Redesign Debut

Today's paper was the first paper in the new 22-inch web format and implemented redesign. Overall, things went extremely well. We started at about 1:00 on Sunday, and by 10:30 the redesign became the new Daily.

For the sake of nostalgia, here are two examples of the old:

And now, here is the new:

There was an interesting opportunity for the first day of the redesign. The NCAA Men's Basketball player of the year would be announced on Sunday, and OU forward Blake Griffin was the outright frontrunner for the award. Blake's win would mark only the second time in NCAA history that one school has had both a football and a basketball player of the year in the same year. So, naturally, this should be given more weight. Luckily The Daily was given unique access for a photo shoot with both Blake Griffin and Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford. The ingredients were there for a great dish, so now all we had to do was put it all together. 

The front page came together with the photo about three days prior to Sunday's work. There were several mockups, and we compromised on basically what you see. The first mockups featured only the photo and large headline with an extended deck. Other mockups included a version with more emphasis on women's basketball. At the time of the mockups, we had no idea if the women would lose to Louisville (which they did) or if they would advance to the final. Obviously, if they advanced to the final, that would be big news and would require more weight on the front page. There were a few mockups where the women were given a lot of weight at the top and still featured the Sam and Blake photo. That just wasn't going to work, since there would be a hierarchy problem and we didn't want to have to play two big stories together and let them compete for the reader. In the end, the women lost, and we picked the front page mock up with you see today.

The next biggest problem with the redesign was the Sam and Blake story itself. The story was a great historical piece of how both Sam and Blake made their rise to stardom and dominance in their respective sports. Naturally, the story was extremely long (close to 5,000 words at its longest). Working with the sports editor, we compromised and cut a chunk of the story out for print. The full-length story appeared online, but for print we needed to cut it down since we had so much sports news going on that day. 

Although there were obvious weaknesses with how page 2 was laid out, everything looked just about as good as we could hope for, all things considered.

As for the rest of the paper, here are a couple of examples:

Execution of the redesign element revealed a few problem points. I expected there to be tweaks here and there, and I think Sunday night's work flowed pretty well with the handful of problems we had. I was just glad we didn't have a huge style or formatting problem. Everything that we tackled was pretty small.

Our biggest concern was the deck style. To be honest, I probably didn't give the deck style as much attention as I should have, and it showed very quickly. The decks were too small, and the leading was too tight for my taste. It was, however, the right weight for the balance I was trying to create between the headlines and the copy. The biggest problem, however, was the point size. Also, the pull quotes had the same problem - point size was too small and the leading was a bit tight.

Other than a few other formatting issues, I think those were really the only problems. This is good news to me. I think aside from the deck and pull quote styles, I did a pretty good job thinking ahead and making things easy for the editors designing pages. You have to remember, there are no actual dedicated designers at the Daily, only editors that layout pages. This meant that my style sets and paragraph settings had to be made in a way that would be easy for anyone to pick up and use.

For what it's worth, I had a great time working on this redesign project. I really learned a lot about myself and my work ethic. I also really appreciate all of the hard work and teamwork that the editors and staff at the Daily exhibited. I could really tell that they knew this was the right thing to do and they just needed my help to make it all happen. I always got great feedback and constructive criticism from them, and I thank them for all of it. I hope they know that our teamwork made a really great product and will hopefully match the Daily's needs for a long time.

I also want to thank all of those who helped me with suggestions and material. I could not have done it without you. I hope this style will last a few years while students after me gain experience and maybe one day give the Daily another redesign. My design style will become old and out of date someday, and I can only hope someone down the line will recognize that and keep working on things to make the paper better for the reader and better for the school.

Thanks for reading.

First Print Sample

A print of the new size came into the newsroom a couple of days ago. This is the first time we were able to see the redesign on print. I was surprised at the level of reproduction. The Norman Transcript, our host printer, usually gives us inconsistent prints, but the resize and redesign looked good. The Transcript recently switched to 22-inch web, so this might account for the better reproduction quality. We're actually the only thing they now print on broadsheet, but that, of course, will change here in the next week. Our official run date for the resize is April 6, which is next Monday.

