Live pages from the SunSentinel redesign
Paul Wallen, design director of the SunSentinel writes:
Hey man. Thanks again for the big write up. Do you think anyone read to the end?
Yeah, yeah. Be funny on your time, man. We want to see live pages!
Naturally, Sir Paul delivers. The first live A1 of the SunSentinel’s new design:
Sunday’s front was designed by David Anesta.
Paul writes:
I think one of the things this very first edition demonstrates is that we’re still committed to telling important stories with depth, to employing our terrific infographics staff in the best way possible and outstanding photojournalism.
These are pages 2 and 3 inside the A section, they form a spread after you turn the front page.
Kevin Cobb designed the inside A pages, including A2 and A3 shown here.
Not sure if you’re aware — I could have pointed this out earlier — but we did a soft launch with our Olympics sections rather than start the new design halfway through the games.
Tim Ball had Olympics duty Saturday night, Paul says, while Barry Talley, Craig Davis and Brandon Ferrill designed the regular sports pages.
The Sunday local front, designed by Michael Johnson:
Sunday’s Money front and an inside page, designed by Pattie Barry:
Here is the Sunday Lifestyle front and the corresponding inside page. Very nice photo and short form story (told in an intro and series of quotes) by reporter Liz Doup and photographer Carey Wagner. Pages designed by Angie Brennan.
I think there were some questions about whether we’d still give strong display to photojournalism with the redesign, and I think this shows that we definitely will.
Here is an inside Lifestyle page designed by Tammy Wheatley.
Here is the Sunday Travel cover illustrated and designed by Nuri Ducassi.
And an inside travel page designed by Yvonne Austin and Nuri.
Sunday’s Outlook cover, designed by David Anesta:
Paul writes:
Here is the Sunday News Illustrated page. Still definitely giving great play to infographics, which was another question from the prototypes.
Cindy Jones-Hulfachor did the honors on this piece:
Paul writes:
Lots of other people made big contributions to pages and work not shown here. I’m really proud of our newsroom and our design team!
Everything went very smoothly. A few rough edges we’ll have to work on, but no major problems on the first night.
The pages look great, Paul. Thanks for sharing so much of your time with us over the past few days. Best of luck with the launch!
August 17th, 2008 at 6:58 am
wow. incredible work! kudos to the sunsentinel.
August 17th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Every page is just freakin’ amazing. I particularly love the Local News Map and would love to steal that idea for Link. :D
August 17th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Couple of things (not design-related):
The URL was cut off on the Lifestyle front on the main package. Is anyone left to proof pages?
And I saw the paper referred to three different ways: SunSentinel, Sun-Sentinel and Sun Sentinel.
Just sayin’.
August 17th, 2008 at 11:04 am
In the whirlwind last night, I neglected to send along some names of the folks who did the work on the news, business and sports pages. David Anesta designed the A1 and Outlook. Kevin Cobb designed the inside A pages, including A2 and A3 shown here. Michael Johnson designed the local pages. Tim Ball had the Olympics duty, while Barry Talley, Craig Davis and Brandon Ferrill designed the regular sports pages. Pattie Barry design the Money pages. And lots of other people made big contributions to pages and work not shown here. I’m really proud of our newsroom and our design team!
August 17th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Really impressive! Kudos to the team.
I’m curious … was the AT&T ad on 1A chosen specifically because its color palette blends with that of the page, and they want to visually “ease into” an ad in that spot, or was that just coincidence?
August 17th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Pretty damned impressive, all the way around. I’m loving the “News Illustrated.”
August 17th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Would like to see Guide to Redesign page. Went to website and didn’t find a mention of redesign. Intentional? Electronic edition was the old design. Am guessing you didn’t have time to address it all, right? Some pretty interesting concepts in place here, but I do wonder if there’s enough meat on the bone.
August 17th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Yep, looks strongly influenced by UK designs - but still has that So Flo funkiness that makes the SS the SS. NICE JOB.
The inside pages will be my yardstick because that is where you have the best opportunity to win people back to the product. They are what ultimately will matter. But that will take time to recover them.
The first blush is always flush with cash. In three months, in six months - that is when you want to apply the yardstick and see if the revamp turns around the slump.
I hope they have banked some budget $$ to keep this dream alive, because it will take take money to keep the product at this level.
I would caution that we reserve a full critique for a few months out from now to decide if this redux is as much as a game changer as The Guardian’s was. (The Guardian was the only comprehensive newspaper redesign in the modern era)
August 17th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
OK, I’ll jump on the bandwagon. A very impressive start. Keep it up.
August 17th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
More inside news, local and sports pages, please.
August 17th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Don’t have a nitpick about the design (I liked the real A1 better than the prototypes, btw), but the lionfish story moved on AP on Wednesday. Without much of a local addition (it seems from my peering at it), is that the best news to feature on the third page of the paper four days later?
