MARAH SENDS ALONG two pages for evaluation and comment. These have been “in the basket” for a few weeks, but we’re finally getting to them!
FROM MARAH: “Here are the front and back pages from our 12/15/11 edition of the Times. The back page has the continuation of the fire story from the front page. Thank you for your input and ideas!”
FROM ED:
1. The photo is excellent. I’d certainly submit it for photo contests.
2. Oval photos always make me think I’m reading a yearbook. They just don’t seem to have a place on a news page, especially with such a tragic story. Let’s stay with a rectangular format.
3. I’m good with the all-caps headline here. It works well with the magnitude of a story such as this.
4. Are we e-v-e-r going to see a reworked nameplate? This is still awful. It makes the Times look silly and sophomoric.
5. The rest of the page seems just a bit to busy. Perhaps one story fewer would have given it a more quiet feel.
FROM ED:
1. The jump head seems smallish.
2. Placement of the “Continued…” line at the end of the jump head is odd. I like to place such lines over the first leg of the jumped text.
3. Placing the photos and the “Way to help…” box all along the right side of the page tends to draw readers out of the package. Better to have put the lead photo at the top of legs 2-5, with the secondary photo and the help box side-by-side below it. That also would have helped to break up the gray text and made it seem not so long.
4. Why the extra space between paragraphs here? If the jump was short, some cropping of the lead photo would have made it deeper to help fill.
5. Text is not aligned to a baseline. Use of a baseline grid is fundamental to a good design.
6. Why the tint block on the “Way to help…” box?
That’s it from Ed. Others please join in!
