500-word project explanation

Explanation of Final Project

My design philosophy on this project was simplicity. When we took a look at the nameplates and designs of many of the most successful papers, one thing stood out to me: how simple their design was. The papers that got overloaded with graphics and had tremendously complex nameplates were the least visually appealing to me. Papers like the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times are two of the most highly-renowned papers on earth, and also have some of the most simple designs.

I started my design with the nameplate. I chose a font that I found to be visually clean, simple and elegant. The text for “The Washingtonian” is bordered on each side by a set of lines of varying thickness; nothing too complex. The font for my nameplate was a serif typeface, which I think lends the paper an air of credibility and seriousness upon first glancing at the page. The headlines and sub-heads are the same font but different sizes and either bolded or regular. The same theme with horizontal lines is present in the headlines as well, keeping the design scheme consistent.

I added a pale green (it turned out gray on the printed copy) to the Baghdad story, as it was the most important. That same pale green is featured in the teasers, social media box, and website box at the bottom. I think the green adds just enough color without obscuring text, and Washingtonians will identify with the scheme (the Evergreen State).

I also tried to keep everything very symmetrical on the front page, I don’t really have a purpose for that other than it looks nice, and directs your attention to the most important story right away (which is easily picked out by the extremely thick, sans-serif font with the largest size).

I chose the Baghdad story, because regardless of where you are in the U.S., this is the biggest news of the day. The attacks targeted Americans in a country we are holding a war in, so the information is extremely relevant. The pictures I featured on the front were the two most compelling photos from the most compelling story. I don’t feel like it was an overload on Baghdad content for the first page because the story was so big.

I chose the stock market story to run on the front page because it was also big news. Stocks dropping that low affect everyone, and national news of that caliber takes president over local news of lesser importance. I ran the politician story on the front because it was a local event, and there’s always room on the front page for compromised politicians (which seem to be big news sellers these days).

My second page had two newsworthy stories that covered a large portion of Washington and its residents. The second page narrows the stories down from national to local.

I designed my paper to be read by the Washington citizen. It would be a one-stop location for Washingtonians that wanted the most important national news, but also more statewide information than they would get from local or national papers. My readers would expect a clean, and easy-to-read design with the best breaking news, but more importantly, excellent reporting on state issues (be it east or west side).

Note: I had some problems with how the pages printed. The pictures weren’t very sharp and the ink printed unevenly. The green I chose for the teasers, Baghdad and other pieces turned out much darker than the .pdf or InDesign document.