After having gone on numerous rants about how awesome European news design is and having confirmed my love by actually visiting Europe this summer (and therefor seeing these papers in my hands), I have finally made the plunge.

After seeing the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s redesign this summer, I dropped all hesitation. I absolutely loved the look and if one mainstream American newspaper could pull this great look off, I had to try it.

As the new managing editor of The Daily Eastern News, I was able to accomplish, with the help of my advisers and faithful Editor in Chief, a (successful) total redesign of the paper.

Most of the touches are entirely inspired by the international (or modernist or swiss or whatever you want to call it) style most papers around the world now adhere to.

Here is today’s front page.

This page was entirely designed by one of our nightly copy editors/designers. She has minimal experience and yet she was completely capable of producing a pleasant front page with little creative effort.

The redesign, introduced in August, is entirely grid-based. Front page sections are 16 columns and inside pages are 15. This ultimately amounts to 5 columns of text. The additional column on the front sections is in order to allow a wider rail or grid-based white space. Unfortunately, this formula was impossible to impose on inside pages with designers who have possibly never touched Indesign.
Each story is accompanied by a thick horizontal rule above, a label, and a headline with 1p6 to 2 picas of space below. This simple tool has allowed white space to be injected into the core of the design and created headlines with more punch at smaller point sizes.

Three typefaces are at our disposal, with only one change from the previous design’s selection: Lucida Bright as our various headers font. Adobe Garamond Pro and Myriad pro round out the body and smaller type fonts.

Further, a new page planning philosophy has been implemented. Where art use to be the dominant factor in where news went, we have strict in placing the most important news up top. Art is secondary in the decision-making process. The new design can carry a page with little-to-no art and still maintain sturdy immediacy.

As a result, pages have maintained a consistency throughout the paper and copy editors can worry about editing copy. Creativity is always encouraged, but not a necessity (or even a possibility, most of the time, for our inexperienced staff) to creating a useful page. And while this has resulted in some very similar layouts in particular situations, the focus on utility has outweighed any negative results.

Here are a couple pages that I designed (a rarity) for our annual Family Weekend issue.

The bottom page is from our arts and entertainment section in that same issue.

I plan on tweaking the design a bit before graduating this December, because there are a few issues that consistently pop up. Mostly in the way of pull quotes and breakout boxes — our current style requires one too many steps (note: exactly two steps). However, I am otherwise extremely pleased with the new design. I think it suits us in nearly every way and provides the utility a college paper craves.

Let me know what you think.

New project from Rock Valley. No theme this time, so I had a (mostly) wide-open brief. Summoning a similar feel to the original Student Life marketing while giving it a little unique twist, I think this is shaping up nicely.

Over at the Charles Apple Blog, a report that Apple put up about some scary Tribune production tactics has caused a huge stir. Seventy-seven comments and counting, this is clearly an issue no one should miss.
My take: I don’t find the templated modules to be such a problem provided they are done in a tasteful manner. They need to fix the reported problems that don’t allow local copy editors to change the text within said modules. For inside pages, this is a fairly streamlined way of saving the company money and only hurting the readers when it is done poorly. That said, I am not comfortable with where this is going. If section fronts and styles are being overtaken by the “mother ship,” then we have a serious problem. That concept would effectively make newspapers pointless. The paper may as well shrink down to a one-section local.

This spring semester has nearly come to a close. Two finals left and I am off to the Netherlands for a month. What a great feeling of relief.

Since my semester is complete, this blog is no longer a requirement. So, at this point, I cannot say if it will continue. I hope to keep it going, but I also know myself well enough that without a serious passion or deadline, I rarely find the motivation necessary. We shall see…

As a side note: Here is my final video project for my class.

Finally, here are the finished May Fest advertisements.

From left to right, clockwise, is an 11″ x 17″ poster, a 24″ x 32″ poster, an 8.5″ x 11″ flyer (ready for fax or copy), and an 11″ x 8.5″ tri-fold table tent.

