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Kilometer31 Offline

Maestro

Joined: 11 May 2004

Total posts: 566

Location: San Antonio Express-News

Age: 45

Gender: Male

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 7:57 pm

I've been sorta surprised at the amount of negative designer reaction to the Virginian-Pilot redesign.

I'll admit I was initially underwhelmed (in the same way I'm underwhelmed whenever Apple doesn't actually release the earth-shattering product we all hype up expectations for). I really DID want them to bring us a whole new paradigm, make us rewrite the books on newspaper design and (if they had time) bring us World Peace.

But with a little bit of time to look at it, I've got to climb up into the puplit and sing it to the heavens:

"I LOVE THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT REDESIGN!"

And here are my my reasons:

1. They DIDN'T change what was working -- which is the wonderfully amorphous front page architecture they can do anything with on a daily basis. Part of redesign is also knowing when to leave something that works alone.

2. Elegant, elegant, elegant. Everywhere you look (even Sloop).

3. Improved typography. V-P got more good mileage out of Franklin Gothic than any paper I can think of. But their new sans-serif is a sweet display head and they use it well.

4. Vastly improved beyond the front page. In the past, the V-P was perhaps a mere mortal once you moved past the front page. No more.

5. Great photo play. I can't say for certain if they always did this, but photos do a lot of work inside and out now. Not much in the way of junk photos just to have art on the page. Few photos, selected and played well.

6. I'll say it: I like the new mast. Maybe it's borderline small, but I always thought their last mast implementation was a little to Photoshoppy. This is classic. And classy.

7. Well-conceived specialty pages. We'll have to see how some of these pan out over time, but I love the idea of Co-Pilot.

8. Somebody LOVED the weather page.

Grayson Mendenhall Offline

Visual Guru

Joined: 17 Dec 2006

Total posts: 50

Location: The Durham Herald-Sun, Durham, NC

Age: 27

Gender: Male

Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2007 4:04 pm

meh, I'm still on the fence. I'm pretty dead set on the fact that I prefer their old nameplate to the new one. Also, I think the larger script font for the day of the week looks a bit too Hallmark-esque. I haven't seen as much of the inside as I'd like before I decide on that. They still crush most other papers, though.

KennyMon

VizEds Moderator

Joined: 03 Apr 2004

Total posts: 374

Location: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Age: 39

Gender: Male

Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2007 4:06 pm

Grayson Mendenhall wrote::

They still crush most other papers, though.

... And in the end, that's all that matters.

Bob Voros

Visual Guru

Joined: 11 Jun 2004

Total posts: 74

Location: The Virginian-Pilot

Gender: Male

Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2007 4:16 pm

Kilometer31 wrote::

8. Somebody LOVED the weather page.

As the "major player" on the new weather map, I just want to make it clear that nothing was done without mutual consent of all parties involved.

Dave Shutton Offline

Contributing editor

Joined: 07 Jul 2004

Total posts: 154

Location: Norfolk, VA.

Gender: Unknown

Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2007 5:55 pm

Quote:

They still crush most other papers, though.

Isn't the goal to crush other newspapers, see them driven before you and to hear the lamentation of the women?

Grayson Mendenhall Offline

Visual Guru

Joined: 17 Dec 2006

Total posts: 50

Location: The Durham Herald-Sun, Durham, NC

Age: 27

Gender: Male

Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2007 2:53 pm

Quote:

Isn't the goal to crush other newspapers, see them driven before you and to hear the lamentation of the women?

Yes, but you left out razing the fields so that nothing ever grows there again.

Yuri Victor Offline

Contributing editor

Joined: 27 Oct 2004

Total posts: 238

Location: Times of Northwest Indiana

Age: 25

Gender: Male

Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2007 4:24 pm

The Virginian-Pilot was never great because of their colors, fonts or use of white space. The Pilot has been great for almost 20 years because of their presentation.

Reading the Pilot is an experience. I like to think when I pick up the Pilot, I get more than stories and pretty pictures. I get the work of great talent trusted with the freedom to produce bold pages massaged with information tailored to digest.

Changes in aesthetics are not going to change the foundation of this great staffs' work. Sure, I believe fonts and pictures are important too, but that's never what made the Pilot great and I hope that never changes.

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