Tracy Collins shared so much information with us about newspaper design, it's going to take me a while to digest it so I can regurgitate it to my students. I'm definitely going to use examples from his presentation and the sources he gave us to teach it.
I'm hoping that my students, especially those more artistically oriented than I, can spot the good and bad easier than I could. Some of the papers that I thought were just fine were the ones he was most against and I didn't understand why. He told us, and then I felt like hitting my head like in an old V-8 commercial as I understood.
I need to do a newspaper redesign for my publication because we're going from PCs to Macs and because now I know what looks good. I have a monster summer ahead of me. I hope my editors are ready because they have a monster summer ahead of them too.
Ryan Peacock
Tooele High School
Tooele, Utah
Design has always been a weak spot for me. I always recognized that the design or our paper was weak, but I could never really explain to my students why.
ReplyDeleteCollins said that was very important, to be able to justify to your students why they are following these design rules.
He also pointed us to so many areas of InDesign I never knew existed. Such as kern, track and reasons why type is so important. Now I know to look for those things.
I also liked his description of the difference between good and bad design and preference. He said some things are just elements of good design and others come down to whether or not you like it.
I have to admit, I've been lucky...my students know design. We go to area conferences, which all hammer the idea. These things have really helped. I can tell students what I don't like, but not always why...
ReplyDeleteJamie Nusbaum
Sheboygan North HS
Sheboygan, Wis.
There were definitely times yesterday when I felt like you, Ryan. I could see the obvious ones, but had difficulty with the subtle ones. I think that as long as you make an attempt to stick to the rules and understand them, the obvious ugliness will stick out and you will be able to avoid it.
ReplyDeleteBidjan Aminian
Dublin High School
Dublin, CA