I really worked on creating a more deliberate design than many of my past advertisements. Often I like to take the approach of throwing anything at the fan and seeing what works, but because I had a very distinct style in mind, I was able to create a more hand-crafted look. Ironically, I think some of the designs almost look like stock art with blanks filled in. I’m not actually sure if that’s a success or not, but I’m fairly pleased with how everything turned out. I would have liked to include some more details on the cyan (some cracked or peeling ink) and maybe added some folds here and there, but I did what I could within a reasonable time. That said, I always feel there is places for improvement and I think everything came out nicely textured and polished regardless.

Feel free to leave me some comments or thoughts.

This weblog’s existence can be credited to Bryan Murley, my Multimedia Journalism professor at Eastern Illinois University. I say this because a weblog is a requirement of that class. As such, we (the students of the class) have a few requirements for our blogs. One of which is a final project entitled “Adopt-a-multimedia Journalism” where we choose a journalist in the field that is currently creating new media work (videos, Flash, Soundslides, etc.) and then we have to write a critique of their work. That said, I have chosen Amanda Cox of the New York Times and her work is amazing, so there will be inspirational value within. Avoid or flock to these posts as you see fit.

6: How This Bear Market Compares

Unlike the graphics listed above, there is not a ton of information jammed in here. However, the little information and the way it is presented is effective. What this graphic does for me is inject truth like no word story could provide. The length of time this recession has taken and how far down the economy has gone is nothing when compared to recessions/depressions of the past. This brilliantly and simply illustrates this. The snippets of information that are provided when a fever bar is clicked on adds just enough to make this more than a simple chart. That said, I would have liked the ability to navigate using the timeline in the lower left. A user shouldn’t feel like functionality is missing — it creates confusion and makes the user question lower their expectations of functionality.

7: Electoral Shifts

Of all the graphics listed thus far, “Electoral Shifts” is the weakest. Very little interactivity is involved and it essentially boils down to a slide show. The animations between are nice, but a user should feel empowered by interactive graphics. I see no reason why the functionality this graphic gives was not deligated to simple images. If flash is used (a plug in that not every device and computer supports or has), then it should be used to its full potential.

8: Oil Prices Reach Symbolic Mark

This is much less an interactive graphic as it is simply an effective multimedia package. The interaction between the narrator and the graphic is both well done and necessary. The loop in the graph is confusing because traditional line graphs map time to the x-axis, creating the appearance of a time shift. However, the x-axis in this functions as an oil consumption meter with bullets showing dates. While it works in practice, I still feel like there could have been a better way to represent the information — possibly through a bar graph. I would have also liked to have seen the ability to click on the bullet points.

9: Serena Williams’ Professional Career

The fact that I am able to add a 7th graphic under the “I’m impressed” category really says a lot about Amanda Cox and her colleagues’ work. This sports graphic goes all out. There are check boxes, graphs, comparisons, summaries and navigators everywhere. If you’re a Serena Williams fan or even just a casual admirer (I’m neither), then you’re bound to find something you want. This has to be one of the most comprehensive graphics I have seen. The effort and time that went into creating this graphic must have been extremely high.

10: In Their Ads, the Words They Use

A graphic from the political season. Nothing spectacular, but certainly telling. As stated above about the bear market graphic, this presents the truth as it actually is. Simple words are not enough to express the comparison a graphic like this provides. Ultimately, the messages of these candidates are very similar and only in their nuances can you find a difference, but that is not as easily understood as a word cloud.

Earlier this morning I was mentioned on the Charles Apple blog. Charles must be an early riser because I was unaware of this until 9:30 a.m. when my Communications Law professor, Dr. James Tidwell, congratulated me. So caught off guard, I had no idea what he was talking about until I did my daily visit to Mr. Apple’s blog. Since then I’ve received a number of congratulatory words from both students and professors.
To clear things up: Charles Apple asked for submissions for this post. He did not choose me, nor did I get nominated for something. He essentially offered free advertising and myself and 30 others took him up on the offer. Not to diminish the awesomeness of Charles’ mention, though, because the publicity for a Midwestern college student such as myself is extremely helpful.

The second reason for this post (the fortune part) is that I was offered and officially accepted the job of Managing Editor of The Daily Eastern News (Eastern Illinois’ student newspaper). I will take the position in the Fall under editor in chief Tyler Angelo.

Note: The Charles Apple post (probably) didn’t influence Tyler’s choice and yes, my ego is as the picture shows.

