We have…a winner!

SOME GOOD NEWS came recently from Louise Red Corn, publisher-janitor-receptionist-designer-reporter-cook-clerk at The Bigheart Times in Barnsdall, OK.

“The Bigheart Times won 1st place in layout and design for our weight class, which is getting fatter by the week,  in 2009 from the Oklahoma Press Association. award to be made in Feb. we did win it before, in 2007, but this year we were going against some relative big boys since our circulation has tripled and the OPA reconfigured the circulation categories (we were at the small end of the middleweights). Just thought you’d wanna know!

Louise”

Of course I’d wanna know, and I’m delighted for Louise. The Bigheart Times was one of the papers I helped to redesign in 2009 under the Francis A. Henninger Grant Program (see my web site) and I’m deeee-lighted that Louise did so well in the Oklahoma Press Assn. awards.

I asked Louise to send me the winning pages. The last of these preceded the redesign. As you can see for yourself, the differences are somewhat subtle…but significantly better.

Pages from: Lee Swets | Memphis Business Journal

I’M HAPPY TO CALL Lee Swets, Design Editor at the Memphis Business Journal, a friend. We see each other only every few years but when we do, it’s like we’re just picking up where we left off in the same conversation.

Lee is one of my favorite designers, a guy who helps to set the framework, then works within it…and also knows just when to bend the rules. And how far to bend them.

The Memphis Business Journal is one of my favorite designs, and Lee is a big reason why. A couple of recent pages from Lee follow.

So…what are your thoughts? Like? Don’t like? What changes would you suggest?

Pages from: Patricia Parmer | The Lovell Chronicle

WELCOME TO Patricia Parmer of The Lovell Chronicle, a newcomer. Patricia’s front and jump pages follow, with her note (and my comments) below.

FROM PATRICIA: I have been following your blog for a while now, and am hesitant to offer up my pages, but here goes. I work at a small weekly newspaper in Wyoming, with a small staff, and writers who write very long stories. I think that’s enough said, you’ll see. Production has very little time to get the pages ready for proofing. The county attorney story was different because I had it a few days before deadline.

FROM ED: First…welcome. I’m glad you’ve joined us and I hope you won’t be hesitant in the future.

Some thoughts on your pages:

¬ It’s not something you control, but I’d suggest a new look for the nameplate. The lower case needs to be fixed and I’d look for a more stately typeface.

¬ Front page headline hierarchy seems reversed, with the larger headline at the bottom and smaller heads at the top.

¬ You’re right: the stories are long. That’s often more forgivable in a weekly because your readers can spend more time reading those stories. But there are ways to segment longer articles and we should always look for ways to do that.

¬ I’m not turned on by some of the art elements in your jump page graphic, but I applaud your strong effort here in putting it together. It’s a good explainer graphic and it certainly helps readers to understand the process. I think it was very much worth the time and thought you invested in it.

So…despite the longer stories, I think you’re doing your readers a good service. I’d certainly like to see more of your stuff as time goes by.

How about the rest of you…some thoughts to share with Patricia?

You win some…and you win some

EVERY MONTH, I NAME TWO WINNERS for participation in this blog. The first award is for best page submitted, the second for best comment.

This time, we have a double-double…because I forget to name January winners for submissions in December.

Each first-time winner will receive a free pdf copy of my first book, Henninger on Design. Two-time winners receive a free pdf copy of my second book, 101 Henninger Helpful Hints. Three times is a charm: You receive the undying gratitude of everyone who visits this blog! I mean…I only have the two books—for now.

December winners: Anne Clark, for her front page of The Catholic Miscellany and David Merrill, for his comments on Will Franklin’s All-Area football page. Anne and David are both first-time winners.

January winners: Michael Smith, for his penny page and Emily Killian for her comments on Marc Stumbo’s Haiti spread. Michael is a two-time winner and this is Emily’s first visit to the winner’s circle.

Congrats to all…and…watch your email!

Pages from: Michael Howie | Oakville Today

A NEWCOMER, MICHAEL HOWIE of Oakville Today, offers us two recent front pages. (FYI, a check of Google maps shows North Oakville on the western shore of Lake Ontario, between Toronto and Hamilton, Canada.) Michael’s comments follow, with some notes from yrs. truly.

