Design favorites, P.M. class
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Editing Matters 
The front page I thought had great design was the Mon., Nov. 29 issue of The Modesto Bee, from Modesto, Calif. See the front page here: http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=CA_MB&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=1
Aside from the two images or graphics above the paper’s title, the front page has only one dominant photo, which is actually three photos, at the center of the page. The photos and text are grouped together nicely on the page with a common background, different from the rest of the paper. It’s evenly centered from side to side and also above and below the fold. There is one other photo at the bottom of the page, but it’s small enough so that nothing is competing with the central photo. This allows my attention to be focused on the story that really matters, according to page editors.
Furthermore, the rest of the stories are nicely shaped as rectangles and vary in size from top to bottom. Because there’s a visual anchor, there is a clear, established hierarchy on the page, and the text boxes surrounding the dominant photo, though different in size, are quite uniform and pull everything together.
Overall, this paged caught my eye on the Newseum website because it’s a well-balanced, grabbing front page, with appropriate photos and images to accompany the story. There is good contrast and variety, which makes for an attractive design.
Hurriyet Daily News, a Turkish news source, has a nice design for their Nov. 30 issue.
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=TUR_HDN&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=1
Many readers may bicker that there is only a single column story on the front page, but design wise I think the use of type, arrangement of elements and color palette are all solid. Plenty of ‘news at a glance’ stories fill the left column.
Moreover, the one column article is exactly where the eye lands on at first glance while the supporting info graphics are the second place the eye looks. The national leaders lend to design as well as inform readers on who the wikileaks article pertains to.
However, I’m willing to wager the fold is in a terrible spot, making the paper look odd on magazine racks.
I chose the Nov. 30 Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review published in Istanbul, Turkey, because the paper’s front page is a great example of a risky design. Anytime a story fills the entire front page, the designers and editors are taking a risk, but I think this treatment works. See the font page at http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=TUR_HDN&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=1.
The story is about WikiLeaks and fills the entire front page with a bright and interesting graphic. The site published U.S. documents criticizing Turkey’s policy. While the main news story starts on the front page and is jumped, the graphic includes teasers to other stories on the same topic. Total there are seven stories about the topic. If this was one story about WikiLeaks, a full page treatment would be wasting space. However, since seven stories are packaged together, the layout is smart and interactive.
The headline “www.WikiFlood.com” is clever and attracts readers without sensationalizing the story. But the most interesting and attractive aspect of this design is the photos. The two main cutouts are of Barrack Obama and Recep Tayyip Erdogan reaching out to shake hands. This image alone tells the story graphically. The other images include middle eastern rulers signifying the nature of the leaked documents.
The clean design, smart use of color and overall layout attracted me to this page. While newspapers should rarely give a full page to one story, in this case it works. The paper still reserved the one column for teasers to other stories and teases a prominent story with an image above their masthead.
If their was a stick of gum rule, this page would succeed. And the graphic-focused layout is attracting for readers.
I chose the Nov. 30 Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review published in Istanbul, Turkey, because the paper’s front page is a great example of a risky design. Anytime a story fills the entire front page, the designers and editors are taking a risk, but I think this treatment works. See the font page at http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=TUR_HDN&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=1.
The story is about WikiLeaks and fills the entire front page with a bright and interesting graphic. The site published U.S. documents criticizing Turkey’s policy. While the main news story starts on the front page and is jumped, the graphic includes teasers to other stories on the same topic. Total there are seven stories about the topic. If this was one story about WikiLeaks, a full-page treatment would be wasting space. However, since seven stories are packaged together, the layout is smart and interactive.
The headline “www.WikiFlood.com” is clever and attracts readers without sensationalizing the story. But the most interesting and attractive aspect of this design is the photos. The two main cutouts are of Barrack Obama and Recep Tayyip Erdogan reaching out to shake hands. This image alone tells the story graphically. The other images include Middle Eastern rulers signifying the nature of the leaked documents.
The clean design, smart use of color and overall layout attracted me to this page. While newspapers should rarely give a full page to one story, in this case it works. The paper still reserved the one column for teasers to other stories and teases a prominent story with an image above their masthead.
If there was a stick of gum rule, this page would succeed. And the graphic-focused layout is attracting for readers.
I chose the Nov. 30 issue of “The Fayetteville Observer,” from Fayetteville, N.C.
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=NC_FO&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=3
Even though the organization of the stories is basic, I think that the visual content makes the front page appealing. I like how the masthead incorporates a story for the paper’s sports section. Basketball is huge in North Carolina, and I think that expanding the masthead to incorporate it was a good choice that will draw casual readers and make them buy a copy.
I also really like the treatment of the Korean conflict story. There are three images that display three different aspects of the story, and have informative captions. I also like the map graphic, which is very appealing. The story isn’t too busy. Also, the headline is alliterative.