This weblog’s existence can be credited to Bryan Murley, my Multimedia Journalism professor at Eastern Illinois University. I say this because a weblog is a requirement of that class. As such, we (the students of the class) have a few requirements for our blogs. One of which is a final project entitled “Adopt-a-multimedia Journalism” where we choose a journalist in the field that is currently creating new media work (videos, Flash, Soundslides, etc.) and then we have to write a critique of their work. That said, I have chosen Amanda Cox of the New York Times and her work is amazing, so there will be inspirational value within. Avoid or flock to these posts as you see fit.

Click the image for the actual piece.

1: The Ebb and Flow of Movies

A simple concept: How well movies have done at the box office from 1986 until 2008. However, the execution on this is simply amazing. The look of the piece is clearly the draw, illustrating the words “ebb and flow” in a way that will forever (in my mind) remain salient. This is one of the coolest looking information graphics I have ever seen. I cannot praise it enough – it is thorough, visually appealing, interactive, and mostly intuitive. Which is my only critique. It takes a little bit to understand exactly what the graphic is saying. Why are certain movies going downward and other going up? Unless I’m missing something, there is no reason other than to create a better looking graphic. The index on the right feels like a bit of an after thought when compared to the interactive nature of everything else.

Click the image for the actual piece.

2: All of Inflations Little Parts

Again, an appealing graphic. To present it in an almost stained-glass motif implies the fragility of the whole system. I think the alternative text pop-ups are great and I think many designers would have stopped there, but the addition of the zooming, the graphic feels a whole lot more polished. There is a lot of information represented here and it gives the viewer a satisfying experience that could last quite a while. I only have a few issues with the graphic. I would have liked a more analogue zoom (rather than just the two levels) and I think the amount of information presented is a double-edged sword. On one hand, there is a lot to dive into, but on the other, it creates a bit of confusion (the meaning of the colors gets lost).

3: How Woods Wins a Major

This graphic, unlike the previous two, is not a visual masterpiece, but it’s not trying to be. The information is given in a meaningful way and it allows the reader to dig deep. Sports graphics should do effective comparisons and this pulls that off. This is heavily statistical and as interactive as it needs to be. I would have, however, liked the ability to compare two years or different years’ statistics more easily. Maybe a roll over function.

4: China’s Environmental Crisis

Great graphic. Style, elegance, and simplicity all in one. The China map is interactive, with roll over functionality and tons of information. The important pieces are highlighted and the rest are left up to the reader. This, however, is not where the graphic finishes. There is a second piece, a modest chart which effectively shows China and the United State’s positions in the world (in regard to environmental issues). The ability to see where the rest of the world is situated (through simple roll overs) is a huge plus. Overall, the lesson with this graphic is how to highlight the important information while offering the reader a little more through exploration.

5: Running Behind Schedule

Again, I am amazed. The level of interaction and the abundance of information within this graphic is astounding. While a tad overwhelming at first glance, there is no need for any more information or functionality, because everything is where you want it to be.

For the second half, please see the second post.

I loved Gary Hustwit’s “Helvetica.”  The way Hustwit interweaved the history of modernism and graphic design into a discussion about a single typeface was purely brilliant. His new film,  “Objectified” sounds like it is all I hoped it would be. Plus, who doesn’t want another film where people just talk about straight design?

As with Helvetica, what is said about the chosen arena of (industrial) design can really apply to all design fields. Discussions of utility, objectivity, and efficiency come up regardless of whether or not you work on paper or in steel. The film is really about design thinking and the creativity designers bring to whatever problem they are solving.

via ISO50 Blog – The Blog of Scott Hansen » Blog Archive » Objectified – San Francisco Premier.

Well, at least someone is trying something different. Hopefully the Monitor publishes the results of this experiment. My guess: No one will care.

Beginning this Sunday, we are going to begin reversing that trend a bit. From now on, each Sunday edition of The Monitor will prominently feature one or more “Print Edition Exclusive” stories that are of major impact, importance and interest to Valley readers.

via Monitor introduces Sunday ‘Print Edition Exclusives’ | monitor, print, edition – Now – TheMonitor.com.

This post by James White is really inspiring and I think some of his word choices really sum up the predicament a lot of designers (including myself) find themselves in. Read it.