Thursday, June 01, 2006
Vox: Boxing 6.01 cover
Here is this week's cover:
It was a photo essay on a boxing club in town with really powerful black and white images. I liked this photo for the cover because it's ambiguous. It tells the reader the subject, but none of the players are in the forefront, creating an incentive to read the feature inside.
Because the photo was black and white, I wanted to play that up, and did so by lessening my colors around it. The gold lettering gives some muted colors, I liked the metallic look of the gold on the page. The white outline of vox represents the ropes in a boxing ring.
Some critique of the cover, a black and white photo, no matter how interesting, still doesn't really sell Vox as a cover. Part of it was that the black and white only prints on one plate. Possibly printing it as a four-color grayscale would have made it pop more, but honestly I think it just can't be done on our presses.
Illustrations
Also in the past few weeks I've taken on some illustrating responsibilities, here are two gems. The first is a fun little ice cream cone, the second is much more disturbing. It was originally going to be a cover, filled with masks of different artists, but fortunately boxing was deemed 'cover worthy' It still gives me the creeps looking at it, I had to stop designing after these two because it was creeping me out.
It was a photo essay on a boxing club in town with really powerful black and white images. I liked this photo for the cover because it's ambiguous. It tells the reader the subject, but none of the players are in the forefront, creating an incentive to read the feature inside.
Because the photo was black and white, I wanted to play that up, and did so by lessening my colors around it. The gold lettering gives some muted colors, I liked the metallic look of the gold on the page. The white outline of vox represents the ropes in a boxing ring.
Some critique of the cover, a black and white photo, no matter how interesting, still doesn't really sell Vox as a cover. Part of it was that the black and white only prints on one plate. Possibly printing it as a four-color grayscale would have made it pop more, but honestly I think it just can't be done on our presses.
Illustrations
Also in the past few weeks I've taken on some illustrating responsibilities, here are two gems. The first is a fun little ice cream cone, the second is much more disturbing. It was originally going to be a cover, filled with masks of different artists, but fortunately boxing was deemed 'cover worthy' It still gives me the creeps looking at it, I had to stop designing after these two because it was creeping me out.
News: WEEK TWO (May 31-June 2)
Wed. Second front:
My first use of a two-photo centerpiece. There was a space issue with the centerpiece-- I did not know there were two photos, and a tagline previewing the hickman graduation the next day never made it on the page. Although it was just talked about as a possibility, its missing presence on the page the next day led to questions from Liz and Joy.
The infobox in the centerpiece was long, and its placement means both photos are on the same side. I could have switched their positions, creating a diagonal for the photos, and moving the infobox headline away from the t-deck...there is just too much type up there in that corner. I like the headline above the photo.
Lesson of the day: don't volunteer to add things until you know the space available
Thursday 1A:
This was my first use of an art head. It was once again a stand-alone photo with a copy block attached. The photo at the top corner gives the sky in the photo a place to expand, and the art head really goes well with the boy in the photograph.
The online story at the bottom needs a website address added to it. This was a tricky situation, the story was once on the jump page, but was bumped off for a different story and all that was left was a 1A teaser to go online. I changed the display to 'online' as well as rewrote the last line to say 'see online.' I assumed the copy editors would add what needed to be added, but apparently they suck. (That was harsh, but that day specifically I had real issues with the copy desk, I won't go into making fun of the spelling bee kid in his headline)
Another lesson Joy told me was to treat pages as blocks. Try to get one space filled first, then have everything else fit into the rest. The vertical space is an example of this-- I knew where the photo and graphic stories would go, and by keeping those in the same block, it left a vertical column to fill with an AP story.
The graphic was really tall, and I had trouble trying to keep the standalone photo dominate with such a large graphic to deal with. It guaranteed the photo would be at the top, and also moved my mugshot of the spelling bee kid to the outside. I like my vertical column, it helped set up the page really well.
Lesson of the day: Don't be flustered by the newsroom's frantic nature.
Friday Second Front:
This second front had a lot of infobox material to fit in a few stories. The 'How To Volunteer' in the lead story worked well lined up next to the story. The 'Get Involved' also matched well with the infographic in the Dig story. This was another two-photo centerpiece, but this one was def more newsy than my others.
I'm getting better at distinguishing between headline sizes, and that top headline was 60 pt-- SUCCESS! The photos were boring, but I wasn't going to argue with the photo department this early in the semester.
The lead story was the last one to come in, and at the time the centerpiece story was longer and taking up more space vertically. My first reaction was to cut the lead story, because that was what was not fitting, but the centerpiece was already so long, it had to most space to cut from, and also prol needed the cutting.
Lesson of the week: In lieu of an inch long feature, find something else on the page to cut.
My first use of a two-photo centerpiece. There was a space issue with the centerpiece-- I did not know there were two photos, and a tagline previewing the hickman graduation the next day never made it on the page. Although it was just talked about as a possibility, its missing presence on the page the next day led to questions from Liz and Joy.
The infobox in the centerpiece was long, and its placement means both photos are on the same side. I could have switched their positions, creating a diagonal for the photos, and moving the infobox headline away from the t-deck...there is just too much type up there in that corner. I like the headline above the photo.
Lesson of the day: don't volunteer to add things until you know the space available
Thursday 1A:
This was my first use of an art head. It was once again a stand-alone photo with a copy block attached. The photo at the top corner gives the sky in the photo a place to expand, and the art head really goes well with the boy in the photograph.
The online story at the bottom needs a website address added to it. This was a tricky situation, the story was once on the jump page, but was bumped off for a different story and all that was left was a 1A teaser to go online. I changed the display to 'online' as well as rewrote the last line to say 'see online.' I assumed the copy editors would add what needed to be added, but apparently they suck. (That was harsh, but that day specifically I had real issues with the copy desk, I won't go into making fun of the spelling bee kid in his headline)
Another lesson Joy told me was to treat pages as blocks. Try to get one space filled first, then have everything else fit into the rest. The vertical space is an example of this-- I knew where the photo and graphic stories would go, and by keeping those in the same block, it left a vertical column to fill with an AP story.
The graphic was really tall, and I had trouble trying to keep the standalone photo dominate with such a large graphic to deal with. It guaranteed the photo would be at the top, and also moved my mugshot of the spelling bee kid to the outside. I like my vertical column, it helped set up the page really well.
Lesson of the day: Don't be flustered by the newsroom's frantic nature.
Friday Second Front:
This second front had a lot of infobox material to fit in a few stories. The 'How To Volunteer' in the lead story worked well lined up next to the story. The 'Get Involved' also matched well with the infographic in the Dig story. This was another two-photo centerpiece, but this one was def more newsy than my others.
I'm getting better at distinguishing between headline sizes, and that top headline was 60 pt-- SUCCESS! The photos were boring, but I wasn't going to argue with the photo department this early in the semester.
The lead story was the last one to come in, and at the time the centerpiece story was longer and taking up more space vertically. My first reaction was to cut the lead story, because that was what was not fitting, but the centerpiece was already so long, it had to most space to cut from, and also prol needed the cutting.
Lesson of the week: In lieu of an inch long feature, find something else on the page to cut.
