College Newspapers!!

nb3004

nb3004

Postmaster General
I am the art director of my college's newspaper and i was wondering if any one knows of competitions for student or newspapers that are based both on writing and design. I recently redesigned most of the paper and have worked to have it look less like a college newspaper and i would like to see if we could get recognized or critiqued by professionals.
 
p.s. its designed completely on macs running word, indesign, photoshop...(too cheap to use illustrator too i guess)
 
thanks
well the website for our paper is 3 years old and disgusting, that is actually my next project, i can post a pdf or a jew jpgs of pages if youd like

Its The Griffin at Canisius College
 
Thanks that would be great, we are a small school so it is hard to get many comments on it except from professors in the communications dept.

I will post some images tomorrow when i have access to back issues in the office.
 
Even as a designer, if you're a journalist, you should take more care with your typing. Spelling and poor punctuation should be avoided, even if you're on the design side. Sorry, my $.02 (with 15 years of professional experience, an SND design award, a couple of national design awards and a couple of handfuls of state awards speaking as a grammar Nazi). Looking forward to seeing some of your work.
 
here is our front page from last week, ill post more from other sections later
 

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nb3004 said:
here is our front page from last week, ill post more from other sections later
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Quick thoughts: Very drab. Very vertical. Two headlines stretched across the full page. Art is static, no caption on lead photo, bottom one is run too large for a bunch of people standing around. Maybe the lead photo as well.
Deck on lead is way too long. Too many words. Headlines are small. Nothing grabs your attention. Copy looks spaced out (lots of leading) but without any entry points, it still looks like a grey mass. Headlines are passive.
 
nb3004 said:
life and arts spread...
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Headlines in two different styles clash. Especially with the black border. I hate the byline being isolated like that and run so large. if Jesus came back and wrote a op-ed piece, the byline shouldn't be so big much less a news editor. Why are some words capitalized in headlines? Two photos of Spidey is one too many. The bottom of the page is a bit busy with the photo covering the page. Once again, the text looks like an afterthought. Placed there, but very drab compared with the rest of the page. Headlines are kerned too tight.
 
nb3004 said:
more LandA
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Again, some headlines are upstyle, some aren't. Why is the 1-column headline centered? The blue screen is not a very good shade of blue. The etch-outs again? Why two characters from the wine flick? The feathering of the photo montage is weak. Bylines don't do much for me. Copy again is one mass of text, no visual entry points. Shouldn't a top 10 list have a box of what the top 10 actually are? The headline on the alexander story is really lame, it says nothing. It's also too kerned. And why is it in the box if it has nothing to do with the lead story?
A good thing is the photo enters the text some, but the two legs look uneven. The second leg is way too wide.

A 1-column story down the entire side with no entry points, no quotes, no subhead? Ugh. And it jumps? Double ugh. Again, the headline says nothing.
 
nb3004 said:
Sports section
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A quick word. Take my comments as constructive criticism. At first look, it's easy to spot the wrong things.

That ugly blue screen again. Lead headline is weak. And long. Subhead should read Tonight, ... Also weak. At least the story doesn't jump but why run the photo so small? Don't make people squint on an action shot. At least there's a lift quote, but it's very dense as well. And placed smack dab in the center breaking paragraphs? Looks like it was used to stretch out story. Why not used numbers in headlines? 3 in a row ... Top 10 films, etc. Doesn't your men's basketball team have a nickname? Use that and not men's basketball team!

Bottom headline is a terrible font and kerned too much. Not sure what sitting tall means which means the headline fails by asking questions rather than grabbing my attention. The fast facts is nice, but the other photos are too small. Action shot is same dimensions as the lead photo. And the odd placement and entry into the text is visually jarring.
Two credits on side of photos? Photos are too tight, more space needed between them.
Both stories suffer textyness as well.
 
Thank You
what exactly do you mean by entry points?
most of your comments I agree with and can only say that we have a hard time getting writers and photographers. As of know we only have one photographer and are forced to go with 72dpi pictures too much. Interestingly you also mentioned many things that ive asked why we do this only to get back "we've always done it that way." It took a great deal of lobbying to get pictures to be placed slightly over the header. We will be changing staff soon and I am going to talk to the editor to have more say in design of the paper, some pages you saw such as the Sports page I had no hand in at all, as that editor does not ask for ideas or advice.
What would you suggest instead of doing etch outs of many different pictures for a story that has many parts like a top 10 list? And what color instead of that shade of blue is better? The guys from "Sideways" the wine flick are both prominent because it was ranked #1. And the story below that with the picture of Alexander is a worst 10 list, but you couldnt tell by the headline i know. Once again not my call.

thanks (even though it was tough to read the first time) this should provide me with a lot of evidence to help break down the old way of doing things that has been drilled into our staff's head by older editors.
 
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