Charles Apple

We pulled in a number of notable pre-inaugural fronts this morning from the Newseum. Here are a few of the most interesting…

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CAPITOL BUILDING SHOTS

A number of papers led with scene-setting panoramic shots of the Capitol building. The best page of that type was this elegant page by the St. Pete Times:

The Getty photo is outstanding, of course, and the clean design adds to that. But look closely at the typography in the main hed and the logo and refer up top. Sheer perfection.

Times’ AME Patty Cox writes:

We talked about the tone we wanted to convey with the page and Chris Kozlowski executed it beautifully.

Some papers went with the nightime Capitol shot moved by the Associated Press. The best display of that photo was probably by the Huntsville (Ala) Times:

The bottom half of the page is awfully grey. But that top half — wow, what a rack presence.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer managed to not only show the Capitol but also get in a high school class mugging for a photo. We just assumed this was a staff photo — we didn’t see anyone else use this out front — but no, it’s an AP picture.

Nicely played. And again, the typography here is immaculate. Which is hardly unusual for the Plain Dealer. Credit Emmet Smith with the design.

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PORTRAITS OF THE NEW PRESIDENT

Naturally, several papers chose to lead with portraits of Obama. The Gazette of Kalamazoo, Mich., in particular, got every detail perfect:

Kalamazoo’s Kris Kinkade writes:

That was put together by a designer named Erica Wright. We had to do something posterish because we are an afternoon paper and most people will be getting their paper during or after the inauguration.

The Merc’s Tiffany Pease, too, led with a very nice portrait.

That’s a NYT file photo — and one we don’t remember seeing before. At the upper left is a first-person piece by a black staffer writing with pride that he’ll be watching today’s ceremony.

Our first poster front of the day is brought to us by the Herald of Everett, Wash.:

That’s a powerful sepia treatment of a nicely candid shot of the president-elect. No text needed, other than the label and the date. Unfortunately, there’s no photo credit.

Chicago’s RedEye certainly chose an interesting perspective for its cover portrait:

Makes a hell of a point, though. The designer, Michael Rich, used a Getty image.

Here’s a similar angle on the cover of a paper we don’t think we’ve ever featured before, here in the blog:

We’re not sure where that photo is from — we can’t find a photo credit anywhere. And we also hope the folks at the Tribune tinkered with the CMYK content of the background of that picture so the text down the right side will be readable in case of a registration problem.

Despite that, it’s a powerful design. Nice work.

The Staten Island Advance decreased the size of its nameplate, shifted it to the corner and used a large silhouette picture of Obama, all above the fold:

Below the fold, the designer — AME Claire Regan – took the opportunity to recap famous firsts in American history.

The Vindicator of Youngstown, Ohio, went with a poster front treatment:

Nice use of the presidential seal. We’re wondering of the two extra rings of stars around that seal were really necessary, however.

The Philadelphia Daily News did something similar, tossing in the Declaration of Independence for good measure:

Another Daily News — up the road in New York — used a tight crop of a Reuters shot of Obama. Interestingly, it also placed the top of its lead editorial on page one:

The Free Press also went with a tight, three-quarters view of the president-elect and an analysis piece as the only story out front:

That’s an AP photo, by the way. Design by Robert Huschka.

Check out this crop in The Buffalo News and tell us it doesn’t create a powerful above-the-fold presentation:

The lesson? You don’t always need a poster front to tell a visually powerful story.

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ILLUSTRATIONS OF OBAMA

Several papers chose to commemorate the day with illustrations.

This one is by Chris Ware of the Lexington Herald-Leader (design by Jeff Bowen):

This one is by Michael Weiss of The Repository of Canton, Ohio:

Here’s a poster front watercolor by Ryan Henry of The Herald of Brownsville, Texas:

A nice photoillustration by Amanda Goehlert of the Indianapois Star:

Amanda created the illustration and designed that front, we’re told.

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CROWD OR AUDIENCE SHOTS

While Barack and Michele Obama are certainly in the lead photo on today’s Providence Journal, it’s the high school cheerleaders that make this shot interesting:

What we like about this picture — by Doug Mills of the New York Times — is that it shows the pure joy many have over the new president.

Conversely, we love the slice of life represented in the lede photo in today’s Kansas City Star:

Dad is so very, very proud to be in D.C. with his 16-month old daughter. The daughter, meanwhile, would much rather be in front of a TV somewhere. Photo by Star staffer Jim Barcas, design by Charles Gooch.