FROM MICHAEL: Love the blog – my GM introduced me and we both check it and your website regularly. Thought I’d submit two of our front pages. We’re in a unique situation as we have a short tabloid front with a bunch of ads on the front – five lugs along the left side and a banner on the bottom. We recently changed our header to a 10 (full width) x 20ish ag. Previously we had four lugs down the left, a double lug on the top right and a short banner above the top of the page. Our banner was getting lost. The change has helped, but I’m still curious to hear from you and your readers for comments and ideas, keeping in mind that it is well outside my ability to change the lugs on the left of the page.

FROM ED: Thanks for submitting the pages, Michael. Here’s hoping you’ll continue to do so regularly. I’ll focus my comments on the ads and nameplate. I appreciate that there’s not much you can do about the ads. They’re a  fact of life. I would tell your GM, though, that the ads as designed are a hodge podge and that tends to cheapen the product (Oakville Today itself) in which you are selling them. Advertisers probably don’t see that, though. I also trust that your GM is getting a hefty percentage bounce for the page 1 ads. One suggestion: Separate the ads from the news area of the page a bit buy creating a buffer with more space. Perhaps a 4-6 point gray rule. The nameplate really needs work: The green and yellow are garish and the type isn’t consistent (compare the cap “A” in “Oakville” with the cap “A” in “Today”). According to the internet (www.insidehalton.com/aboutus): ”North Oakville is one of the wealthiest areas in Canada and the residents have enjoyed Oakville Today since 1984.” If so, the nameplate needs some upscaling so your paper will appeal to a more affluent readership.

Thanks again for your submission. Now, let’s see what others have to say!

Page from: Kristin Coker | The Times and Democrat

ONE OF OUR FAVORITE designers, Kristin Coker, offers this page for your review and comment. Kristin’s note and my comments follow.

FROM KRISTIN: I thought I would send a fun page along. That meaning I had a lot of fun designing this page. I had originally planned a centerpiece encompassing all 20 photos and I realized that that wasn’t going to work the way I wanted it to. So . . . plan B emerged. I decided to cutout the main two villain and hero survivors and use some of the other mug shots for the lists below. It looked good but I thought It was missing something. So, I used one of the leftover pictures and blotted out the person in the picture and smudged it a bit for the top. I loved the effect but would love to see what others think.

FROM ED: I really like the middle (the two larger photos) and the bottom of the page (the lists of heroes and villains). I especially like the way you organized the two lists at the bottom. Very easy to follow. But then, I realize there are 10 names in each list and only six photos. So, I’m left wondering “What’s up widdat?” Then, when I look at the top of the page, I see parts of trees missing and this open white space in the middle and I’m wondering “What’s up widdat?” So, I’m a bit confused. One last criticism: There are seven lines of type at the top of the page, starting with “The Times and Democrat” and working down to the last line of the head. Perhaps this would not have been so pronounced if you had placed a line under the date, but it’s just too much typography for me. Sorry, Kristin. You know I admire your work…but I think this isn’t one of your better efforts.

Now, let’s see what others say. And, yes, you’re certainly welcome to argue my points!

Page from: Marc Stumbo | The Beacon

AN OCCASIONAL CONTRIBUTOR to this blog is designer Marc Stumbo, who offers the following spread from The Beacon for your review and comment.

Marc’s note and my comments follow.

FROM MARK: Our reporter turned in a 1,700 word story, from which I culled the sidebars. The bishop story is CNS generated and the CRS side was put together from various items by our editor.

I went for balance but not as much symmetry as my last submission. I used a wide gutter (1p6) as I usually do in a spread to make maneuvering around the page easier for the eye. Sidebars are in Frutiger with a little stylized line above/below to help separate them from the body type. Only one photo hits a fold. The gutter between pages is just 3p, so on each side of the vertical fold is the same width (1p6) as a column gutter.

FROM ED: Sorry, Marc, but I’m struggling with this package—for a variety of reasons:

1. The center gutter is wider than the others and that’s distracting.

2. There’s no clearly dominant photo here. I think you missed a sure bet by not playing the hands photo (bottom left) much, much larger. I’d have made it the lead photo in the package. It’s a striking photo.

