Whenever I work on magazine redesigns, or newspaper redesigns (or sections) that might lend themselves to exploring a more magazine-like direction, I wallow in the joys and challenges of designing covers. Here are four areas where I tend to concentrate my work, that may provide lessons for editors and designers struggling to create magazine covers that pop:
http://ronreason.com/designwithreason/2011/10/16/magazine-redesign-and-cover-design-some-basics/
[ON THE OCCASION OF ITS 40TH BIRTHDAY]
Last year I wrote an admiring post here on Seattle alt weekly The Stranger, praising the paper (as well as its integrated, smart and funny marketing and digital efforts), and pondering: This is a paper I’d really seek out if I lived in Seattle. What is it about how they do what they do that makes it so appealing?
The appearance at my local coffeeshop this morning of a special 40th anniversary issue of the Chicago Reader (above, with online links below) prompts me to follow up my Stranger love with some Reader props. While I was the consultant hired to advise the paper on its major overhaul that launched in April, I am not affiliated with them six months later.
During the last year, the paper’s gotten its act together in such a way that makes me (as a reader, not a journalist or designer or consultant) once again want to hunt down a copy when it hits the street each Wednesday or Thursday. This was the local habit for decades, for seemingly everyone moving to the city – you made a point to cross the street to get one – but obviously, the “decline of print” has made this less common. What seems to be at work today with the Reader? How did this happen? Read the full post »
http://ronreason.com/designwithreason/2011/10/13/6-things-to-learn-from-the-chicago-reader-print-edition/
[The first live edition of the redesigned newspaper. From the logo to the body text, all type was reconsidered. For the first issue, a more magazine-like centerpiece was planned to grab attention. See additional design variations in prototypes below, and compare the new look to the old look from recent issues.]
[LITTLE ROCK] Arkansas Business, the weekly business newspaper circulating throughout Arkansas, today launches its first complete redesign since 1993. I have been working with the staff during the past three months, to create a fresh new logo (dozens of variations were put on the drawing board), page re-sequencing, new design elements for old and new features, improved typography and a new navigational system. Newsroom planning, communications, and integration with web publishing and social media efforts were addressed. I have spent this week on site in Little Rock, Arkansas, assisting with training and implementation of the design, and lending a hand with a few pages as well.
Having worked with many city and national business weeklies including Crain’s Chicago Business and Advertising Age (published in similar large format tab, stitched and on premium glossy paper), the challenge at hand was not a new one. What was refreshing: Publisher Jeff Hankin’s reassurance from the start of my consult that “we are redesigning from a position of strength, not desperation,” alluding to the challenges facing almost all mainstream daily newspapers in the U.S. His company, Arkansas Business Publishing Group, boasts a higher paid circulation than it had five years ago, publishes nearly 20 glossy (and gorgeous) niche magazines and specialty publications, and has had a thriving web design business for years.
“Our circulation numbers, third-party media research and proprietary research tell us we’re doing many things right and our readership remains strong,” he tells reader in a column in the debut issue. “But we are keenly aware of changing media consumption habits and reader interests, so it was important to us to re-evaluate our brand top to bottom.” The project has been one part of the paper’s 25th anniversary celebration.
[Prototypes show how content from recent editions would translate to the new format. Click to enlarge. Headlines were rewritten to allow for more of a conversational, inviting tone, where appropriate, and the new typography allowed the same stories as published before to be projected with more flair and confidence.]
http://ronreason.com/designwithreason/2011/07/28/a-newspaper-redesign-from-a-position-of-strength/
It’s not quite a tab, but a new smaller shape is being considered by several U.S. publishers of broadsheet newspapers, reports Poynter Online this week. This report has caused a bit of a stir and led to a number of inquiries asking: is now the time when we move closer to tabloid in the States?
Of course tabs have been quite popular around the world, but overall, slow to catch on in the States. Here, publishers have cited concerns about the preference of some readers to share distinct sections of the segmented broadsheet paper, as well as worries from broadsheet advertisers who don’t care to see their message shrink. (A full-page ad in broadsheet is twice as large as in tab, after all.)
But economic realities (the cost of newsprint) and production issues (the gradual conversion of some presses which may print for multiple clients) will demand the consideration of new, smaller shapes.
Here are some resources for those considering a conversion to tabloid:
Recently I worked with a U.S. client for a week on-site, talking them through the ramifications across departments of a conversion to tabloid. This has led to several inquiries for a new service I’m offering this year: Read the full post »
http://ronreason.com/designwithreason/2011/06/10/will-newspaper-tabloid-conversions-finally-take-off/
CONTEST ALERT! SEND IN YOUR BEST “ONLY GOT A MUGSHOT” COVER AND WIN A BEAUTIFUL HARDCOVER COPY OF THE INSPIRATIONAL PHAIDON BOOK, “A SMILE IN THE MIND: WITTY THINKING IN GRAPHIC DESIGN.” (DETAILS BELOW)
Two things got me thinking again this week about creating impactful designs when you’ve “only got a mugshot”:
Ran out of ideas for a mugshot? Never! Mimi Andelman knew he was kidding, and so did I, but his followers cheered him on with some tried-and-true mugshot techniques. “Radical crop!” I suggested, recalling a favorite page I’ve shared for ages in a Poynter workshop I titled, “The Art of the Simple Idea.” Shown above, a radical crop (and bonus sepia tint) saves the day for The Virginian-Pilot, which had “only a mugshot” but created a very arresting page (using “only a wire story”) about Hitler’s doctor and his prediction of a criminal mind. Here’s a look at a few other impactful or inviting pages that have impressed me along the way, where the designer had “only a mugshot”: Read the full post »
http://ronreason.com/designwithreason/2011/05/06/only-got-a-mugshot-fear-not-cool-designs-are-possible/
Today’s second-day front by the St. Pete Times is a standout. Here are three reasons why.
