Newspaper Layout Ideas/ Final Version of Newspaper

6Jacques Derrida: (The law of genre, 1981): 'a text cannot belong to no genre, it cannot be without... a genre.'

From looking at my case studies and with the skills I learnt using Photoshop and InDesign CS3, I created the following templates:

Draft One: This template was created by myself; I didn't copy this layout from any newspaper.

Feedback for this template:

• The nameplate is to small
• There are too many article columns (what about the sidebar, adverts?)
• The structure of the template does not stick to the conventions of a local newspaper; there are too images    
 

 

 

 

 

Draft 2:Feedback

•  Clear layout: You can tell where the lead article is going to be
• Too similar to a broadsheet: The article comlumns are structured in a similar way to that of broadsheets- in reality it wouldn't appear like a local newspaper because it follows the convention of a broadsheet
• Nameplate: still too small- needs to be larger 

Draft one: I imported my nameplate as well as the lead headlines and the sidebar from Photoshop CS3 to InDesign CS3. I used the Selection and Direct Selection Tool to move them around and find the appropriate position for them to be in.

For my logo and slogan I used the Stroke Tool in the Swatches section to fill the textbox and the filled the text with white.

Draft Two: I had a look at real layouts and got my final inspiration from here:

Because my local newspaper is supposed to be 'youthful' I decided to go for youthful colours and created this: I chose the colours orange and grey to be the background of my nameplate not only to make my newspaper stand out but to attract those who like to see the 'brighter side' of life.

Upon feedback from a few members from my target audience and from my Media teacher, I realised that the structure of my layout had broken coventions in a negative way; my audience could find an article to focus on because of the two symmetrical images. Therefore I needed to create a loyout which focuses and leads the reader to a specific story. I thus created a masthead (The Need to Read) and filled in the textbox with paint to catch the readers attention. As well as that, I included a splash of colours which would in effect make my newspaper stand out from others thus attracting and appealing to my target audience.

 

This is my second draft: I recieved some feedback about the layout of my newspaper. The columns of my newspaper are too large and are thus going over the pages. As well as that, the text is too small at some points of the  I therefore did some further research from this website:  

http://www.wikihow.com/Design-an-Effective-Newspaper-or-Newsletter 

This website gave me lots of useful tips on how to construct my comlumns and format the text of my newspaper in an appropriate manner. 

To appeal a lot more to my target audience, I decided to fill in the important comlumns (e.g.'The need to read' column) with colours to catch their gaze. I also filled my sidebar with a different colour for the same reasons. These are conventions that I learnt from reviewing my case studies and also looking at the generic conventions of newspaper layouts.

Templates of my progress are placed below:


 

Draft 1 

I realised that the formation of my text was too close to the edges of the boxes in my sidebars. This breaks the generic conventions of the text formation in newspapers so I thus created two seperate boxes (one of which is a textbox, the other being an ordinary box). The ordinary box is filled with paint and the other is the actual textbox with text in it. 





Draft 2 shows the difference between the two sidebars; I have decided to do the same for all the text on my page to conform to the gridlines and columns of local newspapers.



Feedback from a few members of my target audience suggested that I take another look at the layout of my newspaper. I’ll start with the feedback on my front page:

. ‘I don’t know what article the main image is for’: although the image is on top of the relevant article, there are two articles (a main one ‘Teenagers and Faith…’ and a side article ‘Look Into the Hood…’). The image is meant for the side article

To solve this, I decided to add a boarder to the mage to link it in the relevant article however it would mean that the colours would be too much. Although I didn’t want to conform to the generic conventions, I still wanted my audience to recognise that it was still a newspaper. Therefore, I decided to reduce the amount of articles to one (‘Teenagers and Faith’) and have one image. That way, the structure of the newspaper would be a lot clearer. As well as that, it created more space for the article to be enlarged a lot more than before.

. ‘The secondary lead is boring’: This may be because there aren’t any images to make it stand out. Initially I didn’t want to include images because I thought the colour of the boxes was enough but realise that an image may be better not only because it will look good but because it’s a visual indication of what the article is going to be about.

After putting these ideas into consideration, I realised that although they were minimal changes, they made a very big impact on the layout of the newspaper. Here is the draft with the changes:



This is what I changed:1) I changed the image for my main article
2) I changed the image I used for my second feature article.
3) I added a photo the advertisement on my front page
4) I added photos to all my sidebars (headlines)
This is why I changed it:1) I changed this because the image I had before wasn’t actually intended for that article, it was meant for (Look into the hood, not at it). This image is much more relevant.
2) Again; I thought this image is a lot more appropriate and reflective of the article.
3) I realised that it made it look a lot more attractive.
4) It appealed to my target audience a lot more as it gave an indication as to what the article would be based on.