A clever page-one political illustration in Australia
I was absolutely delighted to find a message in my in-basket this morning from a reader in Australia. He’s not a newspaper designer, though — he’s an associate pastor of a church!
Anyway, he writes:
My name’s Luke Nelson and I’m a big newspaper design fan — so I love your blog!
I thought you might be interested in this clever front page I spotted at Newseum today.
Over here in Australia, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has just been ousted by his own party, with Julia Gillard becoming our nation’s first female leader. She’s famous for having red hair — which inspired this page:
This is the Illawarra Mercury of Wollongong:
Luke continues:
I don’t know if you have them in the States, but there’s a famous matchstick company called Redheads, with this iconic image:
I like how they’ve reworked it — and the ‘reignite’ line was a nice touch too.
Thanks much for the note, Luke. That is indeed brilliantly clever work by the folks in New South Wales. And I’d very likely have missed it without your tip.
Naturally, I can’t travel to the Aussie section of the Newseum without checking out other front pages covering the historic change of government down under.
The finest portrait of the day was this one used by the West Australian of Perth:
Look at that refer. Twenty pages of news and analysis on this story. Oh, how I wish Americans would read twenty pages of political news and analysis.
The Courier Mail of Brisbane also produced a very nice front using a flattering portrait of the new prime minister:
The Sydney Morning Herald led with a picture of Julia Gillard with the country’s governor-general — basically, the Queen’s representative in Australia — Quentin Bryce:
The Financial Review — also of Sydney — used the same photo:
From the city of Townsville comes this photoilustration for the cover of the Bulletin:
This page has a couple of problems, I think. Firstly, the designer used a nice quote from the new PM promising to work hard for her country. However, the designer packaged that quote atop the mug shot of the outgoing minister. Visually, it looks like the quote is attributed to him.
The second problem is a little tougher to solve. On a day in which Australia saw its first female prime minister sworn into office, I find it odd that the same front pages promotes a cheesecake souvenir poster inside:
Perhaps the paper might have held off a day or two for this promotion.
The Herald Sun of Melbourne focused on the outgoing PM:
And the Border Mail of Albury-Wodonga offered perhaps the most elaborate visual coverage of all: A wrap-around cover that featured a nice portrait of the prime minister on the front…
…and man-on-the-street quotes about the change of government on the back. Click that for a readable view.