From the 2006 SND Workshop in Houston, I’d like to give a shout-out to Design.
Not to design in general, but to Design, the quarterly journal published by The Society for News Design.
I have been very pleased and impressed with how useful, engaging and funny the past three issues have been. Find out how to get issues of Design on the SND Web site.
Let’s start with the Spring 2005 issue, which focused on “The State of the Redesign.”
Designers’
desire to improve the ways news is consumed can be ravenous. We’re
all looking for ways to improve visual communication. There’s
always a stronger concept, a clearer way to organize information,
a sharper means of helping the reader better understand
the story. But what really works?
“The State of the Redesign” tackles that question and
delivers answers from a variety of voices. From the big time
consultants to in-house designers. From Bangalore, India, to
Munster, Indiana. You’ll find a tidbit or a meal you can take away.
And I’m told by Design‘s
editor, Jonathon Berlin, the winter issue will be the “Reader” issue.
It will examine what really matters most to readers and will
examine research that newspapers around the globe have done to
answer that question for themselves.
Highlights from two other recent issues:
Summer 2005. The “How To” issue.
It
arrived on my desk and at first glance I was curious and puzzled. A
closer look revealed the very funny concept. It was exactly what I
needed. Instructions for how to use the “How To” issue. The
illustration is a step-by-step graphic done in the style of
instructions you might get for assembling a desk. Step one, “mail box
retrieval,” through step 11, “Brace yourself as design ideas shoot from
the pages as if fired at you by an angry monkey!,” are funny stops that
might actually happen to you as you return to your newsroom desk.
It’s packed with useful tips and information on planning, color, illustration, information graphics and reporting.
All three issues include sections on industry news, a highlight on typography and featured columnists.
Fall 2005. “The Future Issue”
I
like its use of a trend from the past (3-D glasses, which are
included in the issue) to illustrate the future. (As a side note,
I have accumulated a somewhat large collection of 3-D glasses in my
drawer. They just come to me.)
Anyway, make sure you wear the
3-D glasses while you are reading that issue. You may get a little
nauseous, like I did reading it, but you don’t want to miss the
experience.
“The Future Issue” asked a group of visual
journalists to look ahead at what the future of newspapers and
designers might look like.
“Designers should come together to reinvent what we now call the newspaper,” says Dale Peskin of The Media Center at API.
In
his article, Peskin makes the point that designers are powerful and
need to step up that influence. I think news designers are just
beginning to see the amount of influence they can have on the future of
printed, electronic or some other new futuristic media.
Almost
every successful consumer product in the marketplace recognizes the
need to be smart, user friendly and aesthetically pleasing. Delivering
the whole package. And that is even more true within that coveted
demographic of young readers. They demand smart products that look
good.
Other highlights of the issue include a nifty contents
page diagram that shows a mini-layout of the page spreads and what’s on
each page. As if you were going to sit down and sketch out the content
placement for a magazine. The issue also includes an
illustrated diary documenting the transition of a visual journalist
from working in Spain to the San Jose Mercury News.
There
are many graphic design related magazines on the shelves. But it’s a
rare occasion when they feature anything related to news design. News
design is often seen as behind the rest of the world of design. And in
some cases that is true.
Thankfully, the SND Design
journal has taken bold steps to feature visual thinking that moves news
design beyond the traditional boundaries of the broadsheet page. A much
needed infusion of what’s fun about the industry.
