Man, am I glad summer's over.

 

  As you've probably already seen, 2011 is turning out to be a slow blogging year for me for a number of reasons, but primarily due to a combination of company-mandated quarterly furlough days and vacation season have left me too frazzled to post much of anything lately. Also, I've been admittedly dabbling in wordpress in hopes to eventually move this blog over to a more designer-friendly blogging platform. (Hence the clever little graphic above). As much as I've loved Blogger's ease of use, I decided it might be time to stretch out and learn something new after I saw it land on a list of Eight websites that are dead or dying, at, of all places, Fox News. 

  Blogger seems to have taken notice; when I logged in a few days ago, I found the new and decidedly more Wordpress-y look and feel to the dashboard. I'm not entirely sure how I like it, but I'm glad my online publishing platform of choice has chosen to grit its teeth and make a fighting lunge out of the tar pits of tech.One of the first things I noticed, and this has cropped up on other blogger blogs as well, is that despite all the major changes made, something as basic as the Text Wrap function seems to have been left out (hence the centered graphic - it has nothing to do with a recently found love of wide-format layout).

  In any case, I've been filling in my snippets of free time slowly filling in my portfolio at NewsPageDesigner, and became "friends" with none other than Charles Apple, who had good things to say about my work, especially a certain cover that got snubbed last year. Take that, NYNPA. 

I'll be posting soon with a few 9/11 anniversary tab covers, along with an autopsy detailing why the ones that didn't get picked (but should have).

Awards season, Internet Explorer and other travesties

With the recent announcement by the New York Newspaper Advertising & Marketing Executives that winners for their annual Advertising Awards had been announced, the awards season for news design in my neck of the Empire state officially came to an end. Calls for entries went out during a particularly dreary fall and winter of last year, and the wet and icy weather that came to characterize one of the harshest winters in recent memory in northern New York would also characterize my first effort at snatching a little glimmer of professional glory for myself.

  While my entries in the page design category for awards given by the New York Newspaper Publisher's Association (NYNPA) and New York Press Association went unlaureled, I was recently given word of my placing third in the Innovative Advertising category of the New York Newspaper Advertising & Marketing Executives (NYNAME) 2011 Advertising Competition, effectively talking me down off the emotional ledge I had heretofore placed myself upon.
 
The winning piece was a poster honoring Plattsburgh's semi-pro football team, the North Stars. Advertising was sold to local businesses wanting to show their support on the back, and the 12"x18" poster was inserted into a full run of the paper, soon finding its way onto the walls of cafes and sandwich shops all over town. The placing in this category is especially sweet. Not only does it place me in with a group of designers who are the first ever to win this award,  but the Press-Republican's circulation group was among the most competitive. There's nothing like accomplishing a first-ever in a brand-spanking new category to take the edge off an otherwise slow awards run.

Unfortunately, I've also just discovered tonight what a mess my page layout looks like when viewing this blog in Internet Explorer. Like most sensible individuals, I exclusively use firefox to browse the web, and had no idea that Blogger and IE version anything don't get along well; if Blogger's support forums are any indication, they likely won't be anytime soon. C'est le blog, eh?

I'll be back in a few with a crop of new stuff I've been needing to post. If you really can't wait, you can see my slideshow on NewsPageDesigner.

Project Profile: Therapy Lounge Logo Re-Design

In Plattsburgh's semi-iconic downtown area, Margaret Street lazily makes its way through what is rightly seen as the city's cultural nucleus, where it will branch off into smaller side streets to the various bars, clubs, and restaurants that line its sides. For many locals and a lot of college students, the  average weekend pub crawl begins at a spot just a stone's throw away from the towering Gothic spires of St. John's Roman Catholic Church at Therapy Nightclub and Sports Lounge.

  The place had done well in establishing itself as a nightclub, attracting much of the student population and garnering a positive review in Plattsburgh State's student newspaper. However, the place was foundering during the winter and summer breaks when the students were away. Flyers, campus word-of-mouth and bass-thumping radio ads were painting the place as a dance club first and sports lounge second.

  This was unfortunate, since their sports lounge's accommodations would easily put any mega-chain man cave or turn-key "neighborhood" joint to shame— 20 tvs, including a giant projection screen above the bar, pool table, stage for live entertainment, an upper-level VIP section and $2 food and drink specials that didn't taste like $2 food and drink specials, along with a slick and polished interior.

  In advertising aimed at helping Therapy shore up potential revenue loss from the students being away, it was determined that a fresh approach in presenting the place would help.  In the spec advertising, I would present Therapy as a place where working professionals could have a few drinks after work and see how their brackets were doing this March, the same people who would likely avoid "da club" like "da plague".

