HERE’S SOMEONE who needs our help…now!
Scott Hunter is Editor and Publisher at the Star and NorthStar in Grand Coulee, WA.
Here’s the cover Scott is working on. His note follows.
“Ed,
Here’s a cover work-in-progress that I’m not terribly happy with. Comments from the community would be very welcome.
NorthStar is a new quarterly publication covering the residents of the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington state. This will be the second issue. The photo is of the veterans who attended a Veteran’s Day service at a memorial sculpture in front of tribal headquarters. I intend to ID those in the photo inside the publication.
The graphical elements at right referring to stories inside worked well on the first cover, but seem out of place here. I’m thinking of centering them on the page. (The content of those is old, from last issue.)
Thanks for this useful blog. I enjoy it and marvel at some of the creative work posted.
Scott Hunter”
FROM ED: I think you’re on the right path with your idea of centering the inside refers. There’s a lot of sky you can use here to do just that. I’d also like to see a headline that gives me a sense of what the photo is all about. One more suggestion: I’d redesign the “News and Views…” underline so it’s all-caps sans serif in white. Drop the shadow. The underline is just too busy now. Also, stretch it with some extra spacing if needed so it goes completely under the nameplate, from the “N” to the “r”. I think that will give you a cleaner look.
Thoughts from the rest of you? Let’s give Scott some other ideas—and soon!
I would add drop the gradient in NorthStar and drop the whole nameplate down more so there is more ‘sky’ at the top. This will lead to putting the white inside tabs closer together … not so spaced out.
I would either get rid of those indexers or do something different with each of them — perhaps do 2 indexers with a tiny photo each, placed above the flag and then a major head below the flag so that we know why there is this staged photo of a bunch of people on the cover of your magazine.
Hi Scott,
I agree with Ed on most points but I was going to take you on a different route. Try bringing your mast down two-three inches from the top and having your promos set above your mast. I like the inset boxes and you can keep them with the promos, but try punching them up a bit. Experiment with a larger font or play with the sizes. (the top line can be larger than the page #)
Thanks all. That gives me a lot of great suggestions to work on.
It’s why this blog is here.
Scott, I’m no longer designing pages, but the very first thing I’d do is change the promo boxes. They aren’t pointing at anything but blue sky. I agree, drop your flag and put something above it (hey I’m working off a migraine) and either center the promos and them point alternatively at the flags. I’m not sure this would work. I’m not in a position to try it at the present. Have you thought of using the shapes of badges? Good luck.
I think we’re missing something here. The focus should be the people in the photo, but yet they all seem lost in the vast amount of sky. I worry about centering promos in the middle of the sky — might take away from the people in the picture even more. I like Kristin’s idea (of course, I like most of her ideas) of dropping your masthead and doing maybe two large(r) promos above it with art. This serves two purposes: 1.) it gives you a nice window into the publication and 2.) it would take up some of that free blue space, if you will.
The gradient on NorthStar doesn’t bother me as much, but I agree with everyone else that you need to drop the shadow behind the news and views. Good luck!
Any thoughts on rotating the whole design 90 degrees? You could make those people larger and get rid of all that extra sky.