I have several things left on the to-do list for things to go smoothly on Sunday, April 5. Right now I am focusing on setting the formes for our staff to use on the redesigned format. The staff currently uses NewsEdit coupled with Adobe InCopy to submit and edit stories. In order for things to load correctly on the screen, I have to set formes (yes, formes with an "e") for the software to know which pieces of text to turn into which style. This makes everything consistent and easier for the staff to manage.

I also have to put final touches on the element library. The library will enable designers to simply drag and pull items of consistent design from a palette onto the page. This ensures that every sidebar, pull quote, line, etc. is exactly within style and remains consistent with the rest of the paper. This will be especially important to the staff as the semesters roll on and news pieces change. Style tends to change over time as the staff finds weaknesses in the design, so keeping a library that keeps them within a set box, so-to-speak, will help the paper remain consistent and clean.

My main concern now is trying to convince the editors of the new restrictions that must be set to make the design, as well as the content, work. There is literally no way to fit more than four starting stories on the front, a fact that the editors will have to adapt to since the usual plan is to try to cram as much on the front page as possible. My recommendation is to only have three stories, all of which flow to page 2. Pulling people into the paper is now in the hands of the news rail below the flag, which will have a short refer for every section.

Stories will also have to be cut by (at least by my recommendation) at least 25%. This will force the writers to be more clear and more concise in their writing and also make stories more appealing to read from a broad perspective.

One big thing that I will recommend is the need for alternative story forms. The Daily has traditionally been weak in print forms of this, however more opportunities are opening up with the online component of the paper. The usual plan with stories is to run a long block of text featuring everything that the story has to offer, with little or no pull-out pieces or extra information outside of the large copy text.

This is boring. No one wants to read that.

Let's face it, we're in the online world now, and if it's not short and sweet, no one cares. Yes, there is a place for long narrative story writing in newspapers, but not every story. My recommendation to The Daily is to require writers to not only write shorter pieces but to offer at least one piece of alternative information to use a pull-out-style element. This helps readers get closer to the story and draws attention to stories that might otherwise be overlooked by the typical college student.

All of these issues will be featured in my final presentation to the editors as part of my redesign project. I hope to have everything finished up a least by a week after the unveiling of the redesign. I'll update on my progress.

Thanks for reading!

The Next Round

My thoughts before the next round of edits on the redesign:

I'm currently sitting on the floor of the Chicago O'Hare airport waiting for my flight back home. Three-hour layover would probably force anyone to purchase internet for an inflated price. Anyway, I'm coming back from the annual CMA New York conference where I enrolled in the Society of Publication Designers' March (Design) Madness sessions. I have to say they were extremely helpful and sparked many more ideas that might drive items in the OU Daily redesign.

One thing that I found particularly refreshing was the emphasis on setting type for ideal readability, or for the sake of being consistent in this blog, legibility.

(A few definitions for the blog: Readability - ability for the reader to interpret large type treatments such as headlines or other design cues. Legibility - the physical ease for the reader to read, understand or interpret copy.)

One session in particular, taught by Conde Nast Traveler's art director Andy Omel, showed me a few more tricks to create ideal copy treatment. His technique was a look into how high-end professional magazines set their type for the best in design, both readability and legibility. I will for sure implement these techniques in the spreads that are left for the yearbook, but the hard part is to find ways to implement and teach these techniques to people at The Daily so they can present the paper in a way that almost no college paper is now (at least that's what I'm willing to bet... and I'm willing to bet big).

These techniques are very detail-oriented, but if done well, it would make a marked change in how copy looks and is presented. I would recommend these details for special features only at first, and then if all goes well I will set the copy style with these settings built in.

