We have winners…three of ‘em!

LOOKS LIKE A TRIFECTA! Just got word about three newspapers in Michigan named one, two, three in design in the latest state newspaper contest.

#1: Ludington Daily News: “Great use of white space to create a very clean paper. Uniquely-shaped flag pulls the reader in.”  | A Henninger Consulting client.

#2: The Petoskey News-Review: “Close call between 1st and 2nd. Nice, clean, easy-to-look-at page layouts. Good use of color–not over-done.” | Another Henninger Consulting client.

#1: The Sturgis Journal: “White space used effectively. Very easy on the eyes.” | Another Henninger Consulting client.

Congratulations to all!

More good news: Another client wins General Excellence!

PUBLISHER JEFF EVANS at The Ludington Daily News recently shared some exciting news with me…and now I can share it with you.

The Ludington Daily News has been honored with its 7th Newspaper of the Year award and it also won 1st Place in General Excellence in the Michigan Press Association 2009 Better Newspaper Contest.

Some comments from the judges:

“Excellent reproduction quality, clean design. In general, the paper grabs my eye and keeps it hooked. Great use of color beyond 1A. Lots of entry points on section fronts draw readers inside. Clean, crisp design. Design remained clean and consistent throughout.”

The Iowa Press Association judged the Michigan newspapers’ contest.

My congratulations to Jeff and his news crew, especially those who are part of the design effort—which is just about everyone.

I led the redesign of The Ludington Daily News a couple of years ago and I have a strong appreciation of how hard the staff and managers work. It was a pleasure working with them and a greater pleasure seeing them get the recognition they deserve.

Nice goin’!

Page (OK, an ad) from: Judy Lytle | Ludington Daily News

JUDY LYTLE, Graphics Department supervisor at the Ludington Dailly News (a client newspaper I redesigned in 2007), sends along this page with a free form ad.

Says Judy: “Nice job on the blog—saw your request for pages and wanted to share our first ‘free-form’ ad (or whatever people are calling them, there’s probably a name for it)…also wondering how your readers are dealing with handling these non-traditional ad spaces?

I built the ad to go across the top, down the right column and all the way across the bottom, and turned it over to editorial to fill…was kind of disappointed with the end result, since [the newsroom] threw a photo and all those rules on there, but it looks OK…my original spec just had two or three stories and no pics, so [the ad] really dominated the page.”

FROM ED: I really like the ad, Judy! It’s one of the better free form ads I’ve seen and it shows what can be done by a good designer. I wonder how the newsroom reacted to the concept—most newsroom purists would gag but these are different times in our business. The ad is fun to look at and I especially like the way it nudges into two of the stories (though I suspect there are purists hyperventilating as they read this). We can argue about the concept of free form ads from here to kingdom come, but I still think this is very execution.

What are your thoughts, folks? For it? Against it? (I feel another poll coming on!) Does it work? Not work? Does doing this make you gag? Suggestions?

Page from: Judy Lytle | Ludington Daily News

ALSO FROM Judy Lytle comes this page, the front of the Ludington Daily News for July 3d.

From Judy’s note: “I’m attaching today’s front page of our July 4th outer-wrap which we print on 45# brite white with all the holiday activities and try to fill the 4 pages with quarter page ads. Anyway, I think newsroom designer Mark Steigenga did a beautiful job on it.”

FROM ED: I agree. Mark did do a beautiful job. The page is exciting to look at—and even the nameplate was massaged to make the design work. A bit daring but I like the risk. The pink screen might have been faded a bit more behind the type to make the text more easy to read but this is a page I’d submit for contests. Coming from me, that means a lot! Nice going, Mark.

Your thoughts?

i’m also attaching today’s front page of our july 4th outer-wrap

which we print on 45# brite white with all the holiday activities and

try to fill the 4 pages with quarter page ads…. Anyway, i think

newsroom designer mark steigenga did a beautiful job on it…

hope you have a great holiday weekend!

judy

i’m also attaching today’s front page of our july 4th outer-wrap

which we print on 45# brite white with all the holiday activities and

try to fill the 4 pages with quarter page ads…. Anyway, i think

newsroom designer mark steigenga did a beautiful job on it…

hope you have a great holiday weekend!

judy