Space Jam

This blog post is not about Michael Jordan teaming up with the Looney Toons to beat some weird alien creatures in a basketball game.

This blog post is about the jam designers get into when there's too much space and not enough content.

What to do?

This affliction often befalls newspapers, especially daily newspapers, because slow news days do happen. Sure, everybody prays for a drug bust or a political scandal or for someone prominent to die (don't judge, you know you do it too), but sometimes the most newsworthy event going on all day is a feminist bake sale outside your own newsroom. That's no good. But don't worry; it happens to everyone at some point (if someone tries to tell you they never have to run mediocre photos or stories to fill space, he is a liar).

Here are some ways I've seen extra space used well and not-so-well in the past.

Good use of empty space:
BIG HEADLINES - You don't want to blow up the headline about the abundance of cats at the local animal shelter, but a nice big one for a story about the weather works nicely.
PHOTO SPREAD - This doesn't work so well on those days when literally nothing is happening on campus, but for the most part, a photog can whip something up. If not, it's a good idea to keep something in your back pocket, like if swing dance practice happens every Tuesday. Save events like those for a rainy day.
ANOTHER STORY - Get a reporter to get off his ass and go do his job.
LIL' SOMETHIN' EXTRA - Deckheads, pull quotes, headshots, etc.
TEASERS - Tease something on the web. Works every time.

Bad use of empty space:
BIG HEADLINES - This is both a blessing and a curse. Bigger doesn't always mean better. Be careful.
MAKING BAD PHOTOS HUGE - Just don't.
HOUSE ADS - These work well when they're tiny and nothing else can fit, but don't make them giant. Please.
LEAVE THE WHITE SPACE NOT FILLED IN - What?

So remember, white =/= right.

Headlines for a Web Audience

In my crony's previous post, she wrote about catchy or punchy art heads (I spell it with the a), and how designers can blow them up big and play with typography in the absence of photos or a better idea.

Soon, though, art heads will be no more.

Since this blog is technically about all the things that will die when newspapers do, I figured I'd spend a moment to talk about Web headlines. Yes, they are different from newspaper headlines.

On a typical front page, for example, The BG News front page on Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010, the centerpiece is graced with a punny art head: "University rakes in new students." A few, short words get the point across, and the story is further explained by the deck head below.

But this same story might have a revised headline for the Web, something like: "Bowling Green State University rakes in new students for Fall Preview Day." This is a fine headline, but there are now more words, making it less eye-catching and more cumbersome to say.

These headlines get changed for something called search-engine optimization. Newspapers want readers to find their websites, so they plug headlines with as many specific words as possible. When the headline just said "University," not many people would find that story through a search, because there are a lot of universities. But there is only one Bowling Green State University.

Gene Weingarten, a pulitzer-prize winning journalist at The Washington Post, wrote a column about this very phenomenon. His point was that newspaper headlines were losing their original magic when being revised for online readers.

But every once in a while, readers can still stumble across something like this.

Headlines aren't dead yet.

It's all in your art hed

We often think of news design as the photos, layout or graphics on a page. But headlines are quintessential to successfully-conveyed stories — and designers just can't keep their hands off important page elements.

Designers don't always write the headlines (though some of the more talented visual journalists will). But their manipulation of text and use of typography, known as an art hed, can make or break the presentation of a story.

Take this page from today's Muncie Star Press in Muncie, Ind. The story is somewhat interesting — construction on the state's wind farm has been delayed. But the photo doesn't have any action; it is just a house. The real art of this stunning centerpiece is the title, "Taking the wind out of their sails."

A designer managed to make me look at a story I may have otherwise blown by. Honestly, the only reason I even looked at this paper was because the art hed got my attention.

But with power comes great responsibility. Art heds have the vast potential to go awry.

Here is a news infographic found on a News Page Designer portfolio. The stories discuss political platforms and agendas of several candidates. But the design does not tell you that. In fact, the art hed gives no clue as to what the stories entail. The poor art hed, combined with the graphic behind the text, produces a confusing page. The message has been muffled. Thus the design has failed its objective.