Graphic design in newspapers are often overlooked by the public and journalists who tend to be more interested in the stories, articles and other features; but how a paper is designed graphically can make a difference to the reader.
Most editors in Sierra Leone do not care much about the design of their papers as long as they can produce whenever they can, but graphic design is a very important aspect of newspaper production, as the presentation and layout gives more interest to the reader thereby increasing sales. The reason why graphic design is overlooked in the country is because the readership doesn’t have much alternative or they are not au fait with modern technologies so they buy any paper irrespective of its presentation.
Although headlines are what get readers attention, the layout of the paper, graphics, and photographs are important to keep a readers attention. Without the use of illustrations, a paper would be a jumble of words that can create monotony and boredom for the reader.
In developed countries, graphics, layout and pictures are very important as it gives the readerships more pleasure in buying and reading the paper. Most news readers in England want to read the sun because it satisfies all the components to make a good newspaper, especially their pictures. Some papers would not have a strong lead story all the time, but they still have the highest sales because of their layout and graphics.
In the early days of newspaper, across the world, the production was a mere letter, but these early papers still were able to enjoy the market as there were few papers and almost everybody wants to know what is going on around him.
The industrial revolution around 1850 saw newspapers began to transform into the media that we recognize today. With the advent of new powerful presses that could print between 50,000 and 100,000 complete copies in one hour. They were also able to create the first “pictorial” newspapers that included illustrations created by woodcut engravings and the newly invented photograph.
By the 1890’s there were over 11,000 newspapers in print in USA. This popular form of journalism now included bold new modern features including banner headlines, extensive use of illustrations and the funny pages. The use of caricature became popular and was used often to present political views. If you look in newspapers today, you will still see this form of illustration is still popular.
Newspaper design today is so advanced that anyone can create his or her own newspaper from a computer. There are hundreds of types to work with, templates, layout designs, so what is the challenge in today’s small newspapers and what is preventing them from creating exciting new looks. This is why everybody now in Sierra Leone wants to be a publisher and everyday a newspaper is being registered. Infact I read in one story that we have 74 registered newspapers in the country: strange for a small country like ours. The end result is that they produce a newspaper that in a developed country cannot even come out in a village because of poor design, bad editing, poor layout and full of PR and smearing campaign materials.
We have to get more training in graphic design as newspaper editors are trained in journalism and not graphic design. Even though they may have been exposed to some form of this education while in school, it is not where they spent much of their time learning. So the individuals responsible for making decisions for the overall look of a paper should have the skills of graphic designing. In develop countries newspapers have a supervisor who may have the basic design skill sets to work with the different editors in setting the pages before they reach the graphic designer.
Where does this leave a newspaper; it means that the people at the top including owners and editors must recognize their strengths and weaknesses and either employ trained designers to supervise this aspect of the overall design or train the individual editors to understand nuances of typography illustration and layout.
It is always good for newspaper to come up with a special look or what they call stylebook in graphic design that is consistent throughout the paper from one edition to another. This means that someone must be in charge for keeping the overall production to be sure the Sports page, business page and feature pages are of similar standard.
The goal of design management is not to stifle creativity of the individual editors and journalists but rather make sure the newspaper stays within the parameters set up in the stylebook. Without an understanding of design standards and the number of people who have creative input, a paper can become a style nightmare.
What we have to do to get it right is to create an effective style or look for the newspaper. Consistency starts by realizing the job is too big for one person and whoever is in charge needs proper training. Sierra Leone’s case is different because our newspapers have less pages and it is easy to work. A couple of graphic lessons for some of the editors will help to create the style of the newspaper because all of them can work in consonance and create the style of the newspaper.
The entire staff has to understand there is a look the paper is going for and the reasons for that style. More importantly the organization needs to understand the need for consistency. This has been proven by Awoko Newspaper as every reporter should have some idea of layout and should be able to give his or her input to make the paper’s style consistent and interesting.
In developed countries, the supervisor will review the pages regularly and help the editors to reduce the mistakes. Their duty is to make sure the visuals work with the copy and are effective in communicating the story. Does the headline work? Is it too big or too small? Does the article fit on the page? Is it too long or too short? How does the illustration for photograph help the story? These are just some of the questions a supervisor needs to be trained to answer.
Graphic designers plan, analyze, and create visual solutions to communications problems. They find the most effective way to get messages across in print, electronic, and film media using a variety of methods such as color, type, illustration, photography, animation, and various print and layout techniques. Graphic designers develop the overall layout and production design of magazines, newspapers, journals, corporate reports, and other publications.
They also produce promotional displays, packaging, and marketing brochures for products and services, design distinctive logos for products and businesses, and develop signs systems, called environmental graphics for business and government. Some graphic designers also develop material for Internet Web pages, interactive media, and multimedia projects. Graphic designers also may produce the credits that appear before and after television programs and movies.
The first step in developing a new design is to determine the needs of the client, the message the design should portray, and its appeal to customers or users. Graphic designers consider cognitive, cultural, physical, and social factors in planning and executing designs for the target audience. The editors and reporters do not have that know how and the skills to produce such standard copy, which is why we need them to do a good job.
We can see the type of adverts the phone companies produce; they are done by graphic designers who are able to relay the message from the company to the public with animation pictures that are very attractive especially when printed in color. The newspaper world too needs them to make the paper more reader friendly and interesting.
Designers gather relevant information by meeting with clients, creative or art directors, and by performing their own research. Identifying the needs of consumers is becoming increasingly important for graphic designers as they continue to develop corporate communication strategies in addition to creating designs and layouts.
Graphic designers prepare sketches or layouts by hand or with the aid of a computer to illustrate their vision for the design. They select colors, artwork, photography, animation, style of type, and other visual elements for the design. Designers also select the size and arrangement of the different elements on the page. They may create graphs and charts from data for use in publications, and they often consult with copywriters on any text that accompanies the design.
Designers then present the completed design to the editor for approval. In printing and publishing firms, graphic designers also may assist the printers by selecting the type of paper and ink for the publication and reviewing the mock-up design for errors before final publication.