A Very Grady Finale

In formulating my front page, I considered several elements before attempting to create an original work. My first step was to consult the Newseum Web site to look at all of the possible options for my front page’s style. I also picked up several issues of the Red and Black and carefully considered their editorial decision making in lieu of taking the design for granted and flipping to the crossword.
I opted for a clean, crisp font for the masthead and let the creative title of our publication speak for itself. Drawing upon our lectures concerning the importance of pictures, I chose stories that had a strong, eye-catching pictures accompanying them so that I could attract the attention of my readers. As Professor Parks discussed in lecture, “design can draw readers in.” A captivating story may not grab reader interest if there is not an alluring picture to go along with it. Therefore, I chose two pictures that fit the bill for what Joe called the “cute” factor in his lecture. My main photo is of an adorable little girl, looking up as if to engage the reader. Another one of my photographs is of a dog. Following Amber’s advice in lab, I switched the placement of my photo and story concerning pet adoption so that the dog was facing inward. As we learned in lecture, it is preferable that all of the elements face inward to draw reader attention to the page itself.
The content of my stories constitutes a completely local angle, which is necessary for a small publication. It goes without saying that a smaller paper cannot outdo a large paper for covering national stories, so covering what interests Athens residents is the best way to go. With this in mind, I selected stories that covered a varied range of topics, from the economy to arts and culture. I also included the article about Zingo because it was of interest to my primary audience, the students in my class.

The Grady Requirement, blog edition

When sitting down to start designing my front page, the first thing I tried to do was outline how I wanted the page to look. With the help of browsing some front pages from Newseum, I decided where I thought graphics and stories should go. Then I looked at the Red and Black and the Athens Banner Herald front pages to get more of an idea what local newspapers feature.

The first thing I did on InDesign was design my masthead. I wanted it to look professional, so I took a more traditional approach. Looking back and seeing everyone else’s mastheads, I wish I had been a little more creative. One thing Dr. Parks pointed out in lecture is that we were afraid of “big.” I think that was my problem with my masthead; I was afraid to make it too overbearing and settled for a weaker one. I added the unique lines around it so it would give it some kind of memorable trademark.

Next I sorted through the budget line to see which articles I thought would be best for the front page. I considered what content would get the most attention, graphics, and what I thought really represented the whole paper. I wanted the streaking story to be my biggest feature on the front page, but one of my main concerns was that the graphics were in black-and-white. That is why I ended up adding the blue color to my masthead and it ended up becoming a color scheme throughout the page. This issue also led me to choose the Eco-reach story because it had a really nice, bright photo.

Overall, I like my front page. Looking back, I would have liked to eliminate some of the text and make photos larger, but it is easy to read and I think I chose good stories for the front page. Through working on this project, I became much more comfortable with InDesign. Additionally, it was a good experience because I am less intimidated now to design a front page or any newspaper pages because I have done it before.