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Los apartamentos en Talpiot, al sur de Jerusalem, alojan en sus cimientos una tumba con diversos osarios, entre ellos hay uno que corresponde al de un hombre llamado Jesús hijo de un hombre llamado José, otros más, como el de una mujer llamada María Magdala, y otro de una mujer llamada María, por razones obvias, las coincidencias sorprenden a creyentes, arqueólogos, historiadores y demás comunes.
Esta es la infografía de lo que hay debajo de los apartamentos Talpiot.
De nueva cuenta un agradecimiento a Iván Carrillo y Rodrigo Olmos por su confianza hacia BIG ESTUDIO.
La revista OBRAS, publicó en enero un amplio reportaje de los proyectos de infrestructura para Estados Unidos, dentro de la administración del presidente Obama. Lizbeth Batta y Jesús Hernández, comandan el diseño y lo editorial respectivamente. Confiaron el proyecto a BIG ESTUDIO para desarrollar los tres gráficos para la misma edición, fue un trabajo arduo, dado que la información era poca, por la misma naturaleza de que son proyectos y que en algunos casos, como el del aeropuerto de San Diego, quizás no se realicen pues depende de muchos otros factores. Queda ahí la infografía y la opinión de los lectores por saberse, saludos.
This content is from a number of presentations I've made on creative strategies for newspaper designers. Still figuring out the best way to present the information online.
How many of your publications have a workflow something like this, essentially treating most content as breaking news?
The problem with this is that most of the time is dedicated to hunting and gathering (reporting) while little time is allowed for the food preparation (presentation).
It's unfair and unreasonable to expect brilliant presentation to happen in a fraction of the time it took to write the story.
Live stories would be the exception, but in reality, not that many newspaper stories are truly live stories.
Here's a greatly simplified look at a parallel workflow, which moves the involvement of overall presentation much further upstream. It's a little like applying a features workflow to news.
Under this scenario, design, graphics and photo can all be working together while the story is being written. Not only does this give more time for presentation, the work is better because it can be collaborative.
That huddle can simply be a quick conversation, but it will get everyone on the same page so that the story forms, photos and graphics all work together. Designers can develop a framework that can be filled and adjusted as text and art become available.
"It will never work."
If you're cranking 20+ pages a night, this isn't going to suddenly make more time for you. What it will do though, is put some things in your hands much earlier and give you more control.
Planning and communication are the keys. And changing the culture of a newsroom doesn't happen overnight. It's not a difficult concept to sell, but breaking old habits takes time. It will take leadership, salesmanship and persistence.
In the mean time, take control where you can and look for opportunities one story at a time.
Seth Godin says we don’t buy things because we need them, we buy them because we want them.
Newspapers don’t just sell information; they sell an experience. Along with photographers, illustrators and of course, some writers, designers help make that oh-so-important emotional connection with readers.
Good presentation tells the story. Great presentation brings the reader into the story like the soundtrack of a movie.
Satisfaction is important, but desire? Turn it up to 11.
Collaboration:
It's been a collaborative effort involving much of the newsroom, online and TV. We tried to take advantage of early planning efforts to have a cohesive visual approach to all SB content that seamlessly integrates photography, writing, graphics and design.
Branding:
The dominant visual element was the branding that Christian Font developed, based on the official branding, to be used in print, online and the morning news show. Here is a look at the basic building blocks, which also includes a color and typographic palette.
To the right, you can see how it played on all the Super Bowl wraps and specials sections leading up to the game. Those sections started the weekend of the championship games with something every day during the final week before the game.
We also ran front page stories every day that week. Here's a look at a few.
In addition to infographics, grids, graphics and other short-form content, devices like the cover footer below included weather updates, ticket prices and useful info.
Branding and design strategy is applied to related content from any section, even for those looking for something to do instead of watching the Super Bowl.
This page by Kristin Lenz treats type as art in the most literal sense, with the letter forms functioning much like an abstract painting.
"We got more space than we expected, so can you make us a cover for the calendar spread this afternoon? I'm sure you'll think of something." Using the sya-what-it-is strategy, Chris Mihal added various fake perspectives to the letters for complexity.
The above page by Puls Biznesu uses a type grid that counts down from 100 as a background.
Brandon Ferrill's Medicare cover also uses type as a background, while adding an iconic stock art element to help sell the content.
