Savannah Athy-Sedbrook | STUDENT JOURNALIST
Design
Click on the Photos below to view my work.
New Beginnings...
This year was the first time the majority of my staff had ever experienced print journalism. Due to COVID-19, we did not have a print newspaper as we did in years previous. However, we had the opportunity again this school year. I put together plans for a print magazine-- a type of print was better acclimated for my staff. I needed less designers and writers, so I still had a portion of my staff to keep up with online content and social media. It was extremely important to me that our online did not die simply because we had everyone participating in putting together print.
Hence, the start of our magazine. The design of a magazine allows me to have six designers instead of 11, which would have been almost my entire staff. Before we even thought about the possibility of print though, I had to come up with a plan of action.
During the last cycle of first semester, I had already assigned stories that would be in print so that they would be done and completed before we even thought about designing. When the new semester started, I split the staff into crews like normal, but this time there was a twist. Instead of two package crews and an On-Deck crew, I put together a print crew of five, one package crew of three, and an On-Deck crew of three.
Print Schedule
Step one was to lay out all the expectations to my designers. They needed to know exactly what I was asking of them and the due dates. Therefore, I provided a schedule for them so they knew when each part of the process needed to be completed.
I also made myself available to help them during specific blocks and seminar at the end of the day.
For the most part, all of my designers are learning how to do this for the first time. Some of them had designed before, but it was in the context of newspaper, so I had just flipped their world upside down.
Video Guidance
To help out all the new designers, I created three videos such as the one to the right to help teach them basic skills. They are then able to refer back if they are in need of help when I am not available.
The videos include tools such as creating a text box, adding a photo to a spread, how text wrap works, and basic rules for designing a page.
Editing Pages
On the schedule, three days were designated for the designers to print off their pages and turn them in, no matter where they were at in their design process.
The first day they turned them in to me, the second one they turn them in to our adviser and the last one, I will sit down with each designer and make sure their page looks exactly how they want it to.
Layout Sketches
Starting the print process, I knew my staff would need a lot of guidance. Before I even let them pull up InDesign, I had them sketch out a design on paper. Then, I sat down with each person and talked with them about their layout.
The purpose was to make sure the designers who had only worked with newspapers were able to experiment outside of the box, away from the standard layout and so the new designers knew what I was asking of them.
Designer Meetings
To help the structure of the magazine, I met with each of my designers individually to talk about their page design.
We talked about how we could improve their design and build on what they already had. Originally in the schedule, pages needed to be sent to the printer by noon on January 21; however, with most of my designers being new, I needed to extend the time so that we could make some corrections. It is important to me that the staff is proud of the work we've done even if that means the deadline has to change.
Magazines
For some reason unbeknownst to me, I have collected popular magazines for several years. During the cycle, they finally had a purpose. I brought them in so that the designers could look through them and find some ways to expand on their original designs.
It gave them the ability to look at some professional magazines and find what they liked and didn't. On top of that, it gave them a better idea of what a magazine should look like.
What I learned
As of today, we are still in the process of designing pages. We are all learning together and figuring out what works for us and what does not. At the end of the cycle, I will sit down with my entire staff and figure out what went well and what we can do better for the next issue in March. Already, each individual has improved so much and has learned new techniques. I threw a completely new program at them, flipped their world upside down and they have done so well despite everything. I am so proud of them, and even if it's not a perfect issue, we will learn from our mistakes and do even better next time.