Best of Colorado 2012Newspapers/Newsmaga

zinesTop ALTERNATIVE COVERAGE,

SINGLE PAGE DESIGNand FACING PAGES DESIGN

entries, comments from judges and support materials

Alternative Coverage (5A) Brighton HS – The Brightonian Hannah ArmentroutThe judge wrote: The best entries in this category went beyond simply pulling out quotes or stats and used design to present content in a new way. This isn’t easy – it takes tons of planning. And the best alternative story forms – be they charticles, quizzes or flow charts – take actual reporting and present the findings in a new, creative way. Don’t just put the team football stats in a big, funky font and call it a day. Get the coach to help you diagram the play that won the big game. Find out what songs the wrestlers listen to before they hit the map. Figure out some unknown stat about the debate team. There are so many stories just waiting to be told, and they needn’t all be told in narrative form.

NOTE: A very professional combination of student views on the early states of the Presidential race, along with some nice definitions and a short piece of traditional text. This doubletruck uses color in a restrained way. Now we just need to interview a few boys for the “What do you think” section.

Alternative Coverage (5A) George Washington HS – The Surveyor Katie Kerr, Olivia Buege & Claire Baker – 2nd Place

NOTE: Readers love interactive features, and this flow chart graphic lets them control how the coverage unfolds. It all leads to the four basic definitions of type of worker.

One minor point: Is justified text for each definition consistent with the more relaxed look of the page, or should we explore using ragged right text? Or perhaps just bullet points of information?

The key is to explore all your options as a designer.

Alternative Coverage (5A) Grandview HS – The Chronicle Sarah Greene – 3rd Place

NOTE: This alternative to traditional text accompanied a story about studying, and combines text, handwriting and spot colors to provide readers with a lot of information in a very small space.

For some readers, this sidebar may have been all they actually read on the page, but there is enough here to help a student annotate more efficiently. Don’t forget that many of our readers “graze” through the paper, and we need to provide a variety of “entry points” into our pages (beyond headlines and text).

Alternative Coverage (4A) Englewood HS – The Pirateer Maddie Avjean & Veronique BarbourNOTE: This doubletruck violates a prime design rule – always have a dominant image to anchor the page – yet it works beautifully due to the combination of color, a timeline that moves us diagonally across the spread, a terrific variety of information and presentation modes, and the anchor of the smart phones in the lower right.

Single Page Design (4A) Englewood HS – The Pirateer Eduardo Velazquez

The judge wrote: The best entries in this category prove that a dramatic, impactful image can make for an award-winning page. You don’t need a bunch of reverse type, type over images or crazy tilts to make a page’s design successful. Creative is good, but sometimes a wonderful, simple image can be more powerful than using every color, font and Photoshop technique you can cram on a page.

NOTE: Arresting use of color and interesting shapes make this page a winner. There is still a considerable amount of traditional text, but it doesn’t look overwhelming to the reader.

Single Page Design (4A) Greeley Central HS The Highlight Addy Neibauer – 2nd Place

NOTE: The square page size is a challenge for designers, but this page manages to avoid feeling “boxy” by using cutouts, layers and charts to provide a variety of opportunities for readers to enter the page.

For discussion: Does the page feel a bit too “tight” at the top and on the right side, compared to the left side? What if the COB in the upper left had been larger and the bar graph more visual?

Single Page Design (5A) Castle View HS – The View Mark Kroll

NOTE: A classic newsmagazine cover, with one well-composed photo-illustration, a teaser to the lead stories inside, plus some modern skyboxes above the flag. The information that is part of the standard nameplate is placed across the bottom of the page.

Note the designer’s solution to the perpetual problem of what to do with the “The” in many publication names. Here “The” ends up becoming the dot of the “I.” Other papers simply drop the article or run it as equal size with the noun. Your call, of course, but we recommend trying out all the combinations possible before settling on one approach (since this won’t change throughout the year).

Single Page Design (5A) Grandview HS – The Chronicle Levi Dillon – 2nd Place

NOTE: Emotional, story-telling photography anchors this simple yet elegant page. The six-column grid produces relatively narrow legs of text, but the designer used ragged right and avoided odd word and letter spacing.

The sidebar of statistics samples the blue of the crying girl’s shirt (and that same blue appears in the main head). So the burgundy color from the page topper and headline, and the use of blue, really tie everything together.

One possible addition to the text might be subheads to divide up the story into smaller chapters (and the burgundy would have been a nice choice to colorize those bold subheads).

