HarrogateHound
New Member
Hi there,
My name's Tom. I'm a newcomer to these forums, and I've come in search of advice.
I work as the news editor of a weekly newspaper called the Harrogate Advertiser, which is about to make the change from broadsheet to tabloid. It has been a broadsheet since 1836, so it's a pretty big deal.
Beside the simple change of size, it also means a complete design overhaul. I have only been a page designer for 18 months, so this the first major redesign project I have been involved with, which is massively exciting, but filled with headaches. I design through trial and error, since I have no training, so when I hit something I think looks great, I'm delighted, but I also can't think myself out of design problems because I'm not familair with a lot of the basic principles.
Anyhow, I was wondering if I could post the odd PDF here and ask for input. I'll attach one now as a current example.
For reference, I use InDesign (we only have CS2, which is a bit of a handicap) and have no access to Illustrator or Photoshop.
The page I'm linking is set to be the front page of the Weekend section, which contains arts and entertainment stuff (theatre, galleries, music, cinema, and a lengthy what's on listings section). I'm pretty happy with the way the top half of the page looks, and I think I have to stick with the fonts (Futura Bold and Times New Roman regular for the headlines, Times New Roman Bold for the logo and "inside" furniture, and Times New Roman for the body text). The lower half of the page is supposed to be four plugs for inside content and a larger plug for the food and drink section - but I can't seem to make it look anywhere near as classy as the top half. Please forgive the fact that I've used the same plug/photo repeatedly.
If anyone has any advice or pointers on where I'm going wrong, I'd be really grateful! As a reference, I have also linked the front page of Weekend as it currently looks, pre-redesign.
Thanks - and a Happy New Year to everyone,
Tom.
New design draft: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18355501/Harrogate Weekend new.pdf
Old (current) design: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18355501/Harrogate Weekend old.pdf
My name's Tom. I'm a newcomer to these forums, and I've come in search of advice.
I work as the news editor of a weekly newspaper called the Harrogate Advertiser, which is about to make the change from broadsheet to tabloid. It has been a broadsheet since 1836, so it's a pretty big deal.
Beside the simple change of size, it also means a complete design overhaul. I have only been a page designer for 18 months, so this the first major redesign project I have been involved with, which is massively exciting, but filled with headaches. I design through trial and error, since I have no training, so when I hit something I think looks great, I'm delighted, but I also can't think myself out of design problems because I'm not familair with a lot of the basic principles.
Anyhow, I was wondering if I could post the odd PDF here and ask for input. I'll attach one now as a current example.
For reference, I use InDesign (we only have CS2, which is a bit of a handicap) and have no access to Illustrator or Photoshop.
The page I'm linking is set to be the front page of the Weekend section, which contains arts and entertainment stuff (theatre, galleries, music, cinema, and a lengthy what's on listings section). I'm pretty happy with the way the top half of the page looks, and I think I have to stick with the fonts (Futura Bold and Times New Roman regular for the headlines, Times New Roman Bold for the logo and "inside" furniture, and Times New Roman for the body text). The lower half of the page is supposed to be four plugs for inside content and a larger plug for the food and drink section - but I can't seem to make it look anywhere near as classy as the top half. Please forgive the fact that I've used the same plug/photo repeatedly.
If anyone has any advice or pointers on where I'm going wrong, I'd be really grateful! As a reference, I have also linked the front page of Weekend as it currently looks, pre-redesign.
Thanks - and a Happy New Year to everyone,
Tom.
New design draft: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18355501/Harrogate Weekend new.pdf
Old (current) design: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18355501/Harrogate Weekend old.pdf