Learning page design

Yup, this is one of the things I've picked up just by watching other people do pages. Interesting concept with the vertical cutline. Our shop ends up redesigning the page when that happens.

 

Side-saddle cutlines are the devil.

 

I was just going to say ... they can come in handy, but they usually look like crap. Seems newer designers use them as a crutch. I know I did when I was at a smaller paper. Not a fan at all.

 

Get this book and read it: "The Newspaper Designer's Handbook" (Tried to post an amazon link but you can easily find it with a search).

Doesn't matter what edition. New editions cost a bundle so get an older used one unless you're independently wealthy. Lots of good practical information and what-to-do/what-not-to-do examples. Will probably give you 9/10 of what you would've learned in college.

Another one that is not newspaper specific but very helpful for learning some basic concepts of graphic design is "White Space is Not Your Enemy."

 

Yes, I learned more from this book than I did in the college course I bought it for.

 

I actually ordered it around the same time I started this thread. Just came in the mail today.

 

When are we gonna see some pages?

 

One more tip is to learn your design program, as in really learn it. Find all the keyboard shortcuts. Learn them and use them. Learn how style sheets and libraries work so you can make your own or get the most of the ones that are there.

This will take time and practice but you still have to work at it. This might be no-brainer advice to some but I have been shocked over my career to see how many editors have never advanced past Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V, use the mouse to do everything, don't have good templates, libraries or style sheets to support their workflow, etc.

They spend 20 seconds to do something you could do in 2 seconds, and that adds up when you do it 200 times a night. The less time you spend navigating through the program, the more time you will have to put all the other principles into practice, and make your pages look good.

 

Yep. Efficiency is a designer's best friend. Creativity requires time.

 

I'll second this. Easy to follow, learn and then keep as a guide for ideas. Like BDC, I got more out of this book than an entire semester of News Editing.

Every time Harrower's book comes up, though, I have to add a caveat. The gentleman doesn't really give a whole lot of thought to Eastern deadlines. I remember one part where he says you cannot begin designing a page until you have all the elements in hand.

That's crazy talking.

 

I work with a designer who thinks this way. It's maddening. Just draw the boxes early, then adjust if necessary. It's much easier to adjust on the fly than to build from scratch at the last minute.

 

If efficiency is the best friend, then Ctrl-Z is a damn good drinking buddy.