The Arizona Republic
Weatherford Daily News
Chicago Tribune
Latrobe Bulletin in Latrobe, Pa.
Post and Courier
Virginian-Pilot
Oshkosh Northwestern in Oshkosh, Wis.
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Nov 3, 2010
Election fronts
It's the day after Election Day. Every good newspaperman in America is suffering from a hangover today, induced by a late night not of drinking Tequila but of drinking in the Republican sweep across the country. Both local and national elections happened, and here are some first rough drafts of history (the good, bad and mediocre) documenting the occasions.
Oct 18, 2010
Newspaper + Museum = Newseum
Let's talk about the Newseum.
Every night before they leave their shifts, front page designers of member newspapers submit that paper's front page to the Newseum. Then the front page is posted the next day in an exhibit called Today's Front Pages. Hundreds of newspapers from all over the world submit front pages, and they are available for easy viewing access. Also, the actual museum in Washington D.C. displays a couple hundred front pages of different newspapers every day.
Front pages from when Hurricane Katrina hit, from when Obama won the presidency and from Sept. 12, 2001 are archived and available to view online or in person at the museum. There are also exhibits depicting the history of news as well as the future of news. But for designers, the best part are the front pages.
Need inspiration? Check your favorite papers daily to see how they're showing their information to the public. Want to just marvel at good design? All the time, writers say you can't be a good writer until you're a good reader, well, this is reading for designers. You can't be a good designer until you see the good, bad and ugly ideas fleshed out on an actual newspaper. Want to feel good about yourself? The Newseum picks its top 10 front pages every day from the crop it gets each night. I know people who have designed one of those top 10. It's an ego boost for sure.
But whatever your reasons, check it out.
Every night before they leave their shifts, front page designers of member newspapers submit that paper's front page to the Newseum. Then the front page is posted the next day in an exhibit called Today's Front Pages. Hundreds of newspapers from all over the world submit front pages, and they are available for easy viewing access. Also, the actual museum in Washington D.C. displays a couple hundred front pages of different newspapers every day.
Front pages from when Hurricane Katrina hit, from when Obama won the presidency and from Sept. 12, 2001 are archived and available to view online or in person at the museum. There are also exhibits depicting the history of news as well as the future of news. But for designers, the best part are the front pages.
Need inspiration? Check your favorite papers daily to see how they're showing their information to the public. Want to just marvel at good design? All the time, writers say you can't be a good writer until you're a good reader, well, this is reading for designers. You can't be a good designer until you see the good, bad and ugly ideas fleshed out on an actual newspaper. Want to feel good about yourself? The Newseum picks its top 10 front pages every day from the crop it gets each night. I know people who have designed one of those top 10. It's an ego boost for sure.
But whatever your reasons, check it out.
Oct 3, 2010
A History of News Design, Part 2
A history of news design is, essentially, a history of news. For important, historic events, it has often been said that newspapers are the first rough draft of history.
Design is how that rough draft is presented to the world. Check out these newspapers and see how they present/preserve one historic event.
Design is how that rough draft is presented to the world. Check out these newspapers and see how they present/preserve one historic event.
Sep 27, 2010
A History of News Design, part 1
In the beginning, there was news, but there wasn't design. At least not much.
Back when concerned citizens first started newspapers, the idea was to get information out, not to make it look good. Since newspapers was the primary source of information, editors took for granted that citizens would read it. The front page didn't have to be eye-catching.
This front page is from 1964. A lot of people probably read it back then, when no other news source was available, but if The BG News tried to pull a design like this today, not many would read it.
That's a lot of text, and it doesn't flow well. Nearly every story is L-shaped, and L-shapes are tough for readers' eyes to follow. Also, there are about nine stories on the front. Today, most newspapers get away with three or four longer stories because big photos, big headlines, big design takes up space.
Actually, most of the tricks newspapers use today to get readers' attentions are not present: Big photos, punchy headlines, even bylines are absent.
But many of these differences come from how the paper was put together. Not many photos were used because it was so much more difficult back then to apply photos to the giant sheets of metal they sent to the printer (again, more about process later).
Design didn't actually start to change until the rise of the computer. The creative, design-heavy front pages seen today weren't possible without programs like InDesign and PhotoShop.
A History of News Design, part 2 coming soon
Back when concerned citizens first started newspapers, the idea was to get information out, not to make it look good. Since newspapers was the primary source of information, editors took for granted that citizens would read it. The front page didn't have to be eye-catching.
That's a lot of text, and it doesn't flow well. Nearly every story is L-shaped, and L-shapes are tough for readers' eyes to follow. Also, there are about nine stories on the front. Today, most newspapers get away with three or four longer stories because big photos, big headlines, big design takes up space.
Actually, most of the tricks newspapers use today to get readers' attentions are not present: Big photos, punchy headlines, even bylines are absent.
But many of these differences come from how the paper was put together. Not many photos were used because it was so much more difficult back then to apply photos to the giant sheets of metal they sent to the printer (again, more about process later).
Design didn't actually start to change until the rise of the computer. The creative, design-heavy front pages seen today weren't possible without programs like InDesign and PhotoShop.
A History of News Design, part 2 coming soon
Sep 25, 2010
Paperboys
It's 6 a.m., and you're pissed because you had to wake up so early for work. You put the coffee on, think about adding a shot of Bailey's, but decide to be professional today and so have just the coffee, and then you check the front porch for the morning news. You know it will be there, because someone has gotten out of his warm bed even earlier than you: the paperboy.
If half this blog is about what will go away when newspapers do, then we can't ignore this most noble of professions. Being a paperboy is almost a rite of passage in a young man or lady's life (even though some were girls, everybody was still considered a paper*boy*). When I was a kid, I wanted to deliver newspapers. But my parents decided to move three miles outside of town, and I was unwilling to bike all the way there and back every morning. And it didn't even matter anyway, because one family in town had a monopoly on the paperboy business, and it was impossible for anyone else to break in. I would have been good, though. I would have been really good.
It just won't be the same, waking up to coffee and the sound of your old Windows 98 booting up to check Google News. Plus, without the responsibility of having a steady job, young kids who were once destined to be paperboys in a pre-Internet society will probably turn to the streets selling heroin and sleeping in opium houses.
If half this blog is about what will go away when newspapers do, then we can't ignore this most noble of professions. Being a paperboy is almost a rite of passage in a young man or lady's life (even though some were girls, everybody was still considered a paper*boy*). When I was a kid, I wanted to deliver newspapers. But my parents decided to move three miles outside of town, and I was unwilling to bike all the way there and back every morning. And it didn't even matter anyway, because one family in town had a monopoly on the paperboy business, and it was impossible for anyone else to break in. I would have been good, though. I would have been really good.
It just won't be the same, waking up to coffee and the sound of your old Windows 98 booting up to check Google News. Plus, without the responsibility of having a steady job, young kids who were once destined to be paperboys in a pre-Internet society will probably turn to the streets selling heroin and sleeping in opium houses.
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