AN INTERESTING QUESTION comes our way, thanks to Marah. Her note follows…and Ed has some thoughts below the page.
FROM MARAH:
Hi Ed,
This is the front page from our Pine City paper. Just want your input on using different column widths in a paper. The 7 column on the bottom was an accident, since our paper is supposed to be 6 columns across. Thanks!
FROM ED:
1. I have a simple rule for column widths on a news page: only one package can vary from standard column width. Too many column widths on a page destroy the structure of the page and may give readers a sense that one package somehow accompanies another. Example: the Storm Lets Loose package may initially appear to go with the Steady as she grows story—because they are placed one above the other and they are a different measure than the packages in the left two columns. The rule, again: only one package can vary from standard column width.
2. Running the snow photo above and behind the folio information looks like a mistake.
3. Love the nameplate! I designed it about a dozen years ago.
4. Would rather see the UPC code placed elsewnere. It’s too close to the nameplate art.
5. Headlines are all sized about the same. This is boring—and offers no sense of headline hierarchy.
How about the rest of you? Your thoughts? Your suggestions?
Is it me or is there too much “Pine” on the page? I LOVE the masthead but would like to see it flushed left and the UPC placed elsewhere.
Since the stories are close in size, I wouldn’t have placed the story about “nuisance” above the story about the Habitat family. “Steady as she grow” seems like a better choice to be paired with one about a family returning home. Likewise, “snow” and “nuisance” also seem like a logical pairing.
The sign photo is boring and better suited for the runover. Would there have been a way to enlarged the snow photo for more of a punch?
Caption in the top photo works but the one in the mom/son photo looks crammed.
I may be dense, but is there a reason for the italics in the growth headline?
I personally just really don’t like the headline font…that’s just me. This page is very heavily ridden in text…no dominant photo/art…
But, hey, have to give a shout-out…my wife’s father was from Pine City, Minn….small world!!
Too many stories on the front…it was a big snowstorm, it should have had a bigger picture to go with the story.
Having just launched a redesign by Ed, one of the first things he did was convert me from a hating-the-gutters-down-the-page-so-vary-guy to a grid guy. One of our first week battles is getting everyone to understand that using Ed’s one-off-grid-rest-on rule is that you don’t have to line up the heads all the same length and that some strategic breakouts and photos will help break it up.
Overall I’m like a guy who quit smoking and can’t stand seeing smoke anywhere about me, because I’ve bought in hard on the rule—because of the results we’re starting to get by making it doctrine to go only one-off per page.
Quick explanatory note from Ed:
What Marcus is referring to is my guideline that only one package on a page should be set in odd measure, such as three legs on four columns or two legs on three columns. This helps to preserve the structure of the page while allowing one package to stand out. Too many odd-measure packages destroy the underlying structure and can tend to confuse readers.