This week was my first week designing Short Talk! Yay! I really enjoy designing departments more than features, probably because I like reading them more. While you can do a lot of beautiful things with features, departments are 1) more interesting to me, 2) quicker reads, and 3) lend themselves to more entry and exit points for designers, therefore creating more opportunities for graphical elements. I know it's strange to like departments so much, but I just do.
With that being said, I did have some difficulties. All of the 2/14 designers were cheated out of Friday while we were at Meredith, so basically that entire afternoon was shot. That's not a ton of time, but it was a slight disadvantage. I didn't have any trouble completing my page aside from what many of you have already heard about. I was not given any of the required story information at the top of the story document as we usually are. The editor either forgot to include headlines, decks, bylines, pulled quotes, etc., or he simply didn't have them done yet. Either way I didn't have them by the time Sunday rolled around. After emailing him and calling him at different times throughout the weekend, Meredith and I chose to move on with the page anyway. This situation left us with little to no options; we didn't want to insert a headline we chose because it could create confusion. However, as you all can see, the headline on the left page was an essential part of the design, so the page didn't make the best possible first impression on the editors. While I learned how to deal with similar dilemmas in the future, it was a frustrating occurrence.
The page was actually redesigned slightly on Monday. The original looked like this page (above) and was missing the exterior photo of Athena. When looking at the nature of the art on the left page, the consensus was that the right half-page needed something more visual (or at least that's what I was told). After redesigning to the page at the beginning of this post, I'm much happier with the grid format and the fact that the page wasn't so text heavy. The secondary story was actually written with a fifth myth that had to be cut, but things worked out better, in my opinion. The published version could turn out slightly different.
I'll post drafts of my cover for the T/F issue next time. That's all for now.
tbw.
3 comments:
I have to say that your department page is one of my favorites so far :-) I never thought about dept pages like you do, and it's interesting to see your take on the design opportunities on a dept page. You've helped me have a more positive opinion of dept page designs. GREAT JOB!!
Your ST pages turned out really well. I love the thumbprint! It looks very realistic. Maybe Rodrigo Sanchez is right about the benefits of designing under pressure.
I really loved your department pages this week. The scanner thing and thumbprint! It looks so cool and is really creative. Great job!
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