This document discusses the role and importance of design in journalism. It provides examples of good design practices and pitfalls to avoid. The key points made are: 1) Design is a tool to make information clear and get readers engaged. Poor design can hinder understanding. 2) The role of designers is to guide readers efficiently through content using visual elements like photos, graphics, and typography in a cohesive way. 3) Good design reflects the unique identity and values of the community a publication serves. Simplicity, readability, and respect for content should drive all design decisions.

1. Design: A Tool for Making
Things Clear
Visuals, Photography
Warren Watson
Arizona State University
2012

2. Why Design?
• “Design is a tool to make things clear. It is
a lubricant for ideas. Poor design is like
crackling static on the radio.”
-- Jan White, author, teacher (1988)
• “Why design? It’s simple. We’re in a
vicious fistfight for people’s eyeballs
-- David Fowler, art director (1994)

3. The Role of the Designer
“Role of the designer
is to get the reader to
the first paragraph.”
-- Edwin Taylor

6. Poor Design: ‘Crackling static’

8. Color: More Than Drapery

10. Wright Stuff
“100 years ago today, near
Kitty Hawk, NC, Wilbur and
Orville Wright changed the
course of history with the
first power-driven, heavier-
than-air machine in which
humans achieved free,
controlled and sustained
flight. One witness, a young
boy, ran into town, yelling,
“They done it, they done it …
Damned if they ain’t flew.”

12. Practicing Journalism Whole
“Competing for the news will require us to
practice journalism whole. It means that
editors will widen the view of their work, so
that words, illustrations and page design
are thought of us as one, not apart, and
handled whole.”
--Gene Patterson, former editor and publisher,
St. Petersburg Times (1988)

13. Whole
Journalism
Heads,
photos,
graphics
working
in
unison

14. Photos to connote
reality; graphics,
stories, cutlines to
explain information

15. Using all the Tools
• Subject overline
• Photo and caption
• Headline
• Explainer headline
• Editor’s note
• Nugget or glance
box

16. Anatomy of a Good News Page
> Strong center of < Subhead helps
visual impact tell the story
> Dramatic layout < Refers tell
befits the news what’s inside
> Strong < And of course:
secondary art A great photo!
> Highlights box
layers the news

17. Getting the Reader to the 1st Graph
* Strong
head with
active verb
* Map
showing
epicenter
* Brief facts
about quake
over head
* Infographic
* Subhead
tells more of
story

18. Anatomy of a Good Feature Page
> Strong center < Appropriate
> of impact white space
> Clever head < Accessory
color use
> Strong
secondary art < Contrast in
> Good sizes of
proportion of heads,
heads to text photos

19. 1890: Evolving Toward Today

20. 1912-37: Getting Visual

21. 1945: Experimenting with
Design

22. The Modern Look

23. Calling Attention
to Itself
In the
‘70s and
‘80s,
design
over-
shadowed
content

24. USAT Pulls
It Together
Not the first in color,
not the first in
graphics, not the first
to package.
‘McPaper’ parlays
it all for first time.

25. Today: Design Goes
International

26. Risk-Taking in Asbury Park

30. Some More
Dumb Stuff
Let’s go retro:
show the
fireworks in black
and white!

31. Design Factors: Forms of Visuals
Photography

32. Visuals:
Info-
Graphics

33. Modest Color
Use

34. ‘Information Anxiety’
“Good instruction is built on good
description. Words, pictures and numbers
-- use the right means to describe your
ends. Learning is remembering what you’re
interested in.”
-- Richard Wurman (1990) in book of the same name

36. Put It in Understandable Terms
• An acre is 45,568 square feet in area. Easy
to forget? Yes.
• An acre is also roughly the size of a football
field without the end zones
• This is a cure for information anxiety!

37. Visuals:
Illustration

38. Best Practices:
Jackson Hole News
• Weekly
• Circ: 8,000
• Editor: A. Thuermer
• Designer: Dorothy
Jankowsky

39. Design Pitfalls
• Beware of
overdecorating
• Designer who
had too much
time on her
hands

40. Simplicity, Simplicity, Simplicity

42. Design Pitfalls
3) Type is the
most important
design tool; treat
it with respect at
all times.
And never, as I
once did, screen
the nameplate

43. Design Pitfalls
1) Never do what
you’re not
capable of doing
2) Devote your
time to the
important things

44. Treat Typography with Respect

45. Pitfalls:
Fractured
Type
• Type’s too
narrow
• Optimum
range: 12-17
picas

46. More pitfalls: Type Too Wide

47. Cropping

48. Packaging Problems
Misleading association;
no, she wasn’t indicted

49. Beware of
the Power of
Photoshop

50. Design Tips for Non-Designers
• Communicate expectations often, precisely.
• Learn to speak the language of the graphics
and design staff. They are specialists too.
• Insist on excellence.
• Don’t judge what you’re not trained to
judge.
• Focus on the big stuff! (more)

51. More Design Tips
• Pay attention to packaging issues.
• Learn about photography. It’s the most
important design tool. Learn the language
of excellence.
• Practice journalism whole. Graphics,
photos, captions and headlines are
information forms too.

52. 7 Simple Learnings from SND
• Keep it simple
• Let content drive the design
• Take care with the details
• Pay attention to the words as well
• Think like, not for, the reader
• Treat typography with respect
• Reflect your community

53. Reflecting Your Community
• Maine: A nameplate
that evokes a city
• San Diego: A deep
history of a region

54. Reflecting Community (more)

55. Walla Walla: ‘Whassup!!!!’
“The community
newspaper with
absolutely no desire to
look like USA Today.”

56. Visuals:
Infographics
A photo or
illustration
combined with
artwork to tell
a story,
explain com-
plicated matter
or graph
trends,
numbers