Curt Hazlett writes on modern biz page design
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Curt Hazlett of the Arizona State’s Reynolds Center writes a nice overview of modern biz page design:
“The business section is by far the most difficult section to produce visually on a day in, day out basis,” says Scott Goldman, senior editor/visuals at The Indianapolis Star and president of the Society for News Design. “Business design is totally what you make of it. If you just put in the standard photo assignment, that’s all you’re going to get.”
Nicole Bogdas, the news projects designer at the Palm Beach Post, agrees. Good design is tough “because business doesn’t lend itself to typical visuals,” she says. “You can give anyone a copy of Tim Harrower’s book The Newspaper Designer’s Handbook, published by McGraw-Hill] and they can design a news page using a nice piece of staff-shot photography and a couple of stories. But staff-shot business photography is too often some guy sitting at a desk.”
Overcoming that kind of mediocrity requires communication and patience, especially at papers that aren’t big enough to have designers dedicated to business news — which, of course, is most of them.
Curt, the former managing editor of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald, gives an humbling example of bad business design:
Check most business sections from the 1960s and 1970s and you’ll find stunningly primitive typography and bizarre “wild art” pulled from the wires. I can still recall one photo in which a hot pants-clad model held two small gears up to her eyes like eyeglasses; the caption announced that the gears were made out of a new alloy made by U.S. Steel. I remember the photo because I ran it — it was the only art I had that day.
We’ve all been there, my friend. Although admittedly, yours sounds like a particularly scary example.
Curt doesn’t just restate the problem. He talks to a number of folks about how to get past these issues and to make a business section sing. In addition to Nicole, Scott and Ron, Curt quotes Virginian-Pilot business editor Bill Choyke.
First, [Choyke] says, cultivate strong designers and let them do their jobs. “I don’t micromanage,” he says. “I list our lede story and let the talented people be talented.” Just as important, he says, is a commitment to planning. “You have to be flexible, but once a week we sit down and plan out the lede pieces for the next two weeks,” says Choyke. “That process is quite important. We know what’s coming, and that really does help design.”
Whatever approach is taken, being passive just doesn’t work anymore, the Indianapolis Star‘ s Goldman argues.
Hazlett’s article is so well done that he doesn’t even harm his credibility when he quotes yours truly. How ’bout that.
Check it out at the Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism.
When you’re done reading that story, you’ll be eager to check out the portfolio by The Virginian-Pilot’s evil genius Josh Bohling. Find it here.
Read a 2005 piece Curt wrote about using numbers effectively in stories.