18 •‑Communication: Journalism Education Today
Spring 2003
Maestro
Work together as a team and think like the reader.
T
he maestro concept is an approach
to
integrating
writing, editing and visual
communication.
The
concept groups
copy editors, writers, photographers and designers in the process of creating a publishable spread.
“Think like a
reader” is one theme of the concept.
Everyone on the team brings expertise to the story and knowledge of what makes the topic relevant to readers.
¶ The goal of the maestro concept is to find agreement on the best way to package the story, photos, art and graphics for the reader.
Spring 2003
Communication: Journalism Education Today •‑19
Buck Ryan
Creator of the maestro concept Buck
Ryan,
executive direc-
First
tor of the
Amendment Center University
of
mid-80s,
the
at
the
Kentucky, was
in
thinking
about how publications might
Oxford High School (Miss.) adviser Beth Fitts talks with Stephanie Little and other staff members of The Charger. Fitts said the newspaper just won a Gold Crown from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and All-American with five marks of distinction from the National Scholastic Press Association. “The maestro method is a big part of that,” she said. Photo by Robert Jordan, University of Mississippi.
Tune in
package stories and organize staffs more efficiently.
He
noted that newspapers occa-
to storytelling possibilities that result from the marriage of verbal, visual elements
sionally set up ad hoc teams of specialists to develop big stories or in-depth coverage.
He
wondered what publica-
tions would be like it they went past ad hoc groups and started
working
regularly.
¶ He
in
teams
first intro-
duced the maestro concept in at the
Pharos-Tribune
Logansport, Ind. From
in
there,
Ryan has introduced the concept to more than papers in the
25
news-
United States
and at newspapers in
Sweden,
Brazil, Japan, Poland, Portu gal and
Spain.
20 •‑Communication: Journalism Education Today
By T err y Nel son
1991
Da-da-dum, da-da-dum, da-dadum-dum-dum. The “William Tell Overture” it’s not, but the most lyrical way of telling and illustrating a story it is. Take it from the “maestro.” In the past decade, accurate storytelling through journalism has been rediscovered and reinvented. No longer do the 5Ws and H presented in a summary news lead suffice in the reporting of real journalism to a new era of “get real” audience members. Readers of “Generation Next” demand virtual reality in virtually everything from television shows mandating on-thespot marriages and fear challenges to breathtaking computer games and live role-playing adventures — complete with costumes, props and realistic scenarios. Readers want to be in on the action from the comforts of their living room easy chairs and from behind their personal computers. This is not an age of nonreaders. This is the time of readers with high demands.
And now live interaction is the name of the game for journalistic reporting. Think of it as making beautiful music together. Even Beethoven would not turn a deaf ear to the solid reasoning behind using the maestro method of content coverage and presentation, enlisting the energies and talents of a writer/reporter, editor and designer/photographer to combine their ideas into a concise, creative package with sidebars and infographics that tell an accurate story in both verbal and visual terms. Commonly referred to as WED (Writing, Editing, Design), an ensemble of three journalists enlist this method of reporting, which has been traditionally used to cover special package presentations for daily newspapers, in high-school newspaper center spreads or for in-depth looks at pertinent social issues. Newspaper and yearbook responses in coverage to the Col umbine shootings, the Oklahoma City bombing and more recently Spring 2003
to the aftermath of the terrorism of 9-11 and safety issues all point to successful and enlightening uses of the team effort. The maestro method of reporting hits all the right notes. Three individual journalists brainstorm about potential sources, angles, questions, approaches to coverage, sidebars, infographics, photographs and illustrations. All three tag team it to the interviews with the reporter at the helm. During the interview, perhaps the editor sees a good angle to photograph. Maybe the photographer/ designer discovers a sidebar story possibility while listening to the interviewee. All three journalists start envisioning the design and identify a center of visual interest. Following the interview, members of the maestro team communicate: What do we know? What do we need to know? Where do we go next? Do we have the strong visuals to reinforce the strong words? Do we have an informative and interesting sidebar or infographic? Spring 2003
A business section front from the Sun Journal in Lewiston, Maine, was a collaborative effort with photographers, designers and reporters working together. “We do our best work collaboratively,” said Tim Frank, managing editor of design. “In fact, our monitors are arranged so that they face inward so we can easily turn around and help each other. Photography and design are involved in all longterm development right from the start. We try to visualize the finished product and try to develop all the right parts. The planning saves us a lot of effort at the end of the project.”
