Feature Does Not Mean Fluff

Feature Does Not Mean Fluff
Tan Ly, Financial Design Director Deputy News Editor, The Washington Post

I was very disappointed in this session. It said it was for yearbook/design/newspaper, but all the examples were of newspaper. Don’t get me wrong: there were some really neat ideas for newspaper, but I was expecting to see a few yearbook layouts. Most of the main points could be applied to yearbook and newspaper.

• The content should drive the design
• Designing takes planning, brainstorming, gathering information and collaborating with reporters, photographers, section editors and design editors.
• Dominant photos are the main visual draw for the page.
• Quotes can be used a graphic.

Lela Coker

Making Your Type Rock.

I’ve noticed that every design/layout session I’ve attended (or tried to) is overflowing beyond the limits of fire safety. This typography seminar was no exception. Tracy Collins of the Arizona Republic was smart about showing a snazzy PowerPoint but not turning off all of the lights for the 9 a.m. session. This man has clearly done this before.

In addition to the nifty presentation, Collins had a double-sided handout, with lots of color and well-laid text on glossy paper. Again, this man knows what people like to see.

Collins is an advocate of kerning (essentially: jiggering with the space between letters). I could fuss with kerning all the live long day, which is why I would be a horribly inefficient layout editor. He also advised that there comes a time when you will need to convey drama, so keep a drama font in your arsenal, along with one that shows elegance or pizazz.

I wouldn't have to do THIS so often if I had a drama font.

Dr. Lee

Checking out the competition.

Apparently schools send in copies of their campus newspaper to this conference ahead of time, and then stacks are arranged neatly on a table for readers to peruse at their leisure. It didn't take long for the stacks to fall into disarray, and that's how they remained for the rest of the conference.

One of our students remarked that it was probably wise not to send in copies of The Current Sauce, because every paper on the table made liberal use of full color. The Sauce publishes in black and white, although we have started featuring spot color on the front and back pages every week. (Thank you, Bethany -- our business manager -- whose hard work makes purple possible!)

Although we cannot yet afford to use it in every issue, we are planning to produce a Homecoming edition that features color photography, as soon as we get back next week.

Dr. Lee

Feature Fluff a failure

I was disappointed with the third session I attended because of the misleading title. Expecting to gain clearer insights on enriching feature stories with interesting facts and visual descriptions, I was surprised when it turned out to be fifty minutes of the Post showing off its last ten or so layout designs for its features page. It was still informative, but when I think about fluff, I really think of content. The woman who led the presentation was very passionate and apparently also very into coffee.

These were the basic concepts covered in the session:
-use one image but play it big
-"Content drives design"
-creative cropping
-making things more digestable without dumbing them down

Jim Mustian

Feature Does Not Mean Fluff

The name of this session was misleading, and it was not what I expected at all. Originally I thought that this session was about feature writing, but it was actually about design. I was disappointed because I am really interested in feature writing and not really in design.

The session provided examples from The Washington Post, showing how important the layout and design of a page is to a story. I hope to attend a feature writing session later today or tomorrow.

Brittany Byrd