Designing

First off, after being in class Friday before break and trying to make a nice newspaper layout, I have such appreciation for the Chicago Tribune, Hartford Courant and Oklahoman's new designs. I think it's great that they are trying to move with the times and update their paper, just as any firm would do with their products as time goes on. Newspapers today especially need to be innovative, enterprising and branching out of the traditional boundaries. I also think it was great that the Chicago Tribune and Oklahoman held focus groups to see if the readers would like their new design. The narrower paper definitely is a big change and I think making that change without seeing how readers felt would have been a potentially huge mistake. I also loved how the Oklahoman is using color as a navigational tool. I think most people can attest that newspapers can get a little dry and dreary to look at when it's all grey with only three colors. The Oklahoman's vibrant colors are awesome, though it can't be cheap. I'd love to use a lot of color and an unique design for our news publication, especially because I think it will resonate well with our young target audience.
Quinn's article about visual journalists is really interesting and it makes me really wish I knew more about design and layout. I actually am considering taking the AdCopy and Design class through my IMC minor and after reading these few articles, I think I might just because of the opportunity I may be giving myself in the future. I think it makes perfect sense that visual journalists- combining good content and research with text, graphics and more- are going to be highly desirable in the upcoming years. People have always responded well to visuals while hearing/reading a story.
I thought the debunked design myths were interesting. I didn't even know a lot of them- like what is reverse type exactly. I really would like to use a different font and rag right alignment for our news publication. Again I think for our target audience it will be good to have easy-to- read text.