Here Christian Font uses an extended quote as the background headline and billboard-style refer to the story.
The page on the left introduces a fingerprint as a graphic element, where the page on the right, by Severiano Galván, uses information to draw the fingerprint.
Negative space within the story creates Oscar art for Flavio Forner's page.
The page by the Plain Dealer has prices falling from the headline. In an interesting twist, Ellis Latham-Brown's page from the Indiana Daily student has the story copy falling into a pile.
Letters are nibbled off in crumble at the bottom of Jussi Tuulensuu's page.
Pete Gorski's page uses the headline to help illustrate a pro/con story on Roe vs. Wade. Sometimes small papers can be more willing to take risks.
And finally, Paul Wallen's page illustrating the big eastern US blackout uses plenty of "black space" to make its point.
As I was working on this, Denis Reagan posted pictures of type driven pages from SND's judging in Syracuse. Here's the link.
Type as illustration:
Using type as your art can be as straight forward as turning up your storytelling really loud. Here's an example by Margit Toovere.
Here are a couple other examples where the story shape becomes the art. On the left, a page by Politiken. On the right, a page I did long ago at the Sun Journal. We took a lot of care to keep the story legible and there were no complaints from readers. It was interesting to watch people holding their paper at a 45-degree angle to read the story.
Stock images and file images:
This centerpiece by Nuri Ducassi still uses type as the dominant art, but adds small iconic images to punctuate and help the content be more accessible.
It's pretty easy to find stock images to illustrate your story at one of the many stock photo websites out there. My staff uses bigstockphoto.com quite a bit. Here are a couple examples that looked for images that express a simple visual metaphor that, combined with the right display type, helps to sell the story. The page on the left is by Brandon Ferrill and on the right, by Suzy Palma.
Admittedly, our editor was squeamish about a big picture of pavement on the front page. I suppose we could have assigned a photo of someone getting a ticket, but sometimes being literal is not so engaging.
Mug shots as dominant art:
When Julie Elman was at the Virginian Pilot, she was a master at this. Here's an example. What makes it work is that she used the colored text blocks to tie it together into a single dominant piece.
Take the picture yourself:
I'm not suggesting that everyone is suddenly a photographer. In fact, try to use your limitations as an advantage. How about a deliberately low-tech approach like using a plastic Holga camera or even your cell phone? The centerpiece image of the office building on this page was taken and manipulated by Taimy Alvarez on her iPhone.
The flat-bed photo studio:
You may be surprised how well a flat-bed scanner will scan objects. Some of the things I have scanned so far are a business editor's face, crumpled documents, TV cable, barbed wire and mud. Here are a couple examples.
Mediocre handout art:
I always try to respect the work of photographers, but entertainment handout images are fair game for manipulation. Just be cautious with Photoshop filters. Poor use of Photoshop is the biggest cliché of bad illustration. Here are a couple examples that use extreme crops to make the images more abstract and more engaging.
Anyone else have any examples to share?
Next up: More examples of type as art.
Last year SNDS upgraded the online news design competition. This year SNDS takes a step further into the online media business by including mobile media in the Best of Scandinavian News Design competition."Mobile media is a growing platform widely used by news media. It is therefore natural for Best of Scandinavian News Design to include this platform in the annual news design competition," says Flemming Hvidtfeldt, chairman of Best of Scandinavian News Design competition, to snds.org.Mobile media will be a category under the online competition. The net jury will judge the entries. The jury will base the judgement on the four basic criteria for all online entries – visual design, interactivity, usability and structure and journalism/editing.The categories for the online competition are:* Best front page* Best section page* Best article page* Best theme (feature, story, subsite or page)* Best application (for instance web-tv, maps, community, etc.)* Best mobile site* Best overall site design based on media brand* Open classEntries to the online competition shall be posted through the SNDS website. The entry form is open for posting of entries. Click on the below link and send in your online entries now.http://snds.org/Default.aspx?ID=71&Purge=TrueThe SNDS net jury is:Kim Pedersen, Ekstrabladet, DenmarkLinda Constenius, Aftonbladet, SwedenElin Madsen, Bergensavisen, NorwayJari Jurkka, Pohjalainen, FinlandEntry form and description for the printed competition will also be available on snds.org soon. The deadline for submitting your entries to both competitions are January 29, 2010.
