March 18

In "Redesigned Newspapers" I really liked getting to see what all three papers did to update their look. I think each had some great ideas, but my favorite was The Hartford Courant's new look. I really loved how they used a vertical head and incorporated the dot com. Fantastic! It is a great way to show readers that you are a Web site news organization that just so happens to run a solid daily paper also. I also really loved the design aspect of using one large eye-catching photograph. The Hartford Courant seems to have a more magazine feel, which is something that a lot of people still respond to. It's nice to know that one of the oldest newspapers in the country can adapt and roll with the times. Something as little as redesigning the front page can really rejuvenate readers and reporters working on the paper. I also really liked The Oklahoman's idea of making the newspaper smaller, at 44 inches. It makes the paper easier to hold and more portable, something that the actual holding of a paper still wins in over Web-based news, even though portable devices are becoming more popular the majority of the population doesn't read its news on a cell phone...yet. I think using this smaller size is something Final Draft should do in the actual print edition of the paper, and also using our actual web address name as the name of the paper also.
In "Next Generation of Visual Thinkers..." it makes me depressed that I didn't go to school at Michigan state! When I went to the college newspaper conference at Kansas City last semester with the Ithacan I saw so many interesting graphics and designs used to tell stories in a stronger way than just words. I wish all the time that I could do that, or knew how to do that. I think that using graphics, almost like a magazine, is what will help keep newspapers alive in the future of visual readers who are looking for quick and interesting information. Something I think we should defintely use at Final Draft.
In "One Image, One Word," I have to agree that when the story is big enough one picture, or word is all that is needed. I do think this practice can be abused, however, when papers use the design technique all of the time. This is something that I think Final Draft wouldn't use unles something major happened in the hyper-local area that we will be covering.
In "Is the Web a Tab?" I'm not really sure if I have an opinion on this one. I think she is write, readers want their information to be short and accessable, so that is what we will do!
I thought "Debunking Myths" was a lot of fun to read. When I first started at The Ithacan I would constantly hear all of these rules about design such as the don't pick a photo where the person is looking off of the page, the person's head needs to be the size of a dime etc. And I would ask why? Because I was curious and eager to learn everything at once. And all I would get back in response was "well, I don't know. You just don't do it." So it was nice to have the author agree with me on some of these things. I do, however, feel that knowing and understanding these rules is important for beginners (including myself) so that one can later respectfully break the rules when coming up with more creative designs. I hadn't heard of the dollar bill one before though -- I kind of liked that one!
I was at Friday's class before break so I'm not going to blog on the last reading.