The Sun-Times’ commemorative Barack Obama front
Friday, I posted a number of very nice front pages covering the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Among them was a Chicago Sun-Times front. I observed that it looked like part of a wrap-around cover.
Sun-Times design director Eric White sent me the rest of the wrap. And man, is it something:
Eric says the cover was designed by James Smith. He writes:
On Tuesday, James and I started talking about what we were going to do for the night of Obama’s speech. He said he wanted to wrap a photo all around the paper, and I said we should find a way to link it to the anniversary of King’s speech.
Twenty minutes later, James showed me a mockup that was almost exactly like this. The headline plays off the “Free at Last†line of Dr. King’s “Dream†speech.
We had hoped to find a live shot of Obama that was a mirror image of King’s with the crowd in the background. But when James put the live shot on the page, the news editor said he liked how Obama appeared to be looking up at King, reaching for him. And we all said, “Yeah!â€
With this front page, we saw an opportunity to comment on the social significance of the day, to do something that would move people, to do something that readers might keep forever or pin on their walls. And since Obama is a Chicagoan, we saw an opportunity to reflect the feelings of pride and happiness that many of our readers feel.
That’s the great thing about the Sun-Times. We’re not the monotone, by-the-book paper produced in an ivory tower. Our editors not only encourage — but sometimes force — us to come up with something that’s different that what everyone else will do on big news nights.
On the inside, we led with our columnist’s interpretation, rather than the blow-by-blow of the speech:
Wow. Wonderful stuff, Eric. And a hell of a nice keepsake. What a nice surprise for the folks in Barack’s hometown.
Want to see larger images? Tap the thumbnails:
 
Find our earlier post about Obama fronts here. Find a post about San Antonio’s unusual DNC quote page here.
August 30th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
It was great surprise yesterday to pick up the paper at the end of the driveway and get something really special like this. I like it better than the Pope Wrapper, Eric!
August 30th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Nice work! And it shows the strenghts that only a tab can do.
August 30th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
This cover is simply amazing. I really like the idea that it was thought out in advance to avoid having to hope for the perfect picture to show up at the door. Props to the designers.