Redesign Date Pushed Back

The new size and redesign unveiling has been pushed back until April 6 due to budgetary and printer issues. This gives me, and the rest of the staff, a little bit more time to work the finer details to their highest potential, which is particularly exciting for me. I love that I get the opportunity to really fine-tune the design of the paper because this benefits everyone involved, especially the reader. What I hope is that the readers is initially pleased with what they see as a whole, and continues to find the paper easy to understand and use as they get into the content. 

The bad thing about pushing back the date is that the readers on campus will have two weeks less time with the new size and design. Realistically, this redesign is for the fall 09 semester, since it will still be in its infancy by the time I graduate in May. I guess it is my last project while I'm in school. What better way to leave than to set the foundations for what college papers need to be in the future. The whole industry is changing, and this redesign is a preview for other students to see how their content and coverage has to change with the times.

My flight just got moved up, so I must be going now. I'll be on vacation until Monday, so I hope to update with images and examples at a later date. Thanks for reading!

PART 2: Showing the Editors

Today I finished a full mock up of The Daily in its redesigned state. Overall I am pretty pleased with the typeface selection and elements. Of course, there are some big picture things that will have to be fleshed out as the paper moves along in the new format, but I think this is a great start.

I made prints for the editors and unveiled it to them during their daily budget meeting. Their response was very positive and reassuring. Everyone seems to be on board with how things are looking and there shouldn't be too much trouble planning content around the new sections. Part of The Daily's plan for the redesign was to incorporate shorter pieces and more opportunity for blurbs, vinettes and pull-out information.

According to my primary research, readers on campus have limited time to disect information in The Daily's current format. The stories are long and there is very little pull out information that the reader can take and use. The style did have, however, boxes that told the reader important information for upcoming events such as concerts, performances and seminars. Nevertheless, there was not enough information for our campus to use efficiently.

Another element that I am trying to tackle is the use of white space. In the current paper, white space is minimal. The current mentality is to fill every piece of space with content. Naturally, the elements start to blend together and the pages become very cluttered and messy. In order to maintain clarity and space, I've implemented a more rigid column grid. The column grid, along with larger photos and increasing content space will make the content more clear and draw the reader in to the quick-hit information that they wanted the most.

Here are just a few examples of the mock pages I've created with the new design elements. Just to remind you, these are rough mock ups, so there are some pieces missing and some pieces that change from page to page to show the editors their options. Final decisions will be made on many design elements and some type treatments.

(Click any image to see a larger version)

The first thing you might notice on this examples is the increased size of photos and art. If all goes well, this should be a staple of the redesign. We have a talented team of photographers under a great photo editor, Zach Butler, and being able to play their photos larger will make not only everyone at The Daily a little happier but the readers happier too.

Another detail that is new to the redesign is the news headers:

The flag has been cleaned of its garnishes and decoration, leaving only the simple type (something that the flag has not had for a number of semesters). This header piece was modeled off The Kansas City Star and the Orlando Sentinel. I chose this style because our research showed that, again, our readers have limited time to take in information in The Daily, so any quick-hit pieces you give them will be beneficial. This also works for the editors since many of them expressed concern that it might be hard to draw readers into stories inside. So, each section has a piece to refer inside.

With that comes new opportunity for the editors to offer quick information to the reader in each section header:

Here, the opinion editor can use the header space to feature comments from our website. This was particularly important to him because he wanted to bring reader comments into each day's paper as part of an effort to increase participation. In this particular example, the right side is used to put "Comments of the Day." This style is consistent in every section, allowing the editors to put important information right in front of the reader. For instance, for the sports section this space might be used to put a stat of the day or a pull quote from an athlete talking about a game. News briefs or a fast fact can be put in this space for the campus news section, etc.

(Click any image to see a larger version)

Here is a look at the entire Opinion page:


And Sports:

Life & Arts:

Another front page example:

This mock up features a sky box refer for a big news story. In this particular example, I used a photo of quarterback Sam Bradford and a headline treatment to refer a story about spring practices. It was really important to the editors to have a flexible design that allows for large elements to be placed in whenever possible. This example has the large refer on the top as well as the header treatment, showing that more information can be placed above the fold if need be.

