The big thing about newspaper and magazine is to point out what crosses over and what doesn't and why. When people talk about newspapers being more like magazines they don't give enough information regarding what they mean.
Informing students of time requirements, press requirements and overall mission of the publications gives them a better idea of the logistics of the various organizations they are dealing with. _________________ http://www.designhawg.com
I try to talk to a reporter before they start their story so we can brainstorm visuals before hand. We think of what visuals go best with a story. Then when they bring their story back, I can work my magic on it while the reporter is on hand to edit the hierarchy of the information in the graphcs.
I really think it's hard to teach journalists about the visual part of newspaper design. I think it really is just design applied to newspapers. I would recommend you focus on how to get writers to work with designers rather than do it themselves. I would think it would be more about thinking of the kinds of visuals that can go along with a story.
principles of layout and design for newspapers, magazines, and newsletters/brochures, InDesign, typography, working with a publisher, and Web page design for journalism
Wow. That is a lot of stuff to be teaching in one course. I would guess that most of your students will have little to no design experience. I wouldn't freak them out with an SND annual. Sure, there is some cool stuff in there, but they don't have the skills to do that kind of design yet and it may just frustrate them. Besides, it's a ton of pages with no comments, you reallly need someone to explain how they did those pages to really learn from it.
Tim Harrower's book is an excellent place to start. It would work for basic magazine and newsletter design b/c it gives good basics on grids and layout.
Since you need to cover so many areas of design, I would keep it as basic as possible. Typhography, color theory, grids, photo usage, headline hierarchy, etc. Make it as hands on as possible and do lots of critiques. They will learn it better by doing it, not by looking at a bunch of pages in a book.
Here is a segment of other stuff I am supposed to be teaching:
"principles of layout and design for newspapers, magazines, and newsletters/brochures, InDesign, typography, working with a publisher, and Web page design for journalism"
I'd say don't spend too much time teaching InDesign. If the course has an accompanying lab section, then maybe spend some time in lab teaching it, but I don't think you should be wasting your lecture time on that, not because it's not important, but because 1). it takes so long to just teach the basics of a layout program, and 2). students can play with InDesign and learn it from a reference book on their own time, whereas they don't have access to your knowledge on more theory-based subjects outside of class. _________________ Let this be a lesson to you: Never Try.
I second the motion on not teaching layout programs in these classes. Sure they'll need the basics, but more often than not they'll end up being forced to use some other program somewhere along the way. As long as they get the fundamentals down and learn how to think creatively they'll be fine. Creativity, of course, is much harder to teach than any program ever could be. _________________ http://www.designhawg.com
Make a statement with your visuals.
That means good photo editing.
In most cases, good page designers create great pages by selecting and using the best photographs well.
It might be a case where they must use a single photo well, or use the photo report to point to different pictures from the same story/game/situation to make a statement.
Making the most of every situation is key. Good photo editing skills go a long way to making that happen.
I have several books that make these points, and most are out of print.
"Visual Impact in Print" by Angus McDougall is still the bible.
McDougall's book "Picture Editing and Layout" contains much of what a good photo editor needs to know and recall everyday.
"Pictures On A Page" by Harold Evans is quite good; "Word and Pictures" by Wilson Hicks is also good but dated.
With any luck, Larry Nighswander's book on photo editing will be published soon. _________________ "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." Douglas Adams
To really meld journalism and design I'd look at Daryl Moen's Newspaper Layout and Design: A Team Approach. It even has a workbook.
I'll also second Harrower's book as well. _________________ All the region 3 news you will ever need!: www.visualeditors.com/bogdas
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I recently graduated from a tiny private school in Indiana, and now work as a designer/editor in Marion, so hopefully I can add some close perspective for you.
The folks who said not to worry about teaching too much InDesign (Quark!) are all correct, because they are going to have to learn all different kinds of programs on the job. They'll pick it up quickly, kids my age are mostly good with software. I would also note that you're probably going to have some already-design-savvy students in the class -- the ones who work on the student newspaper -- so they'll be able to troubleshoot for the others who are less experienced.
I would, however, second those who said Photoshop is a must. I find I need Photoshop for everyday life, not just work, and photo editing is a design basic. I had to teach Photoshop to myself, which wasn't hard, but I could have learned so many more tricks more easily from professionals if I'd had that help available.
Things we did in basic design: newspaper spreads and packages, magazine spreads, fonts, Web pages. The Web stuff/Dreamweaver was kind of difficult, but it's been most helpful.
(The best class I ever took, though, was advanced design, where we did a CD cover, menus, corporate pubs stuff, labels, tabs magazines and more. So much fun, I really learned to think outside the box. But that was a senior-level class.)
It would probably be easiest for the first few if you take existing layouts and have them re-work them, based on the text or font choices or whatever.
Also definitely consider how the information presentation relates to writing, because that's probably what your students all think they want to do. You might be able to convince a few of the smarter ones that design is what makes their stories get read ...
The book? Tim Harrower is hands down the best -- I use religiously, still.
And you might consider using some more local newspapers as your examples, instead of just WSJ and USAT, maybe the Trib vs. the Sun-Times and The Indy Star vs. The Journal Gazette, and your hometown paper vs. another closer local paper. These are the ones they're most likely to see and learn from.
Has anyone used Publication Design Workbook: A Real-World Guide to Designing Magazines, Newspapers, and Newsletters by Timothy Samara?
The dept. head she would really like to concentrate on more than just newspaper design. I had been looking at this book as a backup.
I have been trying to find out how many are going to be in the class. I did find out the editor of the student paper is going to be in my class and she is all excited about learning InDesign. Needless to say, I am still debating how much I am going to teach of the program. We'll just have to see, I guess.
What kinds of projects did you find most helpful? (I like some of the ones previously mentioned.)
The graphics class I took at the J-school was the model I try to use to get people excited about graphics today, and I think these will help you get people excited about design, too.
1. Show examples. Each day we'd come into class, there would be different tear sheets on the wall, and we'd have 15 minutes to look at it. We got to see stuff from The New York Times but also from papers that we'd never heard of at that point.
2. Don't tell them your opinions off the bat. This drove us nuts at first and I still have reporters hesitant about what to say when I show them a graphic from NPD, because they're not sure what I would want them to say. But truth is, you learn your style by having to articulate the strenghts and weaknesses of another page on your own without having a professor tell you that it's a good page or a bad page.
3. Ask questions. What do you find easy to navigate about this page? What is hard to read? Where does your eye go? How much does this style match the topic? How much play does each story actually deserve? How much do you understand about this topic now that you've read this graphic/page? What could make this more informative and easier to read? How quick a read is this?
4. There is (or should be) a reason behind every choice. Design and graphics are not passive acts of just plunking stuff on the page after getting it from reporters and editors, and the decisions you make about how to structure a page/graphic should be thoughtful ones. The font choices, the color choices, the amount of colors, the simplicity, the compexities, etc. should all be carefully thought out and not done "just because it looked cool."
5. There are ideas everywhere you look. Stories, graphics, photos, etc. If you feel stuck, just look at your everyday routines. Don't belive me?
My graphics professor showed us this video for Royksopp's "Remind Me" early on in the semester and it changed the way I look at things. ANYTHING can led itself to a graphic. You just have to know where to look. To that end...
6. Keep an idea notebook. I have two notebooks that I carry with me religiously. The first one is full and the second one is almost full. I write one idea per page. Some ideas are very sketched out, some are just one line ideas, but I keep them so if I'm ever in a pinch, I can pull them out and get inspired.
Hopefully this will help. It's not a complete list, but a starter one. Good luck! _________________ Good things come to obsessive-compulsives who fixate.
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