Since the start of work here at The Battalion, I am up-to-date on late-breaking news, both local and world. I now know random facts about A&M. I know how to play quidditch, the game in Harry Potter. And let me tell you that running around hitting people with broomsticks is much more violent than it seems in the books. I can tell you what is going on in the world of sports, from the Brazos Valley Bombers to Elonu’s decision to go pro. And I feel more cultured, knowing local happenings from wine festivals to symphony performances. Tonight, country star Granger Smith will be performing at Hastings.

Not only do I get to help with the design of The Batt, which is what I love doing, but  occasionally I get special opportunities. Check today’s paper for my big journalism break. My article was quoted on a Facebook status. Who knows what tomorrow will hold? The possibilities are endless…

Within design there are so many directions to take- from building design, interior design, and industrial design, to web design, photography, and graphic design. While there are certain basic principles of design, such as space, line and color, it is a discipline that allows for creativity and freedom.  As designers, we have to question the line between rules and creative inspiration. Some of the best design is born from breaking rules, but other design that breaks rules is just bad design.  It is a risk.

Typography. The creative use of type makes great design. Different typefaces convey different meanings as well. This idea is especially important in logo design, where the font changes the meaning of the logo.  My favorite font is Helvetica. Watch the movie. I highly recommend it. You will start seeing Helvetica everywhere you go.  Don’t use Papyrus.

Here are some typography links:

http://www.davidairey.com/category/typography

http://ilovetypography.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3k5oY9AHHM

That’s what it’ll take for newspapers to survive. 

Unfortunately, while they say that, the cost of newsprint is going up, newspaper execs are bringing in reapers to make unnecessary cuts and the remaining news space in papers is shrinking. Designers are expected to design more and faster with fewer resources, shrinking job security and tighter deadlines. It’s a game of chicken between what management wants and what today’s design desks can produce.

The most infuriating thing is that newspapers are still profitable. McClatchy and Gannett are still posting good operating profit margins, suggesting that the actual run of the newspaper is still making money. It’s the owners at the top who have buried themselves under debt that are pressing the panic button. If only they’d spend their money more intelligently, this newspaper crisis wouldn’t be so pronounced.

And until the execs learn to control their own spending and cease cauterizing whole desks of journalists, you’ll continue to get ugly newspapers and once-beautiful publications (Hartford Courant) wither to a template-style design that is weak.

I wish I could speak Spanish.

Posted by Kevin Alexander 

But the war, they say, is not over. To extend this dead metaphor even further, what content and design need is an alliance against the overwhelming forces of reader apathy and bad market research. 

I like to be clear about this: I do not blame my generation for the hemorrhaging status of print journalism. I blame a pathological fear to change both content and design to fit the current young reader. They are being ignored by the elders who make decisions and refuse to alter their ideas of what “good” journalism means. I bet what they consider to be pure is inconsequential to you – you just want something different.

Most say content drives design, but design and content must both drive readership. If you do some online research, you’ll turn up some studies that assert design’s negligible impact on reader interest. These studies normally take readership counts before and after a paper has been redesigned, and often find that readers appreciate the changes, but aren’t really swayed to buy the product. This shouldn’t be all that of a surprise – would you, the standard young reader, care if a newspaper switched up some of its serif typefaces and played with its grid? I doubt it.

That’s the problem, newspaper aren’t going far enough. They don’t want to take that plunge. In visual communication, among the most important things a product or business needs is an identity. Too many papers these days have no identity to speak of. The New York Times does (Hey! We’re grey!), USA Today does (Which photo goes with this story? Who knows!), The Wall Street Journal does (How much type can we get on one page? Quick answer – boatloads.), but these papers are still suffering, though to a lesser degree that most metros are and other large papers have no easy mental image to conjure up. They have no identity.

All American papers need to do is look at foreign papers. The most successful ones look like magazines, and contain smart commentary and seek to answer the question of why, and not what. The Internet can take care of happens, let the print content delve into the issues at play. And to support this content, a paper needs to shed all traditional ideas about design and go bold, bold, bold. Modern packaging and book design is trendy, creative and evocative. American newspapers are not. They’re grey, wimpy and stodgy. Put a full page photo on the front of every issue, don’t be afraid of large bodies of type if it’s backed up with a dominant image, smart usage of color and good use of white space. Young readers will get through long stories if they’re presented well. 

So design does drive content in some ways. Design must invite the reader, and today’s readers are swamped with so much information, that something smart and bold needs to grab them by the throat to get their attention. Content cannot achieve this. It can keep people coming back, but it cannot grab someone. Design must accomplish that, and decision makers must recognize this.

Posted by Kevin Alexander

A paper’s nameplate is its identity. A design-conscious newspaper updates its flag every so often to keep up with the times. I find it funny when print journalism experts decry the nature of the distracted, uninterested young reader while feeding them nameplates in old english type. We can’t help it if your paper looks boring before you even get your foot in the door. 