There you are - a small look into the redesign process so far. Later this week I will have a meeting with the editors and flesh out concerns and details in the redesign. From there, I will develop a library and paragraph styles for them to use as the final version.

I'll update you after this meeting.

That's it for now.

PART 1: Time, Type and Headlines

A week and a half before the absolute deadline and spring break, and I have yet to layout a full dummy for the editors at The Daily. Today, I had a meeting with Mack, Steven and Luke, editors at The Daily, about the new design attributes. The documents I showed them featured the full paragraph style sheet that the paper currently uses as well as the updated styles for the redesign. They seemed to really like it and seemed very upbeat at the new design pieces and typefaces.

(At first, I will go into detail about little design tweaks. In later posts I will talk about big picture goals for the redesign as well as post photos and screen shots of before-and-after design examples.)

The current style features something around six to eight different typefaces, all in varying weights and styles. In its current state, the style is dated and inconsistent. Over the years, the set design had been butchered semester by semester by night editors and designers in an effort to make content fit. Because of this, the design styles were thrown out of wack and looked, well to be honest, fugly. For example, the legs are consistently on different baselines from column to column. This is due to the workflow on the stories - the headline, deck and copy are consolidated into one box for convenience. Unfortunately, this causes uneven legs and inconsistent spacing in elements. 

The main concern I have with the current design what is known as "reader fatigue." Reader fatigue basically means that the reader gets tired, distracted or even subconsciously annoyed by the way the copy or elements read in the paper or on the spread. This can be caused by columns that are too long, leading that is either too narrow or too wide and many other things. The Daily's current design philosophy is to fill space. This causes designers to pull columns too wide, possibly 15 to 20 words per line. The general rule, according to numerous CMA design sessions taught by newspaper and magazine professionals, is to limit your words to eight to ten words per line in a column. In the current setup, The Daily was forcing readers to read almost twice as much copy per line that is recommended. Also, in the copy, the settings allow for too much space between words that causes the copy to look like a sponge, riddled with holes. This causes the reader to jump from word to word, again, creating reader fatigue.

To me, the last thing I want is for someone to put the paper down because in the back of their mind the design wasn't helping them absorb the information. That is why on the redesign, I chose a larger, more readable typeface with more idea hyphen and justification settings that keep the copy tight and readable. This, along with new design rules for column width, should make The Daily considerably easier to read.

Aside from copy changes, I've also tackled The Daily's headline, deck and tag type faces. As I said before, the style featured six or so different type faces, which is a big no no in the print design world. Each type face had their own personality and seemed to clash with the others. The serif used as the headline type, Warnock Pro, was dated as a headline font. The paper's headline and tag font, Myriad Pro, is almost equally as dated and did not agree with the line shapes and heights of Warnock. I wanted to find a serif and sans that agreed with each other. One problem I had was I could not use any fonts that we did not currently have installed. Due to tightening budgets (the first reason we are going to a 22-inch web format) I was unable to request new fonts. This is truly unfortunate because our student media department has some dated fonts. One goal I had with this redesign was to freshen the paper up to current standards. That meant using new, more modern fonts. This was not an option very early on, so I had to adapt my strategy to this. I'll talk more about this at a later date.

Right now, I have to get back to work on the dummies to show the editors tomorrow. The schedule gives the editors Thursday through Sunday to look over the dummy and make notes of potential problem areas or any changes that I might need to consider. We will have a big meeting discussing as many pieces as possible on Sunday.

Hopefully by later today or late tonight I will be able to post some screen shots of the dummies to give you a preview of what things might look like.

That's it for now.

Go TIme

Over the next two weeks I will be working diligently on The Oklahoma Daily redesign project. I hope in my free time to share a little insight with you and hopefully show you a few examples of the redesign before its big launch on March 23, 2009.

Enjoy the next three weeks.