I also like how there are four other stories on the page, even though all four have jumps. The size of the type gets smaller toward the bottom of the page, and guides the reader.
I think that the best part of this design is that everything above the fold is very visual, and will draw in readers.
The page I thought was designed well was Tuesday’s edition of The Modesto Bee, from Modesto California.
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=CA_MB&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=1
The page is mostly taken up by photos and images relating to the story about a major dairy company taking over two more ice cream factories. I really like that the designers used both pictures of the factories and pictures of ice cream. I think id added more interest to the story.
I really liked the layout of the featured story on the front page. The images used were perfect and the designers positioned them creatively as well as the way the designers positioned the different sizes of images.
I also think that the page is balanced well. It has small images on the left side of the page that balanced out the pictures in the featured story. It was also balanced with the headlines to the right.
This page is from The Tribune, a paper in San Luis Obispo, Calif: http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=CA_TT&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=2
I like this page because it has, in my opinion, a nice balance between pictures and text. The main picture is artistic and tasteful, and although there is text within the photo, it is easy to read and utilizes the photo’s dead space. The page appears to follow the “dollar bill rule” and has headlines that are clear and concise. Some may argue that the layout is bland because it uses only simple rectangles, but I think the affect is that it makes the page look clean and tidy, which is what I like about it. The headlines are positioned above the stories they pertain to and there is a fair amount of differentiation between fonts, making it even easier to distinguish between stories. Also, there is some colored text on the page, making it appear less drab than a page using only black text on a white background.
The page I chose for good design was the Dec. 1 edition of the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, Minnesota.
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=MN_PP&ref_pge=tpt
Many front pages today focused on DADT, and featured a survey of military members that had just been release. Many papers decided to go with wire photos of soldiers in Afghanistan, but the Pioneer Press decided to go a different route – one that I think is more effective.
The use of the very well written text inside of giant dogtags really gets the readers attentions. They devote the whole center of the front page to the story, which really gives it a sense of dominance. Readers can easily tell which story is the most important on this page with a short glance.
Also, the way they packaged the story was very effective. It isn’t just a giant block of text, but instead is more number driven and, in my opinion, that will make readers more likely to stick with it and get that information.
Along either side of the main story are one-column wide stories that don’t distract from the main story but also provide the reader with a lot of information on the front page – and they did it all without seeming copy-heavy at all. It also makes the page have a very good balance, and their use of grids was done very well.
My favorite front page design of today’s newspapers is the Ocala Star-Banner newspaper, from Ocala, Fla. It was published Wednesday, Dec. 1. You can view the newspaper by clicking on this link: http://tinyurl.com/2g9b4x9.
I chose this front page because it demonstrates how design can simultaneously be sophisticated and bold. Beginning with the masthead of the newspaper, the graphic of the two phones successfully grabs the attention of the reader, and informs them that there are new, holiday phone apps. This could have been a cluttered masthead. But since the newspaper did not overlap any of the four main items—the newspaper name, the two headlines, and the phone graphic—it is visually appealing to the eye.
Furthermore, the headlines of this front page are a great example of how to create headline hierarchy. The Ocala Star-Banner uses six different fonts for its six front page stories. This helps the reader mentally organize the content from greatest to least importance.
Finally, this front page appropriately uses rules and boxes to isolate and organize stories and story elements. Although Gayle Grin suggested avoiding gray screens, I believe this gray screen works with the design layout. My reason for this is that the top stories of the newspaper’s front page are weather related. The gray screen notifies readers that this is a separate, but related weather story.
More importantly, this front page only uses one color screen, which is what the panel of experts recommends. The remaining stories are separated by thin rules. This design aspect also adds to the sophisticated look of the newspaper because it isolates the stories through white space preventing the design from being cluttered.
The paper I chose was the December 1, 2010 Des Moines Register.
http://tinyurl.com/2b9wrao
I looked through quite a few designs and found this one to be the most attractive to my eye. I scanned through about 200 front pages, with a bunch of different reasons for others not making the cut. Some I found to be to plain, had text on photographs, gray backgrounds making text hard to read, to many photos, not enough photos, or even the papers masthead just wasn’t appealing.
The Des Moines Registers front page first caught my attention with the use of the masthead. They have a single photo of a train crash and a good caption at the top of the page. The font used for the paper name reminds of the New York Times font, which I am a fan of. The background is white and makes it easier to read the font.
The front-page layout has only 5 stories with a small lead into another at the bottom. Other than the small picture at the top of the page, and one journalist’s photo included with a story, there is one large photo that draws your attention to the main article and a smaller picture wrapped by text in the main article. I typically don’t like text on photos, but in this instance I think use of text works. The orange font under the photo draws your attention and the headline gets you to read the story. The spacing of the other articles with white space keeps the front page looking clean and allows you to focus on one story with about being distracted by another.
