WHEN SOUTHWEST AIRLINES came to neighboring Greenville-Spartanburg airport, it was a big story for The Greer Citizen. Julie sent three pages for us to review. Unfortunately, only two would convert properly to jpeg files. Stuff happens. Sorry, Julie.
FROM JULIE:
Hi Ed,
Just wanted to pass on a few pages from a special section we published recently.
I wanted to brag on our photographer Mandy Ferguson who helped bring a concept to reality by superimposing the Southwest airplane into the hand of the sculpture boy. We thought the image created conveyed our “Welcome Southwest” to GSP airport perfectly. Most of the content was rerun articles from issues of the paper leading up to the airline’s arrival. The section was included in our weekly edition and distributed at the airport on the day of the first flight.
Julie Holcombe
FROM ED: I love the cover idea and kudos to Mandy for being able to make it work so elegantly. I also applaud the thinking about distributing the section at the airport the day of the arrival—that’s good sales! Good thinking, too, on framing the page in the Southwest signature colors (identical to those on the plane in the hand of the statue).
FROM ED:
1. The lead photo leaves me unexcited. It’s just a mug shot of a plane on the ramp. Might have been better to get some ground crew guiding the plane into the gate—anything with a bit of action in it.
2. Placement of the map and the pullout at the outside corners of the text leaves a lot of gray on the page…and visual elements in corners tend to pull readers out of a package, rather than into it.
Thoughts from the rest of you? Comments? What would you have done to improve the package?
Very nice! I think if that was the only photo you had of the plane, maybe a cutout would’ve been nice instead of putting a box around it. I agree about the map graphic leading your eye off the page. Being nitpicky, I would’ve tightened up the T and A in Taking Flight. Nice job though. I don’t live there and it makes me want to read the story.
Your graphic designer did a good job on placing the jet in the statue’s hand! It works well and Southwest will probably steal your idea for future ad work.
On the second page, perhaps use the map as the lead photo with a clipart suitcase tucked beside and behind the map. Let your designer slap a Southwest logo on it to give it that “let’s fly away” impression. Then box the quote and move it up into the text to break it up some and get rid of the two center long columns. If the wing of the jet on the right side is not cropped in the original, delete the background and use it with a text wrap.