Design So Cool It Will Make Your Eyes Bleed

Karl GrubaughAdviser, Granite Bay Gazette

With credit to Joseph Mullen, former Gazette co-editor-

in-chief

Key Points!

1.Go

BIG!(The concept is DOMINANCE)

When you have a terrific

photo, RUN IT

REALLY LARGE!

Don’t waste it.

But be thoughtful about how to use it. The designer used the dark feathers as a perfect place to run reverse text without having to add

some kind of cheesy shadow box to make the

text visible.

BEFORE AFTER

Notice the tight cropping

of the pictures

and effective teasers. COUNT

THE FACES

I like the rodent

package on the first

page, the fish

package on the second page.

Nice use of

creative white

space.

RULE VIOLATION! Non-modular design … where? Does it work?

Nice cropping and NICE

use of cutout on first one. Notice

creative packaging on both

pages.

Key Points!

2. Text as

Art

Great headline treatmen

ts, fantastic cutout on number

2. OH MY GOSH,

TIGER IS COVERIN

G UP OTHER

THINGS!!! Yes…that’s

what we call

thinking outside of the box

Nice use of color on first one.

Take lackluster photo and make it an interesting

overall package.

(Photoshop tip: color sampling from the photo for

use on the font.) Nice

use of creative

crops and photos on

second one.

Great faces on first one: COUNT

THE FACES!

Cool use of photo illustratio

n on second one, but notice

that the illustration doesn’t

stand alone.

Great infographic on the left --

cool headlines and judicious use of color.

Photo illustration is

relevant because

PHOTOGRAPHER AND

WRITER AND EDITOR

COMMUNICATED!

Key Points!

3. Dance with the one who

brung ya.(Take advantage of what you’ve got to work with.)

Emphasis is put on photo, tons of white space but it

WORKS.

Huge typeface makes it more interesting – simple but bold

Key Points!

4. Use COLOR well!

BEFORE AFTER

Notice the professional quality

of the after page – it’s much

cleaner looking than the first one.

(Word ‘Sushi’ in first head

is incredibly cliché.) Also has creative teasers.

Cool head

treatment

Cool info-graphic and text shape

REALLY cool

cutouts on first one. You can cover up

your flag – People

know by now

whether it’s news, lifestyle, voices,

sports, or whatever.

Nice infographi

cs on second one as well.

You can design two facing pages as a double truck!

Nice cutout, defies modular design but WORKS!

Also, notice they toned down the teasers and photos on other

stories to draw attention to main package

Don’t use color just for the sake of color. First

one is much more

effective with limited color.

Too many colors looks … cheap.

Key Points!

5. Use Lots of Points of

Entry(And you need to play with Illustrator to help

create illustrations and infographics!)

Complex, but works. Informative.

Terrific use of color – but label it as a photo illustration!

Boring photos made more

interesting through effective design.

Nice macro shots, repetition can be very effective;, color

sampling/matching gives the package on the left

some visual consistency.

Text can be a graphic: be creative!

Key Points!

6. Headlines matter!

(Take the time to make them great!)

Tie your headlines into your photos – a little irony is great for capturing attention

There is a nice

juxtaposition of fonts on the first page, and

the repetition

of the photos

makes a cool

playbill effect. The

second one uses

illustrative photos on

the top and a

subtly nice headline

treatment with the S going into the photo.

The first one illustrates a nice use of a single color.

The second one is just awesome with the infographics.

First one is a cool and

creative way to use

graphs other than

standard Excel

graphs. The second one

uses a powerful

illustration that

employs repetition

and pops of color that make it

really work.

First one is creative solution to typical Christmas gift package. Nice illustration that

chunks the story well.

The second one is a great use of infographic, differentiating Porsche cars from others by

color pops. Color is cohesive and infographic is simple to follow.

Terrific crops on photos; the crops frame stories well.

Great tabloid front, very powerful and representative photo. B+W package on second one is effective for the tone of the story, and cutout

is dominant without hogging ALL the space

Tone on left is somber; effectively builds on the photo. Prayers listed down the side is a nice touch. Second one has creative headline treatment by

playing with size, leading.

INSPIRATION INTERPRETATION

Joseph took a page design he saw online and reinterpreted/applied it to the Gazette using his Illustrator techniques and the text of the story as

the walls. STEAL IDEAS!!!!!

First package is serious to match story, toned down, but effective. Use sparingly.

Clever and very nice illustration on second one, colorful. Again, matches

mood of story with design

When used sparingly and professionally, type as a graphic

can be very effective and impactful. The simple black and white

ironically mirror the subject matter of the story. Again, RUN IT BIG for

more impact!

Effective illustrations are relatively simple, but impactful. Again, colors are cohesive.

Nice illustration, with excellent use of white space

Again, nice somber photo, B+W is appropriate to story

Creative content and stories create impact and interest. CONTENT

MATTERS

Nice graphic for the story, very understandable and clear.

First one is a nice use of cohesive colors . Second one uses onomatopoeia in the headline and clear infographics to illustrate story.

Stunning! A nice

macro shot, appropriate use of color (note drop cap); gray

background mimics color of the fork and helps

the color of the cherry

and juice to really pop

off the page

Nice alternative

story package on second one – make it a

game! Needs

communication to work

Great cropping on first one, adds impact to photo. Second one has one

of the greatest headlines I’ve ever seen. Period.

Nice photo-illustration in first one, lime green and black pair nicely.

Disney teaser in the second one is simply fabulous.

http://www.bestfrontdesign.com/archives.htm

My web page is at:

Granitebayhigh.org

Academics>social studies>Karl Grubaugh

kgrubaugh@rjuhsd.us

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