Design
Our publication does one senior print edition every year. From the intense brainstorming, layout, and inDesign sessions beforehand to the feel of warm newspapers at the end of the process, this is truly one of the most stressful yet exciting times of the year for journalism. Below are pages I have designed for the 2024, 2023, and 2022 print editions, including senior shoutout ads. I also worked with other editors to approve and brainstorm the layout for the page, being very intentional in the order of stories and visuals.
The original plan for the above page, the edition's last page, had been to create an Arts&Entertainment section with our newly established crossword and comic section. However, with developments in the budget, an override failing, and the next year looking uncertain with budget cuts, we felt it would be more impactful to create a spread of how teachers and students were feeling during this period in time. Something I kept in mind during this project was that most people's eyes flow from the upper left to the lower right corner. With this, I included what I felt were the most thorough quotes in those areas and the responses without accompanying pictures on the bottom right corner.
Above is an example of a page I designed, along with a senior ad. In creating the ad design, I made sure to evenly space out the picture and creating a more symmetrical design.
This is a nail AD design I created after securing an ad spot with a local nail salon. I attempted to highlight their work while also creating a QR code for easy access to their website. I kept the visuals simple and clean because I felt a cluttered look would be too overwhelming given the content on the rest of the page.
The above page was not technically assigned to me, however, as we neared the final day before our print deadline, I ended tweaking the design a bit after deciding to incorporate comics into this page. Because the original plan had involved comics in the back of the newspaper, I do think the page is a bit scattered, but I am still proud of finally re-introducing comics to the print (and online) paper!
THE CENTERSPREAD SAGA...
More than design, the center-spread, in my opinion, is truly a test in patience, data collection, and attention to detail. Essentially, the center-spread is a list of all the seniors and which college they will be attending and it is one of the most highly sought after pages of the entire newspaper. On the design side, this requires consistent use of font, sizing, spacing, in addition to creativity with finding space for all the names. I worked on it for two years (both as a freshman and sophomore) in a row, the first of which was a huge learning experience. Caught up in finishing the piece and adding visuals while simultaneously making sure all of the names fit, my partner and I ended up accidentally omitting three students who were traveling abroad for their college experience. and misspelling two names. Despite sending out apologies, we still felt so extremely bad about these mistakes as it had affected graduating seniors and I found myself discouraged from doing the center-spread again.
The next year, I decided, despite everything, to give the center-spread another shot. Being the only editor experienced with the page, I realized that this was my opportunity to learn from the mistake and ensure full accuracy. This time, paired with my future co-EIC, James, we double, triple, and quadruple-checked every name, spelling, and college. We improved the system, using three spreadsheets. We were at school working until 6 p.m the day of the deadline, even after so many had left. I'm happy to say, however, that it was all worth it; we didn't receive a single complaint or catch any errors this time.
Social Media Design and Marketing
Here are some examples of posts & announcements I have designed for social media. My main goal with these is to get information across in a visually appealing manner with cohesive coloring. For more examples of designs I have created for social media posts, please check out the "Social Media and Audience Engagement" section of this portfolio.
More Examples
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In all our social media coverage of the budget, I found that design was equally important as content in ensuring the infographics were understandable and accessible. This particular post, I worked with my co-EIC Elitsa on and we really wanted to emphasize student/teacher/community voices while remaining cohesive in our design. With this, I decided to set up the background for the quotations and subtly adding pictures of the people who spoke with a transparent layer on top - this would help ensure that the quotes were still the main focus of the slide. Elitsa also helped ultimately unify the post as we worked on the first and last slide, which are professional while still maintaining a satisfying color scheme throughout.
The design in this post I created alongside Elitsa is also similar to the previous, incorporating pictures in the background to make for a more visually appealing slide. Still, to ensure there is enough contrast between the image and text, I added a think transparent white layer. Similarly, in the first slide, we used a bold, white font that stood out with no picture to give the words themselves power.
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