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?
