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.

On the Proverbial Horizon

When I started this blog, I certainly intended for there to be a tad more regularity between posts than once every three months. However, things at the Press have kept me falling-down-dead busy as of late, and whenever the time came to prioritize and re-prioritize my project list, the blog was a frequent casualty.

After learning a valuable lesson in workload management this past Thursday, I had finally gotten enough cleared from my plate to be able to dedicate at least a few hours to designing a cover for this year's summer quarterfold, 100 Things to do this Summer. It's a pretty big deal, since we're running it on glossy stock on some new equipment that the press crew is especially excited about.

At the end of three and a half hours of a complete and utter creative block, I finally printed out proofs to distribute for the approval of various parties, somewhere around 8:30pm. I have to say I'm pretty happy with the result. But what looked good at 8:30 at night on Thursday after two Mindsweepers might not look as good at 8:30 Monday morning. We'll see.

If it makes it through, I'll be posting it in my print design page soon after. Also, I've finally put up a few blogs I'm following in the highly unlikely chance you get bored with this one.

Project Profile: UNYTEA

Last fall, around September or so, the dark, gray clouds of a coming political storm were just beginning to brew over New York's 23rd congressional district. John McHugh, the area's long-serving member of congress, had been appointed to Secretary of the Army, and what began was a political drama that captured the attention of every national media outlet. Although it was the largest district east of the Mississippi, little-known "23" would suddenly find itself to be the most talked about race in the country, even with two staggering gubernatorial upsets happening in Virginia and New Jersey.

The race for NY-23 had it all, from endorsements from top-tier political figures to a down-to-the-wire finish. In the end, Bill Owens would become the first democrat to win the seat in over 100 years.

At the heart of much of the local grassroots activism was The Upstate New York Tea Party, or UNYTEA. I was invited to attend a healthcare forum at which the three prospective candidates were invited to speak, and as I read my invitation I had gotten in the mail, my brain couldn't get past the fact that their early mail-outs had no unifying, cohesive look. For a graphic designer, this is a maddening thing.

A few days later, the unytea logo was born. A carefully crafted silhouette of New York State in red (echoing the organization's more republican leanings) encircled on its top by exactly thirteen blue stars (the number of original US colonies), with a small white star marking the general vicinity of "upstate". The fonts used (Myriad Condensed Pro for the wordmark, Adobe Caslon in the logo itself) offered a well-balanced combination of clean, modern aesthetic while maintaining a classic feel.

Shortly afterward, I met with the group's chairman, Mark Barie, who enlisted me to design a complete identity package including business cards, a letterhead, envelopes, and a complete redesign of their website, with elements of the original logo tying everything together.