your paper run these stories and how do you treat them?

Thanks in advance

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 1/28*

We do that with our roundups, Cadet ... lede in regular body type, drop to sans-serif for later games. Saves a good deal of space, have heard no complaints on readability. Then again, we do leave a line of white space between each straight add, so that might help.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 1/28*

We're doing a live special section, but we also have something like 73 local kids signing with D-I schools.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 1/28*

We run capsules of our nine local/area schools and package those cheesy two-column signing day photos with each of those caps. We also run our top 100 100 national, state and regional lists as well as other local non-football signings.

We don't run stories except for an overall feature on the tone of the signing day and a feature on the Class of 2007 that's coming up.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 1/28*

It's taking up 10 columns here for Thursday's paper.

We're doing separate 15" stories on our three state schools, each with recruit lists, and about 45 inches of player caps on the university here in town (yikes) ... plus a state overview story with huge destination list and a short national overview from AP.

We are running one of the cheesy signing-day shots, and I feel dirty even for that.  ;D

EDIT: Also, for the record, none of this stuff is taking up space on our cover, which is a good thing.

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 1/28*

I'm not a regular designer, just a capable dabbler, but I'd like to know what the pros think about the Freep's Super Bowl pages (the template, not this page in particular):



I think the XL "The Game" topper is grotesque. The cutout's odd-looking mixed in the pastel-colored XL, and it's so gaudy that it's ridiculous. Am I alone in this, or should the Freep have eased up a smidge?

 

Re: Design thread *Updated 1/28*

There is waaaaaay too much going on at the top of that page.
It's making me dizzy.