Copyright dilemma

Look and listen to how editors at The Daily Evergreen, the student newspaper at Washington State University, dealt with a copyright issue they encountered after the Virginia Tech shootings on April 16, 2007.

Newspagedesigner.com

Like collegefrontpage.com, this site is another way to post your design examples up to the Web.

Newspagedesigner.com is a professional resume site that hosts work from news page designers around the world. Portfolios are available to browse by specific journalist or by section category.

This site is a little harder to upload images because the site only supports .Jpeg files, where college Front Page can also upload small-sized PDFs. However, after exiting college, switching to a more professional site is probably the best way to go.

News Page Designer is hosted by the Sun Journal in Lewiston Maine.

Both Web sites are free to join. All you need is an E-mail address.

Collegefrontpage.com

This site is a great resource for students to post their samples to an online database.

Though the site is primarily used for news design, photographers also upload their images, and reporters upload PDFs of their stories.

By uploading your clips, employers can go to your site and see your recent work. This makes it easier when submitting job applications online, and it's also cheaper because there is no need to pay for color copies and postage!

I have to admit, that I have a biased opinion of the site because it was created by students at WSU! Brian Immel and Joe Barrantine, both former staffers at The Daily Evergreen, the student newspaper at WSU, teamed up in the fall of 2005.

Because it is privately ran, Brian and Joe are both available if you need help with the site. Currently you can only upload 15 clips to your site, but with a quick E-mail request they can bump up your space.

Job posting and internships are routinely updated and the site offers a great opportunity for networking. Check it out!

Newspaper redesign

With newspaper readers becoming more and more visual because of the internet and interactive media, many papers are finding it necessary to redesign to keep readers interested.

This article by Ron Reason talks about how to know if your newspaper needs to redesign, and how to go about it.

Though, obviously, not all people work at a newspaper, these same principles can be used to redesign an art portfolio, or even a resume.

The Daily Evergreen - Behind the Press

Meet the editorial staff of The Daily Evergreen, the student newspaper at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash.

Watermarking images

If you post images on the Web frequently, whether they are on a personal site, or for a business site for newspapers or design firms, you might want to consider posting images with a watermark.

If the business owns the rights to the photo, you might find your picture on other unauthorized sites.

This tutorial explains the photoshop process to give your photos a watermark.

RGB and CMYK colors

Learning the differences between RGB and CMYK colors is something all designers should know.

Designers need to know this information to correctly work up photographs to be ready to print, and to accurately predict how the photo will look after printing.

This article explains the logic behind the different colors that the human eye can see, and how different colors are processed on photo-editing software such as Adobe Photoshop.

After you have read through this tutorial, read the differences between bitmaps, channels and the CMYK process in a more advanced article.

To take color one step further, read this article about different color systems, and how printers process color information. It also mentions how to layer colors for optimum printing.

Create your logo

Logo design is a great knowledge base to have, in that newspapers are becoming more visual by adding elements like story tags, or photo illustrations that draw attention to particular stories.

This article offers a step-by-step guide to creating your own logo that will fit the needs of your specific newspaper or magazine.

This artist designs logos for commerical businesses, but if you look at the design of newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune, The Virginian-Pilot, USA Today, or the Hartford Courant, you will see that they use small logos to promote story series and steady weekly features or columns.

This visual element, though small, can draw the reader to your particular story, and also serves as a way for the reader to identify the type of story easily in the future.

Scanning as a lost art

With the increasing pressure for newspapers to dazzle and draw in readers using design, page designers should start thinking outside of the box.

This article brings up a great idea that many graphic editors do not consider: scanning.

Scanning can capture the true textures and colors of an object that a camera cannot. Plus, it's easy.

When scanning using Adobe Photoshop simply click file – import – and then pick you scanner. A preview window will pop up showing your previous scan. Make sure to preview your object before you scan, in case you need to make any adjustments. Then press scan, save your picture, and you are done. No captions needed.

Check out this article for great examples of newspapers that used scanners to capture an image.

Design tip forum

This article explores the thoughts of six design experts, and transcribes their answers to basic design questions.

The article is a virtual discussion on design with a diverse group of designers from cities ranging from Florida to Toronto.

The six designers discuss such topics like the links between readership and design, laying type on top of photos, and rules and boxes.

Click here to read the complete article.

Design job opportunities

The Society for News Design, SND, is an international organization made of editors, designers, graphic artists, publishers, illustrators, photographers, and even advertising artists and Web site designers.

SND holds annual news design workshops, exhibitions, and they also hold competitions.

The SND Web site is a great place to find news design job postings (internships are also searchable), and design training tools.

Start your search with the SND now!

Audio production

Much like other newspapers, The Daily Evergreen at WSU has its own design strategies.

This audio production features opinions and strategies on newspaper design from staff members of The Daily Evergreen.

Check this link out and learn how The Daily Evergreen looks at bias in design, headline strategies, Web design and industry standards.

Fun with Photoshop

Many Photoshop users alter photographs to be made into abstract images, or even jokes. This site holds Photoshop contests, and users can enter and vote on the winning entries.

Click on the "contests" tab in the upper right-hand corner, then scroll down to find contests that have already ended to get some great creative ideas for ways to play with Photoshop.

Basic Photoshop Skills

Whether you have access to Adobe Photoshop regularly or not, having skills in this photo editing program is a great knowledge base to apply with your design skills.

Many times a good design can turn into a great design with just a simple illustration or graphic element, both of which can be created using Adobe Photoshop.

There are many Web sites that offer Photoshop tutorials, such as www.good-tutorials.com. Here you can search for photoshop tutorials, and, if necessary, be redirected to different sites that offer what you need. I have found some tutorials that are quite useful to make graphics and editing photos in the past. If you have no prior experience with Photoshop, read through these tutorials in order from first to last, as these skills build upon each other.

