Pages from: Shannon Leete | Mt. Pleasant News

SOME INTERESTING WORK on special section covers comes to us from Production Director Shannon Leete at the Mt. Pleasant News in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.

From Shannon’s note:

“These are all from last year, but I would like some input about the designs themselves, as I usually don’t get much more feedback than ‘Oh, that looks good.’

We usually have pretty free reign when it comes to tab/special section/insert covers. We have a short list of essentials (date, run date, logo) and from there it’s whatever we decide. Most of our tabs are  short (16” long) sheets, and usually restricted to two color. Rarely we get a full color, or full (news) page.

‘Winter Sports tab cover’ was created in Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. Since we only have the two sports in winter, I had a lot of space to work with, so I decided to make use of the many schools we cover and use their names for graphics. Two colors, spot red and black.

‘Back to School Cover’ was created mostly in Illustrator (yes, I’drew’ most of it myself.), and finished in InDesign. There are a few graphic flaws on the page that I never had time to remedy. Two color, spot red and black.

‘2008 Progress Cover’ was created mostly in Photoshop and finished in InDesign. I usually relegate Photoshop to doing photos, but I find it’s easiest to create type masks in. The spacing is odd due to a printer/tiling issue we have when printing out full size pages. Since it was four color, I had to basically design it in sections that would fit on one sheet each, then strip them up on film. To me it looks “off.”

I was very excited to hear about your blog, and hope to post on it regularly. I like getting feedback on my work and, hopefully, progress as a designer.”

FROM ED: I like the effort here—a lot. But I think you may be trying too hard—especially on the Progress cover. The photos in the type are just too difficult to “read” and the different sizes and placement of the type just become too much to deal with. My advice: Look for more structure and more consistency. Fewer typefaces, more discipline. And keep coming back here with more pages—we’ll help you as you progress!

How about the rest of you? What advice would you give Shannon?

Poll results: All-cap headlines

THE QUESTION WAS “All-cap headlines: do they work,” and it’s clear most of you who responded (41 total votes) think “Sometimes…on the right feature package.” That response drew 20 of the 41 votes, for about 49%

The negative response, “Nope…they’re just another design fad,” drew the next-highest number of votes, but halved the winning response with only 10 votes.

“Sure…what’s the fuss about” and “Yes…to bring special emphasis to a news story,” each drew five votes.

The one “other” response? “All caps are hard to read, they say.”

What’s the point? Well, for those of you who responded, it seems you’re just not all that concerned about the use of all-caps headlines.

The next poll? Not sure. What would you like to see? Type? Color? Structure? I’m open to suggestions!

Page from: Emily Killian | The Shelby Star

HERE’S A DIFFERENT APPROACH to a longer page 1 story—at a newspaper that does not allow jumps from Page 1.

Emily Killian at the Shelby Star in Shelby, NC, sends along this note:

“Would you mind opening this up for comments on your blog? This was our first attempt ever at what we’re calling a “dogleg 1A.” From a design standpoint, our paper is notably difficult because we have a “no jump” rule. On the plus side, it made getting both heds above the fold a lot easier… on the down side, we used a screen to differentiate between the two stories.

Not sure if I like what we ended up with… what do you and your readers think?”

FROM ED: My first reaction is that I’m delighted to see another paper that has a no-jump rule! I applaud The Shelby Star for placing the reader first. I’ve long been an advocate of a no jump policy but I have only occasional success at convincing my clients to go that way.

My reaction to the layout of the story—and especially the screen behind it—is more negative. I’m not sure of the purpose of the screen and I know that many readers find text type difficult to read against a color tint. For me, the answer to handling a story this long is to segment it. You’ve already kinda done that with the “Large net” and “How it worked” and the pull quote and the infobox—so this story already is in several parts. I’d have taken some of those parts and placed them on an inside page, with a refer off the front. Yes, it’s almost the same thing as jumping, but when you segment, you give readers a choice. Having to jump is a chore.

Let’s see what others have to say. Comments, folks?