Nameplates are a big center of discussion in and out of the newsroom, as everyone, from the design director to Joe Blow and his trans fat-laden doughnut, is aware of its size and look. Everyone has an opinion of the nameplate. If you’ve thought about The Battalion’s nameplate in any capacity, you likely have an opinion too, and with the most soothing marriage counselor voice I can muster, that’s okay.

Ever wondered how the independent student voice at A&M went from this:

To this:

For better or worse, I’m responsible for this change. I knew when I took over as editor-in-chief in the summer of 2008, one of the first major changes I wanted to make was to update the flag design. I played with it for several days before arriving to the new look, and even though I’m sure the general manager here – Robert Wegener – wanted to burn me in effigy at first, he eventually came around.

Before I explain my reasoning behind the shift, I want to credit the previous designer who worked on the older flag. It takes a daring designer to mess with the nameplate, and the previous design had been around for several years – in short, it was a successful design. Times change though, and so do nameplates. I am sure one day after I’m long gone, some upstart designer will consider this design so throughly offensive that it too will need an update. I’m not just sure, I’m positive really. And that’s okay.

Anyway, I thought the major problem with the old design was that it contained several unnecessary marks and rules. I thought the word “the” was placed in a pretty snazzy way, but I also thought it was lost way up there. A new reader wouldn’t see it, and might walk around thinking we speak in one-word gutturals around here. Which is only kinda true. 

Also, the typeface needed a serious facelift – it is close to impossible to make a serif type look good in all-caps. Though the old design was a pretty good attempt a making it work, I thought it was trying to be bold while not being bold at all – the negative space in the type overpowered the straight letter stems, making it seem unintentionally airy. 

Sandwiching the flag with smaller type is also something I don’t like. I believe the name of the paper should be at the very top. It keeps readers from getting distracted by the flag, and the flag should never, ever distract a reader without reason. The T-star had to go and the maroon underline was crowding the type.

Creating a clear, two-level hierarchy between the flag and its supplement type was rule one for the new design. Most of the small type is inconsequential – it shouldn’t be pulling the reader to it. By making it small and uniform, it stays well out of the way.

Rule two was finding a typeface that was still bold – we are a military-style school after all – but modern and not so stuffy. Avenir was a perfect fit. It’s curvy but not wimpy. Perfect combination. 

The third major design stroke was adding enough contrast between “The” and “Battalion” without inserting trapped white space. Changing the type weight accomplishes this well, and with a little kearning between the words, it looks packaged and clean at once.

The overlording concept was one of cleanliness. I am a big proponent of being sharp and clear in design, unless you are trying to achieve a particular emotion or feeling in the spread.

Hope this was informative, and feel free to rant. The very nature of design is to feel.

Posted by Kevin Alexander

I love how this spread looks for several reasons, but the biggest is that it meshes the copy and images perfectly. Any paper can produce a beautiful section cover or poster page, but it takes a whole lot of talented people to make a double truck filled with type look good. 

Before delving into the design, just like to compliment Brad and Michael on their stories. Brad’s story, in particular, is a nice read.

What went right:

- The stylized arrows seem a little out of place on a gritty-looking baseball page, but the contrast inherent between them and the grittiness makes the spread feel modern but knowledgeable about the grime and dust covered era of early hardball.

- The lead photo is absolutely perfect in both composition and editing, so props to Natasha Sankovich and Jon Eilts for putting that together. It screams 1920s Yankees and having pitcher Alex Wilson stare down the reader while everyone else looks off creates a focus while filling the photo with personality.

- The pullout nicknames and scouting-report style infoboxes drip with style. 

- The player knockouts look good, with enough contrast in size on the ends to keep the reader’s eyes from glazing over.

What went less right:

- The lead hede doesn’t jive with the subject completely. Taken on its own, it’s pretty nifty, but it doesn’t look modern or vintage. 

- The column of type on the right side of the spread is significantly wider than it should be. It’s a bit heavy for a casual reader.

Overall, I’m pleased with this spread. It’s polished and pumped with enough style to compel readers.

Posted by Kevin Alexander

Greetings to everyone out there and welcome to the adrenaline-juiced world of college news design. When done correctly, it can be, at once, the most frustrating, rewarding and inspiring production process out there. It takes planning, visual talent, imagination, verbal ability, negotiation skills, cultural knowledge, confidence and the willingness to anger many people at one. Quickly put, it moves fast and offers much room for discussion and reflection.

That’s what this blog is for. My name is Kevin Alexander, and I suspect I will be the prime contributor to this blog, though I hope other designers will jump in when they have the time. I have been designing at The Battalion for about 3 1/2 years, though I’ve done nearly everything else at the paper, and believe visual journalism to be one of the higher callings a young, idealistic goldfish can hope for.

If you’re here, then you are probably interested in the concept of design, or maybe you’re here to just ask why – why The Battalion does what it does when it comes to presenting pages and spreads. Maybe you’re here to pick up a few ideas – that’s what design blogs are really for these days. All comers are welcome, and don’t hesitate to ask questions, make comments or vent your frustration about why the paper’s nameplate is in all lowercase (you can blame me for that).

Posted by Kevin Alexander