How will the headline be written and designed to form a natural bridge between the picture and the words? The reporter then writes the story and any verbal sidebars. The photographer presents photographs for discussion, selection and editing considerations complete with informative captions. And the editor reviews the entire package on accuracy, attractiveness and readability. If two heads are better than one, think what a cornucopia three must be. In 1995, the format of the Indiana High School Press Association’s “Editors’ Workshop” underwent a transformation to teaching this concept of maestro packaging for newspaper and yearbook students. That first summer, Dennis Cripe, the executive director of the organization, was pleasantly surprised as he witnessed the superior journalism that rookie teams of three and four students could produce in a short period of time. “We continue to be surprised at how well students handle maestro. Kids have no problem relating to the basic idea that is central to the maestro: finding the best way to tell the story in words and pictures. The team approach gives students the chance to pre-plan and work together to develop the story and design around a central idea,” Cripe said. “I’m more convinced now than ever that the maestro is a great tool not only to create interesting packages but also to show students a way to exercise solid leadership in their schools.” Faculty director of the IHSPA Leadership Workshop since 1995, Denise Roberts, adviser at Green wood High School (Ind.), has watched the evolution of the maestro usage as a teaching tool in a workshop as both a journalistic and conflict management experience. “This year we didn’t do some of the early legwork of providing suggestions for story topics and sources,” Roberts said. “We let the students learn the frustrations and experience the joys of finding their own topics and people to interview.”
She added, “I’m sure the process was more difficult for the students than in past years, but in the end they understood what it takes to produce a great story package — and the results were great.” During the first two years of the American Society of Newspaper Editors initiative to help highschool journalism teachers begin or improve existing journalism programs in urban and rural areas where publications programs are not strong, team leaders at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., have included experience in using the maestro method of coverage for teachers and students in their program. This year broadsheet-page packages ranged from more serious subjects, such as the treatment of international students at the university following the events of 9-11, to the lighter topics, such as the popularity of cigars and of the summer arts and theatre programs. Each of the 35 teacher participants took part in a three- or fourperson WED team, and each of the packages was completed in a short period of time, with better content and presentation than any single work would or could have been — both in the written and visual form. “I have used the maestro project concept since I got back from BSU last year. I was even able to use it with my Journalism I students .... It was perfect on-the-job training,”
Communication: Journalism Education Today •‑21
Ryan Yates, editor, hands out papers at a critique and brainstorming meeting staff of the Oxford High School (Miss.) newspaper, The Charger. Photo by Robert Jordan, University of Mississippi.
said April Lynn, a 2001 ASNE participant. “In using the maestro projects, students were able to use their creativity .... One group decided to investigate a nationwide clothing chain and their hiring practices. The students enjoy the topics and their freedom.” As Lynn and others have experienced, it is easy to see how well the WED method of reporting can translate easily to the classroom of beginning reporters. With the amount of preparation, research and planning that occurs through this team effort, sound journalistic practices, such as coaching, story clarification and photo pre-visualization, become a natural part of the process. The maestro team is also a natural way for beginning journalism students to become better verbal and visual reporters, via the mentoring built in with this maestro practice. The camaraderie of the practice also helps bolster shy, reticent beginning reporters. Rather than being on the firing line “alone,” they have the backing of at least two others. However, as Gary (Ind.) adviser and 2002 ASNE participant Larry Vallem noted, “Having maestro groups works fine as long as all the members of the maestro group are responsible and do their parts. If not, then the group has to make up
22 •‑Communication: Journalism Education Today
for the one weak member because they still have a deadline.” Advisers and editors may consider this occupational hazard a minor one because the work must still get done on time and in better shape than a single reporter could muster. In addition to special reports and center spreads benefiting from such a process, virtually every story and spot coverage can be approached with a team effort. Sports pages could come alive with features and personality profiles, how-to special reports and in-depth analysis of athletic budgets, athletic injuries and state regulations. News coverage could delegate club and class news to smaller, well designed column formats and make room for packages of issue-oriented coverage from a variety of viewpoints. Advisers should consider the beauty of assigning a WED team not only with a variety of talent but also with a mix of students from varying socioeconomic backgrounds, sex and ethnicity. It is also rewarding to think about bonding that could emerge from remixing those teams each issue of the newspaper or every deadline of the yearbook so all staff members get to know one another. The maestro system helps eliminate boredom and complicity while making for better staffs and better publications. The educational possibilities are
increased as well. Journalism teachers and advisers could structure their programs so that each grading period the journalism student could serve a different role on the WED team — creating photographers who could also write; writers who could also visualize possible presentations, editors who understood the work they were editing because they had performed under deadline pressure themselves. Consider the possibilities in yearbook journalism. Instead of naming the traditional student life, clubs, academics, people and sports editors, the staff could be divided into writers, editors and designers, with either specialization in areas throughout the year practiced, or a rotation enlisted here as well. Yearbook staffs could meet every week or two, similar to their newspaper counterparts, to redefine and update the contents of the ladder — based upon the contents of the year, and not from a prescribed, predetermined ladder. Talk about a revolution. Needless to say, the maestro method of coverage is preferable as well as possible for all publications: students teaching students, improved communications across the class barriers, conflict resolution and problem solving, diverse coverage in both visual and verbal terms. Sounds like a win-win journalism proposition for both the readers and the staffs. Put away that bottle of Prozac or Tylenol at the opening of this school year (#27?), and pull out the baton. An adviser can be the guest conductor in a symphony of improved, insightful, accomplished student journalists. All it takes is a little time in the practice room and the power to turn on the readers to the music of playing beautiful journalism together. Listen as the music crescendos, ending with timpani rolls and cymbal clashes. ■
Spring 2003
Maestro sidebar
Maestro success
O
One of the main advantages to a team approach is that relation ships are formed, not only in the sense of the interview but also the photog raphy and search for alternative ways to tell the story.