For one thing, emphasis shifted to the happy hour specials and game viewing options, coupled with a new, sleeker, more modern logo that conveyed greater sophistication. You weren't hit over the head with the some gaudy and predictable sports visual so common to many sports bar logos. It wasn't so much a sports bar as a bar where you went to watch sports. Mention of a dance club was nowhere in sight. Several different sizes were presented to reflect a variety of budgetary options.

Project Profile: The Classified Section Redesign

The long drought of posts finally ends tonight (Blogger's new uploader is a nightmare!) as I have now finally uploaded an extensive new entry detailing last year's redesign of the Press-Republican's Classified section. A snappy graphic link will soon be coming, but, for now, just click the link on yonder right. Hope you all had a good holiday!

Before and After: The Press Extra Logo

Before

After

In the newspaper industry, one effort commonly employed to draw new readership in is to publish what is called a TMC, or Total Market Coverage supplement. It is a condensed version of the full-sized paper, with smaller articles of local news, usually only a few pages long. Copies are distributed free of charge to households of non-subscribers. It also, of course, serves as an advertising vehicle.

The Press-Republican's TMC publication, Press Republican Extra (called simply the "Press Extra" in-house), goes out to approximately 20,000 homes in our coverage area every Wednesday. The decision was recently made (more or less, I'm a few months tardy in posting this) to redesign the flag from its previous incarnation. The objective was to condense the current version so that an additional a low-cost, full-color advertising opportunity could be presented in the form of a triangular "dog ear" ad in the right-hand corner of the front page.

The project had a short turnaround time, so I acted quickly in assessing what needed to be lost or kept and began slashing away; the tagline was the first thing to go, and Cooper was replaced by a bold version of the much cleaner Bodoni. For the bottom field, a slightly lighter shade of the blue from our online identity was used. The result is a visually concise, distinguished logo.

Project Profile: The Obama Centerfold

Over the 18 months prior to the 2008 Presidential election being decided , a chapter in American history played out that brought out both the best and worst of humanity. On the left, some of the country's most trusted and supposedly impartial media outlets were exposed as showing an imbalance of favorable coverage to Barack Obama (it became so obvious even SNL got in on it). Meanwhile, the GOP made much hay out of the now-president's middle name, used a lapel pin as a barometer for his patriotism, and, most embarrassingly, questioned the validity of his American citizenship.

Eventually, America elected her first black President in Barack Obama. For a brief, shining moment, the politics of politics seemed to be laid aside. The polls were closed. The ballots were counted. All that remained was to swear the guy in. You felt an inexplicable buzz about the world around you. You spoke excitedly with co-workers, even if you'd never been much for politics before in your entire life. For the first time in a long time, people all over the country lined up to buy several copies of the next day's newspaper. At the offices of the Press, preparation for the special Inauguration Day issue were already underway. The task of creating a pull-out centerfold poster fell to me, likely due to my oft-overheard, heated-but-civil discussions with a staff photographer who was a democrat.

After much deliberation and hand-wringing, of wanting to get it just right, I finally decided that the moment itself was the best treatment. An AP wire photo of Obama waving at the crowd after his iconic Grant Park speech, with a suitable excerpt about America being a place were all things are possible. The design was all about letting history simply speak for itself, and needed only to be paired with the right treatment of type; Trajan Pro Bold for the name, Adobe Caslon Pro Semibold for the byline and callout. The Red and Blue in the President's name were taken from exact CMYK values for the colors in the American flag.

Alas, the original vision as seen here was not what eventually made its way onto the presses, issues with oversaturation of black arose. A less effective compromise was settled upon, (executed by a different staff designer) with the night sky in the background gradiating into a cloudy gray and then back to normal again to alleviate the amount of black color information.

Project Profile: One Hundred Things

As mentioned in my last post, my latest project of note was designing a cover for the Press' latest seasonal publication, One Hundred Things To Do This Summer, a notable departure from the usual newsprint short tab Summer Guide Book. Also mentioned was that after having the work order sit on my desk for a solid I-don't-know-how-long, I finally cleared about four hours to get it done, three of which were woefully unproductive. Idle googling. Ideas would begin to form on my screen, only to be swept away by multiple undos. Much nervous eyeing of the little clock in the corner of my monitor, and of the big clock on the wall across from my left.

But, in that final hour, something . . . something began to take shape, and I decided it would stick. It had to. Whereas I had originally wanted to concoct a swirling tornado of regional summer fun, something reminiscent of an older cover, I soon realized that my vision was exceeding my grasp. Nonetheless, a solid idea had formed, and I was on my way. What became of all this was a single graphic juxtaposing both the area's well-known natural beauty with the semi-iconic clock at the corner of Durkee and Bridge streets and colorful buildings of Downtown Plattsburgh. As I mentioned back in May, I was happy with the results, and I still am. And if you happen to pick up a copy of the guide yourself, I recommend you check out #10, #13, #51, #76 and #84. See you in about a week, when I'll be posting about my own little part in American History making, the Obama Inauguration.