JUST WHEN I WAS THINKING it had been a while since hearing from Marc Stumbo, he sends along this page for your comments. Marc’s notes follow.
“Just another centerfold with a mixture of Catholic News Service and Beacon archived photos. I tried to give it reasonable white space. Popped out the first graph to serve as an additional graphical element. Used my Page Topper style to identify the subject so I didn’t have to use the long name of the basilica in the headline or kicker. Our archived photos give it local flavor as does our tiny sidebar used as an inset box.
Wonder if anyone will pick up on a typography mistake I made: I initially used the OS (Old Style) face in our body font Charter, but didn’t like the old style lower-height numerals, so I changed it back to regular…except on the centered, larger first graph—you can see the number “10” is still in the old style font. I missed that one. It’s all in the details…”
So…what are your thoughts? Too symmetrical? Too much typography? Nicely done? Anything you’d do differently?
The last time Marc submitted his work, there were no comments. Let’s give Marc the benefit of our collective wisdom with some constructive feedback!
Love, love, love . . . . love the symmetry, love the graphic element. Looks clean, colorful and sophisticated. LOVE!
I agree (as usual) with Kristin. The only issue I have is that it almost seems too busy. I like what you have done with the imagery, but for a spread like that, I don’t know if eight photos and two breakouts might not be a bit too much. The photo of the church at the top is very nice and very colorful. It’s a shame you couldn’t have played that a bit bigger. Otherwise, though, I think you did a bang-up job with what you had there.
Kristin: Thanks so much for your kind comments – I really appreciate your response. I am a big fan of your work. Given the subject matter I felt the symmetry of the page worked. Will: Thank you for your input as well. I agree it is busy. In fact I had the main photo considerably larger and it looked much better – especially once I darkened the sky, which added contrast to the overlay type and made the basilica really pop out – but the bottom of the spread then looked like an afterthought. I had fewer photos at the bottom and the vertical ones larger, but with our short tab (14″ image area) I just didn’t have enough height to pull that off. I ended up striking a balance. As a crusty old sod from my letterpress days told me once: “Do your best and move on … it ain’t gonna hang in the Louvre.”
I’m gonna break with Will on this one; I think the heavy graphic content was perfect, especially given the subject matter. Cathedrals are very visually-oriented buildings.
But I’ll bet those photos across the fold made your pressmen utter some words not in keeping with the Second Commandment. :)