ver the years, we’ve sent maestro teams into Franklin (IN) to interview, photograph, design and produce tabloid pages on a variety of subjects. One team interviewed Sam Val entine, who had celebrated his 100th birthday the month before the workshop. The team spent two hours with him. One student member of the maestro team continued to write to Sam for months after the workshop. The same sort of relationship occurred with Clyde and Eloise Lindesmith, who married, divorced and married again – another subject developed by a student maestro team. One of the main advantages to a team approach is that relationships are formed, not only while preparing for the interviews but also while planning for photos and searching for alternative ways to tell the story. Also, it’s a multi-dimensional approach that subjects respond to positively. The second advantage our staff has noticed is that the stories have more depth and a stronger focus. We handle the same stories, but teams do them better. When a
team interviewed Happy and Pappy, two clowns in town, there was a central story. But there was also a sidebar about how long it takes to put on a clown’s face along with an info/graphic about the cost of such transformation. There’s better story depth because all maestro teams focus on “why the reader should care.” They let that concept guide them into all sorts of ways to tell the story. The maestro approach opens the possibilities and serves the reader in a more entertaining and useful way. Last June, we took 10 maestro teams to the Indy zoo for an afternoon. One maestro team could find nothing until a half hour before we were to leave. An older couple passed this group of students wearing a T-shirt with the picture of their grandson on it. There were two dates — a kind of memorial shirt. The team approached the couple in a professional manner and found out that the grandson, a Warren Central High School student, had been gunned down in a drive-by shooting a few years earlier. The team cultivated a story about
the grandparents and added background stories about school violence. The maestro approach also maximizes the potential to make stories more “interactive.” Maestro teams learn to look for ways to move readers to action if possible. It may be something as simple as an info box about how to contribute to “Girls, Inc.” or what to take with you if you decide to attend an upcoming event. But the “action boxes” along with a varied style of storytelling, which focuses on the reader’s questions, tend to show up in both the story and the design. There’s a more unified, reader-friendly feel and tone to the work. There’s a new mindset that says, “Don’t think stories. Think packages.” Students seem to have no problem understanding this advantage. By relying on one another and participating in the journalistic package each step of the way, students sense a new power. Their work has impact, and student journalists comprehend that they can make a difference. Perhaps this is the most important advantage of all. ■
Teamwork The days of assembly-line journalism are long over. Newspapers have too much competition with electronic media to no longer take visual storytelling seriously. In many circumstances (Sept. 11 comes to mind), visual journalists aren’t even part of a team. They are the team. Strong visuals are often the difference between what makes a report good and what makes a report great. from Bonita Burton, business design director • San Jose Mercury News
Spring 2003
By T err y Nel son
Student jounalists wield new power using multidimensional approach
Communication: Journalism Education Today •‑23
Going to get married Group writing, editing and design for a successful union
By Pete L eBl an c
The point of modular design, grids, 1 pica internal margins, maestro teams and other innovations is obvious — to invite readers to consider and participate in the story so they absorb the emotions and interact with the ideas. It sounds simple, but don’t be fooled. To achieve true marriage of elements on a page or spread or in a section takes hours of planning. However, don’t let the planning discourage you. It will be overwhelming at times, but working as a team to entice the readers to immerse themselves in the subject should be your goal for every layout. To achieve a consistent marriage of elements throughout your publications, it is imperative that editors, writers, designers, artists and photographers work together. Lots of planning meetings are essential to make that happen. On even the most experienced staffs, however, the process will rarely work without any glitches. But when you schedule and protect the planning time, you will be surprised how well it can work. And when it does, there is no better feeling. MEETINGS MAKE THE MARRIAGE WORK What plagues publication staffs is lack of planning. You have to find meeting times when your key players are available. Then you must schedule followup meetings to check the status of assignments and keep lines of communication open among editors, writers and photographers. What is decided at a meeting on Tuesday could totally change by Thursday. Publications suffer when staffs fail to make the writer aware of what the photographer is doing, or vice versa. Planning and communication are critical. Editors who find themselves
28 •‑Communication: Journalism Education Today
FOUR STEPS TO A HAPPY MARRIAGE OF ELEMENTS 1. Schedule planning meeting with spread editor, designer, writer, photographer and other stakeholders.