August 17th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
In general, I like the cover approaches. Only one that bugs me is the Outlook page and it’s because I like the type treatment but it seems it would work just as well smaller and with a story start.
The section logos and typography are very nice.
August 17th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Nice work, guys.
And News Illustrated isn’t new, it’s been around for, like, ten years. One of the things that makes the SS graphics staff the SS graphics staff.
Archives at http://www.sun-sentinel.com/theedge
August 17th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
I’m diggin it. From the colors to typography (nice fonts!) to amount of space dedicated to each cover story (and editorial in general), I’m impressed. Love the promos next to inside mastheads. Good job, guys!
August 17th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
I love it, SS staff. A great job all around. The covers look great and all, but I’m a huge fan of the inside-page structure. This is where the real steak-and-potatoes content is pushed, and you guys still maintain the magazine-style quality with design and information. Nail down those first-night jitters (Web address, name-brand style) and you’re sure to sell that extra ad space on A2. Keep it up, and good luck.
August 17th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Great stuff, guys. Congrats.
Random observation: It suddenly struck me that while we’re all wowed by this (and I am), this kind of presentation has been everyday stuff in many, many magazines for years.
It’s interesting/telling about our industry that this is so fresh/shocking/untraditional (pick your descriptor) to us newspaper people.
Let’s all raise a glass to the day (hopefully in the not too distant future) when this kind of presentation ISN’T so surprising in newspapers.
August 17th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
The overall look is outstanding; congratulations!
But am I the only person who, at first glance, thought the giant map of Florida on Page 1 was about the impending storm, Fay? Just an unfortunate pre-planning problem, but a problem nonetheless.
The big story today is Fay, not oil. The big map most readers want today is Fay, not oil.
August 18th, 2008 at 9:56 am
All the L.A. Times can do is whine, but here you have gone and actually done something. Well done.
August 18th, 2008 at 10:46 am
No, Ken … you’re not the only one who thought the oil map was a very unfortunate juxtaposition with the Fay banner at the top of the page. Popped out at me immediately.
Otherwise, solid design … hope it can be consistently applied over the coming weeks!
August 18th, 2008 at 11:35 am
This looks very nice, but then again I’m a former newspaper designer. The real yardstick of success will be whether this redesign will increase readership, which I assume is the point. I have my doubts.
August 18th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
This is so much cleaner, it’s nice to see some great design coming out of FL!
August 18th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Super! Just fantastic, kudos to you Paul, Tim Frank and the Sun-Sentinel team! I sent out a note to some of our editors and staffers, essentially saying our redesign (The Oklahoman) all of a sudden looks old-fashioned. Not a slam on our redesign, but a testament to how wonderful and cutting-edge yours is!
August 18th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Fascinating. But please consider what Joe Pulitzer did before modern photography and computers.
http://www.slate.com/id/2126420
August 18th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I’m with Ernie. The Local News map rocks! I would like to see that on a website as a rollover map.
August 18th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Some clarification needs to be said for the Sunday 1A design. David Anesta did design the page, but it was Cindy Jones-Hulfachor who designed and illustrated the centerpiece. When it is a graphics-driven centerpiece, our department does the whole design with input from the 1A designer. Just want to make sure the ENTIRE PROPER credit is given.
August 18th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Where are the words? What do I do if I actually am able to read and want to read about something happening in the world?
August 18th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Nice work by the SS — impressive.
August 18th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Readers are not leaving newspapers because there aren’t enough colorful graphics. On its face, the assumption that leads to a redesign like this is just silly.
I know the industry is suffering — believe me, it was one of the many reasons I jumped ship — but I can guarantee you that efforts like this aren’t going to be helpful. I look at this newly designed and see less content, and therefore less reason to read it. (And I grew up reading the Sun-Sentinel; my parents still get it.)
August 18th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Obviously a lot of thought and work went into this. That said, it would be great if you would post on some site the daily or at least cumulative weekly circulation figures between now and the end of the year.
August 18th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
LOVE IT. GREAT WORK!!!
August 19th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Looks great.
But they might want to devote some of that energy to their web site.
August 21st, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Thought I’d post this in both relevant threads.
When Charles first posted previews of the S-S redesign, I happened to be in the midst of a two-week vacation in the Fort Lauderdale area. For the first several days, I bought the paper every morning, then just stopped and looked for the Miami Herald instead (unfortunately, all of their boxes north of FTL seem to be ignored). There was nothing wrong with the old S-S design. There’s nothing wrong with the new design either, except for its ability to convince VizEds readers that this is a huge, positive step for our business. I stopped buying the paper because of the content … the lack of news, to be more precise. The redesign — bold, inventive, you name it — seems to keep that tradition.