3. Spreading the photos around the page gives no focal point. I don’t know where to start and I struggle to follow the flow of the story. One rule I learned years ago: Cluster the photos.

4. The headline and drophead treatment is nothing more than what I would have expected on any inside page. No impact.

5. The two screens work OK but I don’t see a need to place a frame on these as well.

OK…enough hits from me. How about the rest of you? Your thoughts?

To cap or not to cap…

UPDATE TO THIS POST: Please see Kristin Coker’s comment on this post—and my reply—for clarification.

A client editor asks an interesting question—and I’m sure there are a bajillion answers to this one:

When doing “upstyle” headlines (capitalizing most or all words in the head), what are the rules?

What words, if any, are not capped? Prepositions, infinitives, conjunctions, articles?

I have one client, for instance, that capitalizes every word in headlines: That way, there’s no confusion and no battles about “the” or “to” or “and” or “in” or “for”…the list is endless.

So, what are your thoughts? What rules do you follow at your place? Your comments, please.

Better late…

THIS WEEK’S POST comes to you a couple of days later than usual. Chalk it up to a series of events, including a sojourn into computer hell on Monday and a day of travel and meetings today.

The computer debacle began late Sunday evening and grew into an all-day event yesterday when we were struck by a “perfect storm” on Julia’s Mac Mini. Her external backup drive had been giving us problems for about a month. After “fixing” that with a diagnostic and repair DVD, the DVD would not eject from the Mini—and the Mini would not start up. Now I had two disks that would not function and a possible loss of at least a dozen years of important company and family financial data. Only some of that was on my computer, but transactions for the past three weeks would have been lost.

Off to see Davis McCarn, my computer repair “guru.” But what’s a 50-mile round trip and nothing to eat all day—on top of only five hours sleep Sunday evening—when we’re dealing with impending data-loss disaster? Dave works his magic in his garage/office/shop, retrieving the data from the Mini. I could have kissed him! Well, that’s overstating it a bit but I was one v-e-r-y happy camper. Oh, and Dave also deduces the problem with the external backup disk: A faulty power supply. The man is a whiz!

So…to the Charlotte Apple Story to drop off the Mini for repair. They tell me 7-10 business days for the fix and…it’s still under AppleCare (there is a God!). Finally home—just in time to get ready for today’s flight to LGA and 1.5 hour drive out on Long Island.

So, no, the dog did not eat my homework and I have a legit reason for running late this week.

Not that you needed all this detail…but I needed the catharsis of telling the story. So…there!

Two more pages from: Michael Smith | Carolina Forest Chronicle

AS I MENTIONED in last week’s post, I was holding two of Michael Smith’s page submissions back, hedging in case there were no submissions this week. Glad I did, because there were no submissions this week.

Michael’s pages and his brief notes follow. I chime in with some comments.

This time, I used a giant penny instead of a giant basketball. I took one blogger’s advice to put editorial content/info boxes inside of giant art.

FROM ED: I like the big penny…well, with some reservations. First, it looks more like gold than copper. Second, that blotch growing out of Lincoln’s forehead (to the left of “Breaking news” is really distracting. So, would I “fix” the penny in Photoshop? In a moment—and without any qualms whatsoever. This is an illustration, not a “frozen moment” or a piece of historic photojournalism. It’s a penny—and I would do with it anything that makes it look more like a penny. So…puhleeeze…no “ohmigod” comments from you photojournalists.

One other thought: I’m a bit (only a bit) troubled by the “Part of a continuing series…” note to the top left of the penny. I’d have put it somewhere else with the sole purpose in mind of just leaving that space empty. Seems to me the package needs that just to breathe a bit—everything else is tightly wrapped around the penny.

All that said, I still think it’s a package with strong impact. Dunno how a reader could not want to dive right in!

This was our Jan. 7 sports section front. Whenever using two stories about the same subject, I try to use photos completely different from each other.

FROM ED: Not a big deal, but I prefer the smaller photo—only because it shows me a different angle. I feel like I’ve seen the photo at top a bajillion times. I do like the “Panthers tighten their grip” overline. Works nicely with the lead photo.

OK…enough from Ed. Now it’s your turn. Comments? Criticisms? Michael can take it!