2. Brainstorm for concept of the spread. Topic is baseball. theme is that the team won league. now turn all that into a spread concept.
3. Once concept is in place, brainstorm individual components of photo, headline and copy with emphasis on marriage of elements.
4. Schedule regular “checkup” meetings. Deal with changes, missed photo opportunuties, new story angles, etc.
constantly criticizing their writers and photographers should take a look in the mirror. Condemning others means they’re not doing their job either. Writers and photographers need clear directions. Meetings with input among all staffers involved in the production of a spread will help them accomplish this goal. The initial meeting should consist of brainstorming for the concept
of the layout. The editor in charge of the pages should send the writer out to contact sources and start looking for a pre-angle to help the editor decide the best way to cover the topic. One dominant story and a sidebar? Several smaller copy/photo packages? Interactive coverage? All, and more, are options. Once the group has made a decision concerning the type of coverage, the editor, writer and photographer must strive for the perfect marriage of elements. Dialog will include design and headline ideas from the editor, potential story angles from the writer and possible photos, especially the dominant, from the photographer. Contributors, all of them, must put aside their egos to advance a single concept through the use of design, headlines, photographs and copy. The marriage of these elements makes life easy for readers. In a staff’s quest for the perfect marriage of elements, students must be ready for changes along the way. This is where frustration and disagreements can mount. For example, a photographer may come up with a wonderful concept for a photo, but is it a concept the writer and designer can match and advance as well? Is there a potential marriage? Do the writer and photographer have equally good but different concepts at work? If so, the editor will need to make a decision, and no doubt, someone’s feelings will be hurt. Nobody said marriage would be easy. Keep lines of dialog open. Even if formal meetings are not scheduled, informal discussions should happen regularly. Remember, planning and communication are the keys to a successful marriage. ■
Spring 2003
Concept This is a club spread about a new group on campus, the Bowling Club. In meetings, yearbook staff members brainstormed and came up with the idea to try to create a fun tone on the spread, as the club had quickly become one of the most popular choices on campus. Club members gathered a few Friday night’s a month at local bowling alleys and always had a good time. At the time the writer and photographer were given their stories, all they really knew is that they were out to create a spread that conveyed how much fun students were having. Photo Though the spread editor and writer had not yet collaborated on marriage elements, especially between the dominant photo and headline, all involved parties were working on the same page and on the same concept — to convey the idea of how much fun the students were having at the Bowling Club field trips. The photo of the students bowling the ball underhanded with their backs facing the pins clearly conveys that this club is not so much about the competition as it is about going out and having a good time with friends. Headline The main headline is a perfect fit, both verbally and visually, with the dominant photo. Playing off the phrase “we were laughing so hard we were rolling over backwards,” the word bowling replaces rolling to link the concepts of the photo and headline together. The reader doesn’t miss a beat.
Spring 2003
Sub-headline The subhead reads: “As one of the most active clubs on campus, the Bowling Club provides student outlet to share bowling, food, friends and plenty of laughs.” It reinforces and clearly explains the concept of the spread. Copy The copy block begins: “Show me the meaning of being lonely,” said sophomore Savannah Raley, singing along to an a cappella version of this Backstreet Boys song with other members of the Bowling Club as they headed for Country Club Lanes on Feb. 27. This was one of the trips the Bowling Club took to Country Club Lanes. They tried to go bowling every other week to Country Club Lanes or other bowling alleys in the Sacramento area. The trips included games of bowling, all-you-caneat pizza, and all-you-can-drink soda. Headed by Adviser Tim Liegerot, this club had a lot of fun throughout the year.