The paper I chose to do was December 1st, 2010 Daily News-Miner.
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=AK_FDNM&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=1
I felt that is article really looked the cleanest. It reminded me a lot of the Omaha World-Herald. I looked at a few other pages and this one had enough grey, and yet the pictures fit the page well.
I like to see a big photo in the middle and than the story under it, also with the main photo, the type is not in the picture. Occasionally some newspapers do that and I find it works better this way. The front page has four stories on the front, which I think is plenty for the front page. Also the spacing between articles I felt was good and clean, easy to distinguish which article was which.
The bottom of the page looks very clean with what is inside the paper, and the ads add more color to the page. The top of the page also looks good, with the two different ads. One thing I find somewhat strange is that there is many different types of fonts throughout the page, I can understand one or two, but no more than that. Overall I felt this was a good page and I would read this paper with the way it is organized.
My favorite fron page design came from Tuesday’s edition of the Arizona Daily Star.
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=AZ_ADS&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=1
After sifting through the front page design of many newspapers, I decided that the Arizona Daily Star was my favorite. One of the elements that I liked most about the design of the Arizona Daily Star was the way that they prioritized stories on the page. It was easy to figure out what the paper considered to be the most important stories at a brief glance because of their layout and the size that was afforded to each story.
Another element that I enjoyed was the lack of clutter on the front page. Although there are advertisements included on the front page, they don’t take over. The ads are effective, but the focus is on the stories of the day.
I also enjoyed the photo that they included on the front page. The story dealt with the legalization of sparklers in Arizona. I liked the photo because it really popped off the page and caught my attention. The photo focuses on an actual sparkler with the silhouette of the person holding the sparkler slightly out of focus in the background. Although the photo is relatively simple, I think it ties in perfectly with the story.
I chose the Dec. 1 front page of the Miami Herald. I like how they first of all chose a story about Hanukkah, rather than the Christmas season. The first thing I liked about the design was that they gave a little title above the headline for what the story was about: Judaism, WikiLeaks, Guantanamo Bay, Art Basel. The next things I liked were the two photos they used for the feature package. The second picture looks like it’s a close-up of the hands on the dominant photo. I also liked that they used a pull-quote with the second photo.
On the other stories, I like how they kind of summarize/tease what the story is going to be about in a short paragraph that they put in bold before the story starts. While, of course, they would want people to read the whole story, it’s nice that if browsing, you can get the gist of it. I also like that instead of using black lines to separate stories they use faded gray lines. In my opinion, this is just more appealing to the eye. Another small thing that I like is having the weather at the top of the page, even though the paper is in Miami where they basically have nice weather all year.
I forgot to put my link. Here it is: http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=FL_MH&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=1
The page I chose was the Tues., Nov. 30 front page of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. The link I’m providing has changed to the current front page, but the Pilot seems to have consistently interesting/engaging/experimental design.
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=VA_VP&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=1
The front page I chose had a large infographic presented by a huge orange circle which took up most of the front, bleeding off the page and into the flag. This is something I would not expect to see on a front page of a daily paper – it’s daring, inventive, creative and striking design. The Virginian-Pilot designers were taking a risk, and I think it paid off. It’s eye-catching as well as an effective presentation of the information and the point to be made (notably the discrepancies in spending with which the graphic dealt).
Even though it’s not the page I wanted to focus on, the Dec. 1 front page of the Virginian-Pilot is also intriguing. It seems the World-Herald pages we have viewed and discussed in class, which used a huge chunk of the front page to tease recent Husker football games, owe their concepts to the Pilot. Indeed, in the Dec. 1 issue the paper’s flag runs midway down the page. The biggest criticism I could present of this style is that perhaps with such dominant graphics, the page elements compete too greatly for the reader’s attention. I’d be interested to hear what my classmates have to say about this.
I chose the front page of the Miami Herald on Dec. 1 for my favorite design. http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=FL_MH&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=3
I liked this page because it is very easy to read and understand. There is a nice main photo that is not necessarily breaking news. Also, it is more than twice the size of the secondary photo for the main story. The photo that goes with another story is also much smaller than the main photograph. Some may call the design boring, but it definitely effectice. The box around the main story helps it stand out even more from the rest of the page.
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=AK_ADN&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=1
I chose this front page because I found the visual anchor to be really attractive and attention-grabbing. The main picture grabs my attention first, then the rest of the images and headlines carry my eyes around the page without being too uniform. The headlines were organized by size from the top down and followed the rules of good headlines. The pictures, their size and their placement varied throughout the page as well. The page has a good variation of types of stories they played also, which helps keep it from becoming boring.One thing I would change about this page is that there were very few dividing lines. I prefer a page that has cleanly seperated articles because it adds contrast and doesn’t confuse the reader. Other than that, I really found the page to be well designed.