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Memorial Day Challenge: Shared content
Memorial Day Challenge: Shared content
This challenge is flexible in the sense you can pick from a variety of Lee wire slugs AND how you want to present your chosen story. Want to practice cutouts? We got a tutorial for that. Gradients? You betcha. The only rule is to design a page as if it would be made into a shared content module. Please read the doc for more info.
INSTRUCTIONS
INSTRUCTIONS
Create a half or a full page module as if you were making shared content. Using the weekend extra stories from the National Desk budget, pick something that speaks to you and build off that. The designer website has many resources on cutouts, using color and reworking headlines to use as inspiration.
Things to consider:
Topic: did you pick a story more on the straight news side? Keep restraint in mind so the design doesn’t take away from the subject.
Elements: is the design looking busy? Did you use EVERY fun thing you know how to do? Now, think if you really need all those elements to tell your design’s story.
Simple can be good: this is a good exercise to practice more feature style design, but if that’s not where you are at, simplicity can still produce great work. Think about headline placement, deckheads, utilize white space and ignore our standard 5 or 6 col spreads.
National Desk budget: Lee National Newsroom budgets - Google Sheets
Designer website: Designer Guides - Training & Development
Stock art folder: \\LEEMUN-RDC1\RDC_Data\!Stock Art Archive
How to make a page
- Domain: news.lee.net
- Blox>Documents>New
- Use template IN-20 and make sure Auto Select Next Available Page is selected.
- It's advised to save your page to your OneDrive and not on the server as that is being purged and cleaned out for the cloud move.
Where to share
Share your page to Design Teams and make sure you place it in the challenge thread Challenge thread
CHALLENGE:
Finessing photo pages
CHALLENGE:
Finessing photo pages
We're back with the monthly challenges after a short summer break. Either you love 'em or you hate 'em, but we're focusing on photo pages.
\\leemun-rdc1\RDC_Data\RDC_Graphics\LEE\Cover challenges\August
Challenge guidelines
Challenge guidelines
Pick one of the challenges and spend no more than 45 minutes on the design
While cutouts are allowed, they normally do not show up on photo pages. If you do a cutout, do not overwrite the original file with yours.
Be mindful of cutlines. Remove repetitive information that readers don't need to see over and over again. If you combine cutlines to make one block of copy, make sure directional words make sense. Any cutlines on top of photos should be legible - design these like they are going to print.
Reminders
Reminders
If you share in Slack, make sure your post contains "August challenge" for easy searching.
All challenge submissions can be entered here: https://sites.google.com/view/leedesignersguide/training-development/monthly-design-challenges
Make a copy of the challenge page to your desktop. Do not work in the original file.
Challenge work is done during your shift and on the clock. Do not work on these in off-hours.
Challenge #1 - Wildfires
Challenge #1 - Wildfires
1. Must incorporate the headline/deck/short body copy block (head/deck can be rewritten)
2. Must have a primary art - your choice
Challenge #2 - Cats
Challenge #2 - Cats
1. Incorporate some combo of copy with the accompanying art. Ex: Pair London’s feline copy with photos of Lilibet the cat.
Challenge #3 - Olympics
Challenge #3 - Olympics
1. Treat this like a full page photo spread since there is no copy
2. Must have a main photo and secondary photo - everything else can be sized to your design
3. Use white space when necessary - in fact, it's encouraged
4. Can crop photos to make them vertical - a bad crop will provide additional feedback
Design challenge:
The weight of a headline
Design challenge:
The weight of a headline
OBJECTIVE
Now that we all have a good understanding of the new, 3-day-print style, we can focus on making adjustments to improve the design of our covers. One of the adjustments we should keep in mind is whether the bold, all caps style centerpiece headline is appropriate for the content. Ed has put together a very informative powerpoint discussing these changes.
In this challenge, there are 4 covers where the headline has not been changed from the standard A1 module. You will be responsible for adjusting the package and determining what font is best-suited for the content. Please do all 4 covers in the file.
\\leemun-rdc1\RDC_Data\RDC_Graphics\LEE\Cover challenges\May\May headline challenge
GUIDELINES
1. Decide if the story is told best with the bold, all caps headline or if another font is more appropriate.
2. Rework the headline to fit the space. Does the headline fit better with a new font? Can you break the headline into smaller pieces (kicker and/or deckhead).
3. Consider the placement. Does a softer headline look better below the photo or above?
4. Focus on the headlines, kicker and deck heads instead of cutouts, gradients or extra elements.
REMINDERS
Make sure your post contains the words "May challenge" for easy searching.
Make a copy of the challenge page to your desktop. Do not work in the original file.
Challenge work is done during your shift and on the clock. Do not work on these in off-hours.
Post designs in news/sports channels or even the watercooler. Just be open to feedback!
HEADLINE RESOURCES
HEADLINE RESOURCES
ENTRIES & FEEDBACK
ENTRIES & FEEDBACK
Design challenge:
Strategies for greater accessibility
Design challenge:
Strategies for greater accessibility
OBJECTIVE
This month's challenge will be repurposing past covers using the knowledge and methods we learned from Abby Orf's presentation. Ideally, designers should use covers from previous challenges, but you can pick an actual cover you did that would fit the criteria. When sharing your new cover, please include the old cover for comparison. If you were not able to catch one of Abby's presentations, there is a recording on the website: Strategies for Accessibility
After picking a cover to rework, keep this checklist in mind:
The colors used for headlines and text feature high contrast for enhanced readability.
Headline fonts and treatments are chosen for optimal legibility.
Headlines are prominently displayed.
Decks accompany headlines over 37 pts.
Captions are clear and positioned appropriately. Whenever possible, captions are not reversed; however, if reversed, they are bolded/tracked out to 10 for improved readability and placed against a contrasting background.
Text tracking does not exceed -10, applied only where necessary.
I've utilized design principles, like white space, to the best of my ability.
REMINDERS
Make sure your post contains the work "April challenge" for easy searching.
Spend 30-45 minutes per cover. Reach out to your team lead if you need help setting aside time.
Make a copy of the challenge page to your desktop. Do not work in the original file.
Challenge work is done during your shift and on the clock. Do not work on these in off-hours.
Post designs to #the_water_cooler, #news-content-team, #sports-content-team channels. Just be open to feedback!
RESOURCES
Strategies for Accessibility (Also above).
ENTRIES AND FEEDBACK
Gradients video - Katie Klein.mp4Challenge feedback.pdfDesign challenge:
Using gradients
Design challenge:
Using gradients
OBJECTIVE
Use at least one example of a gradient to make an eye-catching centerpiece either on the old, or new, cover modules. Think big or small with this challenge and don’t feel limited by snippet constraints. Focus less on headline rewrites and extra elements that don’t work with the gradients. Show everyone a great use of a gradient and don’t worry about the small stuff!
Your choices for this challenge are:
Mexican vanilla
Mardi Gras
Gardening - peach fuzz
\\leemun-rdc1\RDC_Data\RDC_Graphics\LEE\Cover challenges\March
REMINDERS
Make sure your post contains the work "March challenge" for easy searching.
Spend 30-45 minutes per cover. Reach out to your team lead if you need help setting aside time.
Make a copy of the challenge page to your desktop. Do not work in the original file.
Challenge work is done during your shift and on the clock. Do not work on these in off-hours.
Post designs in news/sports channels or even the watercooler. Just be open to feedback!
RESOURCES
Gradient video (Also above).
ENTRIES AND FEEDBACK
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