Design101

journalism scholars day2011

NEWS DESIGN 101

Studies have shown that readers enter a page through the dominant photo, then move to headlines, cutlines/captions and other elements before reading the story.

Design matters.

WHY DESIGN MATTERS

Design isn’t just about placing stories and photos on pages. It’s about using those elements to…

attract readerstell a compelling story

GOALS OF DESIGN

Talk a little about how you can accomplish those goals using four basic design principles.

Tackle various elements (headlines, photos, etc.) and how they can improve your design.

Please ask questions along the way!

TODAY, WE’LL…

“Good design” is subjective, but there are pretty standard rules to help accomplish these goals.

The best designs use — or break — the rules in unexpected ways. But they still carefully consider the basic principles.

RULES OF DESIGN

1KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

How would your audience best be brought into this particular story? How can you best tell them this story?Big photo, catchy headline and 600 words of text? Extra box or pull quote?

Maybe it’s some, all or none of those. Maybe it’s not a “story” at all but info broken up into small parts with a map, timeline or other graphic.

ASK YOURSELF:

Readers typically look at a page in this pattern:

ZImportant/interesting info goes at topSomething good to start AND end on

TOP TO BOTTOM

2MODULAR LAYOUT

RECTANGLES, RECTANGLES

GRIDS: 4, 5, OR 6 COLUMNS

3VISUAL HIERARCHY

Hierarchy is telling readers where to start — and what is most important on the page.

Elements (headlines and photos) should generally get smaller as they get farther down the page.

DOMINANT ELEMENTS

WHAT DO YOU SEE FIRST?

4CONSISTENCY

A publication’s design is its personality — it shapes readers’ earliest opinions of the paper.

The reader should be able to easily recognize that personality. Without the front page, do they know what newspaper they’re reading?

DESIGN IS PERSONALITY

Establish personality by consistently:Using the same font families (no more than two)

Doing bylines the same every timeHandling info boxes the sameUsing similar color palettes for graphics

Keep it simple

CONSISTENT ELEMENTS

Paragraph Styles

Libraries

Master pages

TOOLS FOR CONSISTENCY

5EFFECTIVE USE OF ELEMENTS

Short and sweet: 5-6 words or lessHeadlines must have exciting verbs and be in present tense

Use subheads/deckheads to add more information (they should be at least 10-15 points smaller)

Stick to those two font families unless it’s a really special occasion to use another

But don’t sacrifice readability for beauty

HEADLINES

Headlines should go across the length of the story

Keep them as close to story as possible

HEADLINES

Never ‘bump’ headlines

Use rules, boxes, photos, different sizes

HEADLINES

They can effectively organize a page

They should guide, not distract — use 0.5 point lines

SPEAKING OF … RULES

Most newspapers use a 0.5 frameThe action of the photo should be toward the story — not off the page

Examples: Shooting a gun, everyone looking in a certain direction

Do not EVER flip the photo to face the direction you want

PHOTOS

Alignment: Ragged right typically featurey, opinion, etc.

Dropcap: Big initial letter on first paragraph

Leading: Two points higher than font(except for small text like body copy)

TEXT

Need to stretch or squeeze your copy?

Use leading or kerning/tracking

TEXT

Kerning: Space between characters +/-25

Leading: Space between lines of text +/-0.3

Pullquote/readout: Interesting quote or fact from the story

Mug: ‘Oh, that’s who that guy is’Info box: By the numbers, for more information, next meeting

Teaser: Box teasing to related storyLogo/Column Sig: Identifies special features with label or columnist’s mug

BREAKING UP THE GRAY

The reader shouldn’t have to jump over these items (or photos) to continue reading

Never leave a doubt which direction to keep reading — or they won’t

BREAKING UP THE GRAY

?

White space can be used very well to provide organization to a page … and bring focus to a design

WHITE SPACE

Newspaper Designer’s HandbookTimHarrower.comNewseum.com > Today’s Front Pagesapple.copydesk.orgLook at other newspapers, magazines, yearbooks, anything and everything

Want to learn how to do something? Google it!

RESOURCES

Questions?

Email me at [email protected]

I’ll try to post this PowerPoint at joshrmoore.com

• Design

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JOSH MOORE