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recent Listen With Reason columns
Why a column like this? Because too many web sites seem
devoid of personality. Because the world of newspaper design can
always use a little more dialogue. And because, hey, it's my web
site. So I thought, why not create the first regular online column
about newspaper design, on the first web site devoted to newspaper
design? Why "Listen With Reason?" Because "Listen to
..." sounded a little too preachy.
Back to home page:
www.ronreason.com
(more tips
on newspaper design, graphics and editing).
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This installment of
"Listen With Reason" is also published in the current issue of
Design, the quarterly of the Society of News Design.
To jump quickly to reader reactions to the topic
of homogeneity, click here. To register your own thoughts, email me here. Thanks to all
correspondents for contributing to the dialogue!
* * *
One of the side effects of publishing your own web site, and
soliciting feedback, is that people actually do reach out to you. I
get a lot of mail from students. Often, they seek to learn the
perfect font for body text (sorry, they're not one-size-fits-all),
or eager newbies ask, "how do I become a design consultant?" (Um,
let me get back to you on that one.)
So my eyes perked up when an e-mail arrived with the subject header
"stale newspaper design," from University of Maryland student
Brianne Warner:
"Hello. I'm taking graphics this semester as an independent study
class. As one of my small projects (the final is a redesign of a
local daily), I wanted to do an overview of newspaper design. You
can read paper after paper online, but that gives you no feel for
the design in print. Oh, the intriguing new ideas I would find in a
review of papers from around the country! Or so I thought.
"I headed to Borders, bought up a dozen newspapers and went home
happy. And then I realized that they all looked pretty much the
same. I'm not sure what I was expecting exactly, just that I would
be surprised and inspired. Maybe this is not representative - the
L.A. Times, the Philly Ink, the Globe all seem to be cut from the
same cloth. Is this just me?
"My professor suggested I ask a design specialist about this seeming
homogeneity of design. Do you find that most papers appear the same?
If so, do you see this as a problem?"
Brianne raises two mouth-watering issues for a news design pundit:
Are newspapers looking alike? If so, does it matter?
As for the first issue: yes, Brianne, I'd started to get that
sinking feeling, that many papers look and "feel" too similar. (I've
actually had the "Borders experience" myself, though I went home
empty-handed.) There are some likely causes for the "Sameness
Syndrome":
Many big papers in the past few years have gone to
pagination, and the people who create templates love to lock in
grids, font choices, and the like, which restricts what a page
designer can do. (This has a major up-side if you're a fan of
consistency and stylebooks, as I am; a possible down-side if you
value surprises, fun and variety, as I do.)
As large papers have narrowed to the 50-inch web, and have felt
further cuts in newshole due to a tightening economy, the space for
experimentation seems to diminish a lot. (Anyone out there having a
tougher time selling "creative white space?" Just wondering.)
The big Sunday papers, as one tends to find at the
chain bookstores, seem to have become more formulaic. Perhaps the
visual enterprise we seek is more likely found during the week?
To a certain extent, faddish fonts (which have
plagued us for decades) may contribute to this sameness in
newspapers. Magazines suffer from this as well. In the last month,
three magazines have hit my mailbox (one brand-new, two redesigned),
all seeking roughly the same audience, all using Griffith as the
main headline font. (This is the sans serif font of the moment,
popularized in recent years by its use in "Fast Company.")
Using the same primary headline font as a similar publication is no
crime, per se; using it in an environment of little distinction - no
finesse to the grid, accent typefaces, color palette or logo styles
- may be cause for concern. (Disclosure time: My redesign of The
Dallas Morning News uses Miller, another currently popular font
family. I was more than a little concerned when I heard the Boston
Globe and San Jose Merc were both redesigning with Miller, but was
relieved to see the environment they use it in is very different
from what we're doing in Dallas.)
It's a complicated equation with no easy answers. Perhaps too few
consultants are designing too many papers in too similar a way;
perhaps communities themselves are homogenizing, and papers are just
reflecting this. Still, if design students are raising the question,
it's worth examining more.
As for the second issue: Does it matter? I probably see more
newspapers, more regularly, than a lot of people. And while I have
noticed a sameness in their look, the thing that bothers me more is
a sameness in spirit - or rather, a lack thereof. Content too often
seems outdated, dull, irrelevant, or generic (the food section that
cries: "This Valentine's Day, why not consider chocolate!") and the
presentation reflects this.
True, pockets of dynamic, relevant news and feature design exist.
But too much of what we do is packaged by editors and designers who
seem unaware that much of it can already be found online (where it
is, for the most part, not "designed"), or in the myriad
magazines that compete with newspapers on any special-interest topic
(where information, by and large, is much better designed).
As an industry we seem more timid, not as prone to taking chances or
provoking the reader as we once were. The result of a nervous
business climate, perhaps?
My final thought might not please contest judges, design students or
fellow pundits. Playing devil's advocate, one might actually argue
that a similar appearance from one newspaper to the next, as in
grids or fonts, could be a good thing for readers: This could keep
them in their comfort zone as they travel or as they relocate to a
new town, and thus make information easier to access. (Who knows,
this may be the genius behind the similar magazines exploiting
Griffith.) However, when the spirit of the thing remains a
constant from place to place - an uncompelling one at that - we all
need to take a step back and worry a little about where we're
headed.
* * *
Do you think newspapers look too much alike? Does it matter? If
so, why? Register your own thoughts by emailing me here. Or, read
below to see what others have said so far ...
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READER RESPONSES TO THIS
TOPIC:
ARE PAPERS TOO NERVOUS ABOUT THEIR IMAGE TO TAKE MORE
CHANCES?