I may be an average consumer of news about the Osama capture/killing – viewed the press conference, and listen to NPR in the morning, spend 20 minutes or so surfing stories on the web, follow Facebook/Twitter feeds and review front page layouts at Newseum. I like to be informed, but I don’t obsess about it. So it’s no small feat that today’s St. Pete Times front (click above to enlarge) jumped out at me as particularly newsy, inviting, and well-assembled. From this paper, it’s no surprise. Here’s why:
http://ronreason.com/designwithreason/2011/05/03/osama-day-2-front-page-st-petes-mastery-of-editing-design/
“READER Week” continues, heralding the April 28, 2011 relaunch of the Chicago Reader. This post previews key changes that aim to make the print edition more appealing to readers and advertisers. There are dozens of smaller improvements to navigation and new content, but below are the biggies. In editing this post, I decided to address a fellow Chicagoan who asked about the redesign earlier this week: “Does this mean I should start picking it up again after about a 7 year absence?” Tough challenge, but he raised a good point. You can’t say “we’ve redesigned – check out our fresh new look” or “handy new size” and hope old readers will come flocking back, or new ones will come on board. That doesn’t work and probably never did. Some people just don’t want to read print. Others do, but don’t want to read a stale or hard-to-read product. So let’s focus on them. What’s the substance with the changes? How do I get more value out of the paper, and how it is a better reading experience? And, by extension, how does better reader engagement help advertisers? (More on that key question in a later blog post.) Here are a number of reasons a Chicagoan may want to consider seeking out the Reader, again or for the first time, and why advertisers may want to take notice as well.
[Cover prototypes for Chicago Reader redesign. Click to enlarge.]
IT’S EASIER TO READ AND HANDLE, FOR COMMUTERS ESPECIALLY.
If you just don’t read print, you just don’t read print. But 200,000+ Reader readers do each week, and they don’t want to have to fight with it. They should appreciate that the new paper has a glossy cover, and is stapled. This will make it much easier for Chicagoans who want to read, fold or flip through the paper while riding public transit. Many who were shown previews of the new paper felt the changes also will increase “coffee table life” (length of time a reader is likely to keep it around for access throughout the week), which of course should please advertisers. (For a look at other reader-friendly format changes including a larger body text font, and the back page, which features a rebranded music section, B SIDE, read below. For a closer look at B SIDE, see this earlier blog post.)
IT’S GOT MORE CHICAGO NEWS.
The news pages have been revamped to emphasize that the Reader is rebuilding. Prize-winning investigative reporter Mick Dumke has rejoined the staff, Read the full post »
http://ronreason.com/designwithreason/2011/04/26/chicago-reader-redesign/
[Prototypes for covers of B Side: Chicago's Music Magazine,
the new music section of the Reader. Click to enlarge]
Welcome to “READER Week,” a series of posts looking at the April 28, 2011 relaunch of the Chicago READER, the alternative newsweekly celebrating its 40th year. To kick things off, we look at what may be the most notable innovation for the project, the rebranding of the music section into Reader B SIDE, a new kind of music publication. In the coming days, we preview other big changes, answer questions about the redesign, and go inside the READER’s new approach to advertising, which views design, placement, and service to print advertisers in new ways. In other words, this one’s not just about the fonts.
* * *
What’s the change, and what’s the thinking behind it?
The music section is being rebranded Reader B SIDE: CHICAGO’S MUSIC MAGAZINE. It now will have a glossy magazine-stock cover, will be stapled, and will start from the back page. When the front section of the paper is flipped upside-down, B SIDE reads sequentially, like a magazine (not backward, as many metro tabloids treat their back-page sports sections).
The Reader really has two distinct, major audiences among readers and advertisers: one for music, one for politics-news-arts-food (everything else). Why not make the distinction more bold, and make the coverage easier to find and use for music fans? I asked, why not hold it up and distribute it like a local Rolling Stone or SPIN? (A music “pullout” was tried in recent years, but for various reasons, was not always possible with press configurations, so it recently reverted back to random inside pages.)
Chicago is one of the world’s great music cities, and music remains one of the paper’s strongest ad streams. With every project, I encourage the client to explore the questions, “Why not? What if?” To put bold ideas on the table, Read the full post »
http://ronreason.com/designwithreason/2011/04/25/chicago-reader-redesign-a-music-section-to-flip-for/
I’ve been fielding questions about the Chicago Reader since formally beginning consultation on its redesign in September 2010. Below are a few questions about the redesign since it launched, as well as some basic background and links relating to the paper as of April 2011. For more about the relaunch of the paper on April 28, 2011, see these related blog entries.
http://ronreason.com/designwithreason/2011/04/24/chicago-reader-redesign-quick-facts-about-the-paper-and-the-project/
Tampa Bay Times name change:
getting the message out
Lots of emotional discussion last week, at least by alumni of the St. Petersburg Times staff and some readers, about the decision to change the name of the paper Jan. 1, 2012, to Tampa Bay Times. As Times Publishing Co. Chairman and CEO Paul Tash explained thoroughly in a letter to readers, the change is being made partly because 75 percent of the paper’s readers live outside St. Pete proper, including in outlying counties and increasingly, in Tampa. As a Times alum, and someone who has worked with newspapers around the world and studied branding and marketing issues, I think it’s a smart move.
Read the full post »
http://ronreason.com/designwithreason/2011/11/07/tampa-bay-times-name-change-getting-the-message-out/