THE CONCEPT Journalists must separate the topic and theme of the spread from the concept of the spread. For example, let’s say we’re talking about the varsity baseball spread. Baseball is the topic. The theme of the spread is that the baseball team won the Capital Athletic League championship. The concept is the engine that will drive your coverage. It will help student journalists decide stories, story angles and which photographs to take. They should not leave these choices to chance. It will be impossible to cover the entire year in one story. Let a scoreboard and highlight sidebar packages speak to that. The goal is to come up with an original concept. On a baseball team, for example, let’s say there is one player, not the best player, but a good player, a shortstop who is a transfer student from Puerto Rico. Without this player, everyone on the team agrees that a Capital Athletic League title would have been out of reach. After weighing several options for a dominant story, this is the one that the staff selects. A concept is developing now. Our school has a player from another country and a team that won a championship in large part because of him. The key in developing the concept is narrowing the focus. It will be difficult to come up with unique, concise concepts if the focus is too broad. A story about the entire team with brief details about 10 players will not read as well as the specific story, and it won’t cover as well either. Conceptualizing will be much more difficult. In this example, maintaining a narrow focus has helped the spread editor come up with a headline concept: Field of Dreams. This may or may not work, but there is a concept at work now. The headline concept is playing off the novel and film of the same name. The word dreams ties into both the championship season (the team had dreams of winning) and the player’s journey to his new country. Communication: Journalism Education Today •‑29
The editor has directed the writer to ask how this player ended up coming to the continential U.S. Was it a dream? Was it a dream for his entire family? If this angle works, the photographer has been directed to take an environmental portrait of the shortstop on the baseball field, the field of dreams. Depending on the angle of the story and where the writer plans to go with his lead, the player’s parents might be invited to be part of the photo shoot. The concept can change at any point, but editors, designers, writers and photographers must work together. THE PHOTOGRAPH Too often our photographers are given little direction when they are sent out on assignments. They need more than, “Make sure you shoot some horizontal and verticals.” It is important to bring photographers into the brainstorming process. They can be some of the most creative people on the staff. Work with photographers closely, especially when it comes to a dominant photo. Work through the process of creating a spread together, sharing headline and story concepts and brainstorming for ideas. Remember, in most cases, the dominant photo on a spread is what will initially grab the interest of a reader. It is the lead of the spread, the dominant element. Designing beautiful pages will be difficult without having beautiful photos. THE HEADLINES Headlines come in two styles: main headlines and subheads. A well-written main headline for a yearbook spread should consist of a phrase that will draw the reader’s attention to the spread, making them stop and actually read the story. Use subheads for informational content. This approach allows editors to be creative with the main headlines. However, beware: strong story angles are needed to write catchy headlines. The headline concept must be married to other elements. ■
30 •‑Communication: Journalism Education Today
Concept This is a student life spread about students’ need for speed. Despite several warnings and the potential tragedies that could occur, students are attracted to fast cars and fast motorcycles. Editors wanted to present a balanced spread, contrasting this popularity, due at least in part, to films such as Fast and the Furious and Gone in 60 Seconds, with the risks. Much time and energy was spent finding the students most involved in these speedy ventures. Photo The assignment given to the photographer was to take an action shot depicting speed. Editor, writer and photographer met; the concept of the spread was clear: speed. The spread editor already had a headline concept in mind and shared the concept with the photographer before the photo was taken. This can sometimes help a photographer, but a page editor should never limit what a photographer is shooting. If a better photo opportunity comes along, that might be the driving force behind a new spread concept. In this case, the planning paid off. Headline Because of the popularity of the film, Gone In 60 Seconds, the headline concept worked perfectly. Remember, great main headlines have layers. This one is used in conjunction with read-in subhead to create a double meaning of sorts. Subheadline The subhead reads, “Despite the fact that 14 percent of teen deaths were caused from driving accidents, no one could tell us to slow down. Our need for speed
outweighed the fact that we could be ...” Read before the main headline, the subhead brings facts to the concept of contrasting why students drive fast despite the fact that it could kill them. Copy The copy reads It started with a love for cars and turned into a time consuming hobby. Senior David Jones was a street racer, and it became obvious when he pulled into the car filled high-school parking lot on his black and maroon 1998 Honda CBR 600F3 motorcycle with Bridgestone BT010 tires while sporting the HJC helmet and Alpine Star gloves. Jones used to go down to the racetrack with his friends just to look at the sporty race cars that were so abundant. Then one day Jones decided to try it for himself, and he loved it. He decided that he could have more fun on the street than at the racetrack, and so his hobby began. Jones is the featured rider in the dominant photo.