Response from Brianne Warner, UM student
whose query inspired the column: "The 50-inch web theory is one
I hadn't thought of, but one that makes sense. When you have so many
stories to cram into one space, you don't have the luxury of finding
the best design; it's usually the most economical design that wins
over. I've seen that in just doing inside pages for lifestyle
sections, and trying to juggle Heloise, Ann, Abby and all the rest
of it. (Is this really new, though? Newspapers have always had space
contraints, right?) The faddish fonts made me think of the slab
serifs I see everywhere (I think Rockwell is one) - both The Post
and The (Baltimore) Sun use it or something similar as overlines. It
seems as though papers have been going through font fads for the
past century, though. Certain fonts give off that '50s feel or '70s
look.
"The thought of a stability factor intrigues me. I think some sort
of study on that - maybe asking people who have just moved what they
like about their new local paper and analyzing the new v. old -
would be fascinating.
"Two other theories occur to me. One is the impact of the management
and a decision high-up to stick to what has worked rather than
explore. I spent the summer at The Virginian-Pilot and saw how much
everyone cared about presenting things creatively, as much as
possible. I've been at other, smaller papers where that option
wasn't even on the table. The Pilot also has the A1 designer spend
the entire 10-hour day on just the front page, while many little
papers ask a designer to take half that time to do A1 plus a few
others. I know finances are an issue for small papers especially,
but it seems as though they put their resources where they think it
matters - and innovative design is rarely one of those places. I'm
not sure how this theory would fit into the long-term timeline. It
almost seems (and again, I'm still learning the history of design)
as though pagination allows extra control, but instead of using that
to expand the possibilities indefinitely, it's been used to tidy up
sloppiness, at least when it comes to the hard news sections.
"My second thought concerns the serious appearance of papers like
the Post, the L.A. TImes, the New York TImes. The front pages look
stuffy and high-minded and - I would think to most average people
and certainly average kids - boring. But perhaps that is their draw,
in part. They all have a certain image to maintain, and a quirky
splashes on the front page wouldn't carry it. Perhaps they wouldn't,
on some level by some people, be taken as seriously if they strayed
from their enduring conservative look. But that doesn't explain why,
overall, things might be slowing down creatively.
"Hmmmm. Maybe in an age where newspapers are losing ground to the
Internet, cable and other news sources, they can't afford to lose
any appearance of credibility by tinkering with their literal
image."
'REPORTERS NEED TO GET ON BOARD; EDITORS NEED TO VALUE PRODUCT
DESIGN'
From Matthew Schott, Sports Design
Editor, Key West Citizen: "I think you really hit it on the head
in your column by stating that newspaper content is just too bland
and unexciting. Too many reporters just turn in their copy and don't
really give a second thought as to whether they did a good job and I
think that this attitude greatly affects how a designer does his/her
job. At my first paper there was one writer whom I loved to work
with. When I had a project coming up with him, I got excited about
it because I knew this writer was going to turn out some dynamic,
interesting, readable copy that would yield great art and as a
result of this we were able to turn out some really great projects.
Even on daily stuff, this writer would produce great copy and work
with the visual people to make it jump off the page. But most
reporters don't do this. They loathe working with the visual people.
Reporters need to be taught as they come out of J-school how
important visuals are.
Matthew also brings up another point that often seems to be missed:
the value of product design. "Why has the I-Mac sold so well? Or the
new Beetle? Or all those little trinkets at Target? First of all
because they do their job, but secondly because they look good. They
are well-designed, that's why. People like things that look good,
otherwise they would just wear the same clothes over and over again.
Newspapers seem unable to grasp this concept and that is why most of
them look the same. Because editors see the SND annuals or buy other
papers and say 'Why can't we look The New York Times or the National
Post?,' instead of trying to create a product that is truly
innovative and tailored to their market."
WHO ARE WE DESIGNING FOR? DO WE KNOW?
From Dave Murray, sports designer, The Washington
Post: "I'm taking a class in newsroom management with Gene
Roberts, former editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer and most
recently of The New York Times. One of his lectures might be of
interest to you:
"When he became editor in Philadelphia, they immediately hired four
new designers. After a few months, he noticed a problem. One day,
the paper looked like The Miami Herald. The next day, it looked like
the News & Observer. The next, it looked like the Atlanta Journal.
Sure, each designer maintained the typography. They had no choice.
These were the days of cold type. But each designer put the Inquirer
together just as he or she put together the paper from which they
came. Some days the lede was a shallow horizontal. Other days, it
was a deep vertical. Some days on the left, others on the right.
"So Roberts hired a design director (though that might not be what
the title was). They put the paper on a 6-column grid. They locked
the lede story in place on the page and demanded that it be run in
roughly the same shape each day.
"The font-of-the-minute type palettes in a lot of these redesigns
certainly make a lot of papers look similar. But when the consultant
has left the building, you still have the same designers doing the
same pages, just with different type, spacing and ruling. It's not
often a consultant can get a paradigm shift like you did in
Boston.
"I wonder if the fact that journalists move around so much has much
to do with the sameness as the consultants and the chains. I wonder
if there's a basic management problem at the heart of this. I wonder
if designers get a clear sense of what the paper does - what its
mission is - when they walk in the door. I wonder if management even
has a clear sense of what the mission is. (I have been fortunate
recently to work with two AMEs who do have a clear sense of the
mission: Rob Hooker in St. Petersburg and George Solomon here.) I
wonder how many managers can pull a section out of the stack of
papers on his or her desk, point to it and say 'This is what we do.
We do it well.' "
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