And then, leave it to the kind folks in Las Vegas to zero in on the kitch angle surrounding this inauguration:

Yep, that’s a button salesman. Photo by AP.

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PHOTOMONTAGES

A few papers chose to use photomontages today. We showed you one yesterday — a special section front from the Greensboro News & Record — that used reader-submitted photos to build a portrait of Obama.

This one from AMNew York appears to do take that same approach:

The image on the front of tiny Herald of Rock Hill, S.C., used file photos of presidents to build a larger image of the new president:

That was artwork generated by the Sacramento Bee, we’re told.

The best of all these was probably the poster treatment on today’s Chicago Tribune:

Joe Knowles, AME for presentation at the Tribune, writes:

The photo illustration was done by Christine Bruno of the graphics department.

The photo upon which it was based was shot by Zbigniew Bzdak, a staff photographer who has been following Obama for more than a year.

Robin Daughtridge edited the photos, all of which came from Obama rallies, all of which were shot by Tribune photographers.

Ryan Smith and Jonathon Berlin collaborated on the A1 design, broadsheet and tab format.

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ALL 44 PRESIDENTS

Here’s something else that’s been done before, of course, but it may have been a great approach — especially if your paper did not do this after the election in November.

Two tabs chose to go with wrap-around covers showing all 44 presidents of the United States. One was Newsday, which did pretty well:

The other was the Boston Herald, which — well, not so much:

The little mugs crowd Obama’s face something terrible here. But we didn’t necessarily need to see his ear. The designer might have considered sliding the lede art to the right to create some breathing space.

The broadsheet Seattle Times also went with a poster front directory of presidents:

Excellent design by the Times‘ Rick Lund.

One little quibble, however: When you do something like this that’s historical in nature, you absolutely must go in chronological order. Never mind that it might be AP style, reverse order — like the Times chose to do here — just doesn’t work quite as well.

And finally, the Salt Lake Tribune used presidential portraits, but in a way that permitted plenty of page one play for other stories:

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A FEW MORE TO END YOUR MORNING

Now, this one isn’t technically an inauguration front. The Denver Post led with this photo of an American Legion Honor Guard, shedding a tear on at an MLK Day ceremony on Monday.

We love the photo by staffer Joe Amon. The emotion is understated but very raw, very powerful. Matt Swaney designed he page, we’re told.

What makes it an “inauguration” front is actually better stated by the competing Rocky Mountain News, which led with damn near an identical photo:

“With Obama’s moment at hand, Denver celebrates a King Day like none before.” Absolutely.

We like today’s Rocky, very much, with the picture by staffer Darrin McGregor. But we have to give today’s gold star to the Post — mostly because their broadsheet format allowed it to frame their picture just a little bit better.

The New York Post did something very interesting today. Not something we particularly liked. But interesting. It punted on a main visual and went with the presidential oath:

Now, here’s one that made us stop and think: Metro. As a matter of fact, we went breezing right past it and then, moments later, we came back and took another look. It was only then that the full impact hit us:

See how the flag is slightly tattered? Powerful stuff, we think.

What do you think? Are we right? Or are we reading too much into this photo?

And then, we can file this one under surreal. On a historic day like this, the St. Pete Times‘ TBT tab put this on the cover:

To give TBT a little credit, it’s actually a pretty decent story. Several players for the Bay area’s Lingerie Football League team — scheduled to play on pay-per-view during halftime of the Super Bowl — have quit. The game was reportedly kicked off its scheduled turf and will now be held at a local nudist resort.

Amusing, yes. Titillating, of course. A talker, perhaps. But worthy of the front today? Sheesh.

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EXTRA EDITIONS?

Are you publishing an extra edition this afternoon? Please send us a PDF or JPG of your front. We’d love to give the news design community a peek at your work. Send that to: chuckapple@cox.net

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Read a story about the oil-painted cover of the inaugural special section cover in today’s Washington Post over at SND/Update.

Find a selection of Monday inaugural fronts here. See a selection of Sunday inaugural fronts here.

Wednesday, the Poynter Institute will host a 30-minute live chat about inaugural page designs featuring Steve Dorsey of the Detroit Free Press and Bonita Burton of the Orlando Sentinel. Read more about that here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 10:14 am and is filed under Elections, Industry woes, Innovative ideas, News design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.