Single Page Design (5A) Regis Jesuit HS / Girls DivisionThe Raiders DigestMorgan Jones– 3rd Place

NOTE: There’s a lot happening on this front page, but it’s all under control, with the red spot color holding all the disparate elements together.

In some ways, this front page functions like a home page for a website, sending readers inside the newsmagazine for all the details. There’s even a “link” to the paper’s Twitter feed.

For discussion: Is the flag hip enough for this design?

Facing Pages Design (5A) Grandview HS – The Chronicle Levi DillonThe judge wrote: : The best entries in this category were high impact spreads because they used either a dominant image to anchor the pages or organized images or graphic elements in an understandable manner. Points were also given for creativity in concept or design.

NOTE: The expansive “real estate” available in this category makes for a challenge for any designer. Although there are always exceptions, most spreads feature a image or some other visual that anchors the page, giving readers an obvious place to start. Color is often available, which provides both opportunities and problems. The best color use tends to focus on the images themselves, along with a limited palette of spot colors to highlight different areas of the spread.

Finally, the best facing page designs tend to avoid long stretches of traditional text in favor of smaller “chunks” of information, or a series of related profiles (as on this winning doubletruck).

Facing Pages Design (5A) Grandview HS – The Chronicle Levi DillonThe judge wrote: : The best entries in this category were high impact spreads because they used either a dominant image to anchor the pages or organized images or graphic elements in an understandable manner. Points were also given for creativity in concept or design.

Facing Pages Design (5A) Arapahoe HS – The Herald David Engel, Emerald O’Brien & Joe Redmond – 2nd Place

NOTE: This spread is essentially a large photo essay, with all the captions moved to the bottom of the page and all the photos numbered to match. Important: this approach requires great images to work (and this spread boasts lots of great photographs).

The headline is one word, which is the theme of the coverage. The design is a classic Mondrian-inspired layout (using a variety of rectangles functioning almost as windows). Piet Mondrian, the Dutch painter, is the inspiration for modular layout, which is still the heart of most page designs. This spread is a bit traditional in that the entire larger page rectangle is filled with images, while the more modern look is to drop some of the images out of the pattern to create some framing white space.

Also, this spread does not feature a true dominant image, though the large “PRIDE” does draw the eye. This pattern asks readers to essentially move from upper left across the page to the right, and then back to the left…

For discussion: Are we asking too much of readers to jump from an image to matching caption and back to another image, over and over again?

Facing Pages Design (5A) Mountain Vista HS – The Eagle Eye Joanie Lyons – 3rd Place

NOTE: This spread is in 8 ½ x 11 newsmagazine format, which is half the total space of an 11x17 tabloid – and that can be a challenge for a designer. But this spread manages to include two profiles (connected by winter sports), and each features traditional text along with a sidebar or alternative coverage.

This is a classically designed spread, with a clear dominant image, magazine-inspired typography, and a variety of graphic touches to help readers around the spread.

Something we will likely see more and more of are the visual connections to the web and to social media. The QR code in the upper right invites readers to learn much more about the of ice climbing, in this case from a commercial site. But we might use the QR code to take readers to our Flickr photo stream for additional images we just don’t have room for in print, or to a podcast interview that allows us to hear and see these students. So many options available when we can go beyond the limits of the printed page!

Facing Pages Design (4A) Montrose HS – The Chieftain Joe Nunez & Emily Newman

NOTE: This doubletruck is from a short tab, which gives it a very horizontal shape. A very creative dominant image holds the spread together, along with the disciplined use of spot color. The text is substantial, but not overwhelming, and the sidebars provide even “grazing” readers plenty of chances to get into the spread.

Facing Pages Design (4A) Silver Creek HS – The Talon Tribune Carly Marquis, Nathan Palmer, Kayli Weiss, Jillian Marcus & Alex Goutos – 2nd PlaceNOTE: Another photo essay, with minimal text but lots of emotional punch. The cutouts add some depth to the spread, and the sideline shot has a “Field of Dreams” quality.

Facing Pages Design (4A) Englewood HS – The Pioneer T.C. Scaggiari – 3rd Place

NOTE: Based on a board game look, but no game is included, this spread makes a riot of color an important part of its look. It also has no clear dominant image to hold things together (the frame of quick reads in bright colors takes on that task).

So much information – this spread demands that readers spend some time here – but everything is “chunked” to avoid long stretches of gray text. The studio portraits of students are eye-catching and their placement echoes the frame of the larger spread.

Sophisticated graphics, including the use of transparency when boxes overlay one another, and the restrained use of triangles to point readers from visuals to text.

Finally, the spread grows from a interesting theme: the school boasts some interesting ties to a larger world.