Spring 2003
grids = structure Narrow columns provide a flexible system of organization for designers
By Li nda Barr ingto n and J acky Cart er
Grids get you organized I like to organize, categorize, systematize, alphabetize, any way you name it. Okay, so I’m left-brained. But once I have everything in order, I also revel in a bit of disarray, appreciate a touch of asymmetry and take delight in “most admired disorder.” That’s why I like using grids. Tim Harrower, author of The Newspaper Designer’s Handbook, first introduced my editors and me to grids at one of his design workshops in the mid-1990s. He hooked us, and we went crazy with grids. “Grid design is great for beginners and those who are just learning. It’s a rule that you have to learn before you can break it. Designers have to understand grids and why they’re important before they can start free-wheeling,” said Lauren Airey, assistant editor/design for the 2002 University of Kansas Jayhawker yearbook.
Spring 2003
The framework Often, that basic framework begins with a column structure. Columns form the framework for page layout. Usually the width of a publication’s columns is standard ized to calculate ad prices and sizing. Regular column widths are wide enough to be easily readable. Broadsheet newspapers use a stan dard six-column design, giving six columns of ads on a page. Tabloids use four or five columns. Letter-size newspapers or newsletters usually have two to three columns. However, the grid system involves using more than standard columns. It involves forming a framework of columns, often an odd number of thin columns for design flexibility. That framework is the blueprint background for your page layout. It forms the basis for a variety of column widths and
Advice to designers from Bonita Burton, business design director San Jose Mercury News BBurton@sjmercury.com
1. Embrace change. You’ll go much farther as the kind of person who is enthusiastic about learning new skills (and using new tools to do your craft) rather than being the kind of person who gets rolled over or left behind. 2. Learn anything you can about anything. The most successful journalists in today’s newsrooms are those who can work cross-discipline. Even if you’re a terrible photographer, learn how to take pictures. Even if you’re not a great writer, learn basic news gathering techniques. Find out what it takes to get the paper rolling on the press. Read the books your boss reads. Different teams speak different languages, and designers are perfectly positioned to be interpreters between them. You’ll earn more respect and credibility in the newsroom, and people will be more willing to cooperate with you. 3. Dare to experiment, develop and trust your instincts. Let who you are as a person be reflected in your work. Your work will be better, and you’ll have a lot more fun doing it!
provides a structure for graphic elements. “Grid design is a basic guide that gives you a jumping off point. Because grids are so flexible, though, the designs can be flexible also,” Airey said. Ann Akers, associate director of the National Scholastic Press Association, said, “Narrower grids [allow] for the intentional use of internal white space to create isolation for impact. You can use a grid for an infographic, cutline, pullquote or logo — some kind of graphic element to make the page more interesting. In fact, an odd number of grids encourages editors to use these extra graphics to package information.” Check out the front page of the Falconer of Torrey Pines High School in San Diego. There are eight columns of grids underlying that page, but the columns are staggered along grid lines. The photos, the pullquote and the info boxes line up along grid lines to present a tidy, well-organized and attractive front page with many places for the eye to enter. One of the more aggravating design flaws I see in student news papers is sizing a photo willy-nilly so that it cuts into a neighboring column. The uncontrolled photo size may result in a too-thin column of text or in an irregular appearance for the text in the column. The grid eliminates this problem. With many narrow vertical grids, each three or four picas wide, on a page, photos can be sized to fit along the grid. The samples on pages for the Tiger Woods layouts show how the photo can be changed in size, but it always falls along a grid line.