Setting up your workspace.
Beginners should start with this tutorial. This site literally explains ALL of the basics of how to set up, and customize your Photoshop, from the time you start the program. It goes through what each tool does, and the uses for different types of windows.

Layers.
Learning how to use the layers pallet is vital to navigating through Photoshop. This tutorial explains the basics, and also some information about selections tools.

Levels.
Using levels can improve the quality of a photo, or help you reach a desired color effect. This tutorial explains the basic terminology of the different options in levels such as exposures, tones and histogram.

Document sizing.
This site is actually a video demonstration of some resizing and document size tips.

Stencils: Trendy Design

Visual marketing design can be more trendy than New York Fashion Week.

The same way clothes go in and out of style, so do design trends.

Recently, advertisers and businesses have steered towards using more of a modern, sleek design, as seen in ads for Apple Inc.'s iPod.

These print and television ads depict the outline of a person shaded in all black, with a white iPod in their hand. Many ads have followed this trend by featuring solid color logos with slick lines.

Because of the iPod's success in their advertising and marketing endeavors, design in the media has changed, making Apple Inc. a design trend setter.

This new sleek design is similar to the art of stenciling.

There are many artists who work with stencils only. Artists combine Photoshop skills with photos or original drawings, and create multiple-layer stencils to create art that is easy to duplicate.

Many Web sites show how to stencil, though www.stencilrevolution.com is by far the best. They offer tutorials to learn how to use Photoshop to create stencils, a gallery filled of users recent works, and even advanced tips.

Check out some of these great links, and see for yourself the art that inspired the newest trends in main-stream design.

Microsoft redesigns the iPod

I heard through the grapevine about a video on YouTube.com that shows how Microsoft would redesign the iPod packaging to fit their own marketed design style.

The video was later confirmed by Microsoft spokesman Tom Pilla that it is indeed legitimate.

Microsoft's packaging team created the video to "humorously highlight the challenges we have faced packaging and to educate marketers here about the pitfalls of packaging/branding," Pilla said in an e-mail interview with boingboing.com.

This video is great at showing the differences between design functions for separate business identities.

Enjoy.

Designing for a small paper

While college students majoring with an emphasis in journalism dream of working at a large metropolitan newspaper straight out of college, most students will land jobs at smaller, more community based papers before making it to the big time.

These smaller newspapers have a different audiences and in many cases they have less resources available that can make design a difficult task to accomplish.

I recently found a great collection of design tips for small newspapers at newspagedesigner.com that the site's creators compiled.

Digg it

See a story you like? Digg it!

Digg.com is a site that collects articles submitted online. People can vote for which articles they like the best, after which these articles are ranked by popularity.

If you like a blog post, digg it!

Del.icio.us

Here is a list of great links that deal with newspaper design.

http://del.icio.us/adoty

The Rocky Mountain News redesign

Newspapers are changing.

Content is changing, multimedia is changing, and even design is changing.

Some newspapers are now catering to their readers by changing print size. Instead of tall, long pages, newspapers are starting to print on shorter, wider, pages that are more convenient to read on the subway or at the office.

The Rocky Mountain News recently made a drastic redesign that puts into print the changes that newspapers are dealing with. The paper reduced their size, and chose new fonts to change their design to be "conceived more like a magazine."

This Rocky Mountain News Web site explains the basic changes that The Rocky Mountain News has made, and why they decided to redesign.

Design poll

Learning Adobe InDesign

Many copy editors either use Adobe InDesign or Quark to lay out newspaper or magazine pages at the end of the night. I have never worked with Quark before, but I do think that learning the basics of InDesign can jump start a copy editing career.

This site has a great “basic InDesign” tutorial that is animated and easily understandable.

There are also many other sites that offer other InDesign skills such as how to create your own template, and more advanced skills.

Mommy Britney and Brangelina

Today, magazine covers are littered with high-paid celebrities and their model girlfriends. Cover design has to be catchy to draw in the attention of the readers, and apparently actors and actresses are the best way to do this. But, it didn’t always used to be that way.

This article by Coury Turczyn demonstrates the changes in cover design over time. It features “Then & Now: A Magazine Cover Design Face-off,” comparing the covers of magazines such as Vanity Fair and Fortune to 50 years ago.

While Turczyn adds in a few personal opinions, the article gives a good representation of how readers have changed, and what magazines have done with design to keep readers coming back for more.

Curse of the Bambino

Gabcast! Journ 475 #0



There are two sides to every story, and there are two types of people. The yankee fans, and the Red Sox fans. You might not consider yourself in either of these groups, but during the seventh game of the American League Championship Series, every one picked a side, including the media.

The article, written by Warren Watson, is an accurate representation of how different newspapers reacted to the Red Sox’s unexpected win. Watson provides a gallery of front pages that illustrates how differently eastern and western newspapers covered the game. This article is great visual proof that there is indeed two sides to every story.

Less can be more

Designing for a newspaper on a “big news” day, such as the death of Gerald Ford or even the Cougar’s loss in the Apple Cup, can be a challenging task. Designers struggle with how to place more focus on one story, and still accurately tell the rest of the news.

In the article “One Image, One Word,” Anne Van Wagener points out ways to accomplish just this.

In this article Wagener speaks about how simple design can make a powerful statement. She gives examples of layout during Hurricane Katrina. Wagener makes a powerful argument that a devastating phenomenon, such as September 11th or Hurricane Katrina, deserves a clean and accurate design. Rather than using several images of the event, she suggests using the most powerful image to evoke feelings from the readers. Pictures stacked upon one another can draw attention away from each photograph’s emotion. A simple, bold headline can accomplish this same effect.