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Global Journalist Critique


So this past week I designed my two page spread for Global Journalist. I had two facing pages, and my editor found good pictures for me. I was looking at a very long article about the conflict in East Timor, where the President is infringing on the rights of journalists there. Because it was a conflict piece, it was important to put both a picture of the president in the spread, as well as journalists. The article was very long, and when the pictures and text were both placed, I really had no room left. I made sure to leave about two inches at the top of the first page in order to create an interesting headline, but I do not like the grid we have to work with.

With only three columns, picture sizes (especially horizontal ones) can either be small, or large. I wanted to play one image very big, but there just wasn't enough space for a big picture and the text. I ended up placing it over two columns, but its dominance has been lost because of the constraints of the grid. My other picture was of the president, and while this picture looked too large if placed over more than one column, its smallness made that page seem very VERY text-y. I placed a pull quote underneath the picture in the middle of the text in order to break up the story, as well as to lend a bit of symmetry to the design.

For my headline, I came up with the idea to use the East Timor flag because its colors really stood out. I first tried placing the flag on the side of the page, but it looked too clip-arty. I tried also placing the headline over the flag, but it didn't work out. Because the headline I worked with was 'East Timor's Troubled Times,' all the Ts made me think one dominant T would break up the repetition. I used a large, block T for Timor, and used my newly discovered photoshop trick to place the flag behind the letter. It works really well with the flag, and I am happy the editors went for it. It gives the page color that was otherwise lacing.