Communication: Journalism Education Today •‑31
The Sun Journal (Lewiston, Maine), a broadsheet newspaper, uses vertical columns and rectangular modules to give design flexibility. “Keeping up with the communication on live stories gets dicey – reporters often get involved with their work and only think to come to (designers) late in the process,” Tim Frank, managing editor of design, said. “We have to be vigilant and follow up on stories from the daily planning meeting.” One of the early pioneers of grid design in yearbooks: 1993 American of Independence High School (San Jose, Calif.); Eddie Din, Thuy Do, Kristine Fallorina, Emma Ginger and Ky Le, editors; Paul Ender and Pat Accorinti, advisers
Organization The beauty of the grid system is its organization. If an editor wants different column widths on the page, the designer does not have to customize the column width because the grid background is always there to give consistency throughout the publication. Differ ent sections can change in format and appearance, but the underlying grid structure is always the same. Just vary the column widths along the grid guidelines. “Grid design makes it easier to tie your entire publication together. Because yearbooks, and even magazines, have themes, grids let you recreate a design with multiple variations. They give you a more pulled together look,” Airey said. Grids are also a great tool for designing a newspaper’s double truck. Beginning designers can be overwhelmed with the freedom of creating their own page from scratch. “Just be creative” is not enough advice. By having a grid Spring 2003
system as the backdrop for the page, the editor has parameters to work from. Graphics end up being an integral part of the overall design rather than being simply fillers between stories. Newspapers, magazines and year books can use grid systems. Akers has used grids primarily with yearbooks. The structure of the grid, she said, “gives you all the flexibility you could ever need to create contemporary designs at the same time that it provides the consistency that’s key to effective visual communication.” Using a grid system is the “answer to some of the design problems [that editors] encounter,” Akers said. Yearbooks can vary the format and the appearance of different sections while keeping the continuity of the same grid system throughout. Margins would be consistent as well. When yearbook staffers first started using grids, Akers said that a lack of experience produced some problems.
“While many magazines used singled grids of caption for specialty photos,” Akers said. “Some yearbook staffers did not note the decisions that the pros had made about alignment (never justified), hyphenation (usually turned off) and font selection and size (many times all captions would be set in a condensed type and almost always the eight- or nine-point type). As a result, there were lots of skinny, ugly captions that were not designefficient in the early years.” Horizontal grids Akers said within the last five years, more staffs have begun using horizontal grids also. They divide the page into a “gridded pattern.” By combining both horizontal and vertical grids, designers are able to eliminate visual redundancy and create functional packages. The use of horizontal grids allows for the use of planned white space to separate or isolate elements. By using the horizontal guide Communication: Journalism Education Today •‑33
lines, “more sophisticated designers,” Akers said, “began to note the uses of multiple horizontal eyelines, strong horizontal pack aging and horizontal rails of isolation in contemporary professional publications. Those same devices have been popular in recent yearbooks.” An important thing to remember is that grids are not being used for their own sake. They serve the content on the pages; that is, the grids help to develop a layout that will clearly direct the reader to the information. The number of columns or grids varies with each school, each publication or even each section. Consistency within a section is the key when using a variety of widths. Once you choose your grid for a section, stick to it. Establish copy and caption widths. Stan dardize how many grids will be used for primary and secondary headlines. You can change the size for secondary coverage, such as pulled quotes or fact boxes, but establish a similar look. “The key (is) to find the balance that works. What works for us is to know the rules of design and then to use what works within those rules but not to let the rules keep us from trying something new and different,” said Crystal Kazmierski, adviser of the Wings yearbook of Arrowhead Christian Academy in Redlands, Calif. John Cutsinger, long-time yearbook adviser and now Jostens Southeast Creative accounts man ager, is co-authoring a book on the modular grid design approach to scholastic journalism. Cutsinger stressed that a grid provides a structure to the page or spread. “The modules line up on the grid structure. Within each module, the designer is at liberty to envision each as a layout within a layout,” he said. He also pointed out that a grid provides unique opportunities to use planned white space internally. “White space draws attention to deserving elements,” Cutsinger said. “The use of the vertical and horizontal grid provides designs with 34 •‑Communication: Journalism Education Today
reference points from which to create aesthetically pleasing designs.” Prevent visual monotony The advantages of the grid system, then, become obvious. It not only prevents visual monotony, but it also allows content to dictate design. With more “compartments” to design in, there is more flex ibility and variety in page layouts. Cutsinger dices up the page into many narrow grids, most of which are used by grouping them, especially vertically. “If you have really small grids, you increase your ability to be more creative. If you are using very small grids, like two or three picas wide, you can create designs that look less predictable,” Kazmierski said. Many newspaper designers prefer fewer and somewhat wider grids so that a single vertical grid could be used independently. “The more options your grid provides — in other words, seven columns instead of five — the more flexibility you’ll have when you design pages,” Harrower said. “Using narrower columns adds variety to layouts.”
Rather than the basic six- or eight-column design, using a 16-24 column grid gives the designer more flexibility. Still maintain a consistent internal margin of one pica between elements.
Warning Harrower also offered two warnings. The first is trying to use a too-narrow column for text. An oft-quoted typographic adage suggests that the optimum width for standard text is a column that’s an alphabet-and-a-half wide or about 15 picas for 10-point type. “You can certainly put narrower legs to use for cutlines, liftout quotes, decks, etc. But legs skinnier than five picas [less than an inch] wide are tough to pour type into,” he said. ”And remember, the narrower the leg, the more necessary smaller, condensed type becomes.” The second warning has to do Spring 2003
The premise behind grid design is the same as basic six-column design: establish guidelines on the page and position all elements using these guides. However, instead of three, four or five columns, grid design uses two or three times as many. The narrower the vertical columns, the more flexible the options. On this spread, the narrowest column is used as the minimum width for columns and even internal white space. Most body copy type and captions should not be set in columns narrower than five picas.
Rather than the basic six- or eight-column design, using a 16-24 column grid gives the designer more flexibility. The premise is the same as with 5- 8-column design. A designer begins by establishing guides on the page and positions all elements within those guides. Still maintain a consistent internal margin of one pica between elements. Still work to maintain an eyeline on spreads and to have bleeds (occasionally) on outside pages and across gutters when possible. The only difference is the columns will be four or five picas wide instead of 10 or 12.
The true flexibility of the grid design becomes apparent with the introduction of sidebars and alternative copy blocks. While contrasting typographic play gives visual appeal to the page, the main story and sidebar package appear as a unit. The effective use of the column separating the main story from the sidebar prevents the designer from having to use boxes or screens. Spring 2003
Communication: Journalism Education Today •‑35
The Munsonian, Sept. 28, 2001, Muncie Central High School (Ind.), Caleb Beasley, editor; Terry Nelson, adviser 1990 Razorback, University of Arkansas (Fayetteville), Douglas Scott, editor; Gary Lundgren, adviser
2002 Magician, Muncie Central High School (Ind.), Matt Nacrelli and Heather Wible, editors; Terry Nelson, adviser The Blue & Gold, Findlay High School (Ohio), Dec. 21, 2001, Rachel Durst, editor; Jim McGonnell, adviser
36 •‑Communication: Journalism Education Today
with the number of grid-columns you create. Harrower suggests avoiding a six-column grid for tabloids and a seven-column grid for broadsheets. “Both force columns of text to be uncomfortably narrow, resulting in pages that look messy and stripey,” he said.
odd, or they run a blank gutter down too far.” While the flexibility of many grids is empowering, it is also daunting. My editors are reluctant to go back to it. Elaina Meier, former editor of our newspaper, The Cardinal News, remembers the excitement of Har The more Why not use rowe r’s workshop grids? and the subsequent options So, are grids all redesign. your grid the rage? Is everyone “We adopted a using them? If the 13-column grid for provides answer is no, then a while and then The more the next question is changed to nine “Why not?” grids,” Meier said. flexibility Mark Thompson, Getting the right adviser of the you’ll have number of grids is Sequoia, yearbook of important for being when you Antioch (Ill.) Com able to use them design munity High School, effectively. The staff said the kids get a of The Chronicle cerpages. little confused looktainly is not giving up ing at all the lines Tim Harrower, author on grids. The Newspaper on the screen. “It’s “I see a lot of Designer’ s Handbook a lot easier to just advantages to thinkwork with straight ing of the page in columns, but that doesn’t make it columns and half-columns and better,” he said. staggering copy and photos,” Neu The Falconer has been using an meyer said. eight-column grid system for some But her students find it rather years. The new adviser, Olaina difficult to work with. And so did Gupta, said they have “slid out of mine. “It was definitely a chalthe system a little bit, partly because lenge,” Meier said. “You had to those who went to Tim Harrower’s work a lot harder to use the grids class and learned how to really do it effectively.” have graduated. But really because it is quite a challenge to maintain.” Look good–for the reader She would like to have students try But isn’t that what good design is to use them more. “It does lend to a about: the effective use of text and cleaner layout, but [students’] lazi- graphics to convey information so ness/creativity does balk against it that people will want to read your sometimes,” Gupta said. publication. With great reporting The Chronicle of Harvard- and appealing layouts, your pubWestlake High School in North lication will be more widely read. Hollywood has been using an 11- The average reader does not notice grid system for the last three years. when you package a story well or This year they are switching to 10 cleverly cut out a photo. What they notice is that their grids. Adviser Kathy Neumeyer school publication looks every bit explained that editors have trouble as good as a professional one. When figuring out how to use those ultra- your newspaper or magazine or thin grids. “They frequently do not yearbook is respected, the stories understand that it is not going to and opinions expressed will be work to run copy only one-eleventh noticed. And that makes all the difof a page wide,” she said. “And ference in the world. ■ they wind up actually leaving oneeleventh blank, which looks rather Spring 2003