garciamedia

Jul. 6th Focus groups: to test or not to test? Or is it what to test?

Focus groups can always help one from making an embarrassment mistake, but perhaps in our industry we have exaggerated the notion of how much to test with readers before launching a new concept.

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Jul. 5th Luxury and the newspaper

The printed newspaper of the future may have to start defining the term luxury as it applies to content and presentation.
Start with your Sunday edition.

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Jul. 4th Infographics to the rescue

Newspapers around the world have published detailed informational graphics to tell the story of how Ingrid Betancourt was rescued from the guerrillas who kept her captive for over six years in the Colombian jungle.

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Jul. 3rd Happy birthday, America; Happy Birthday, Max

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Jul. 2nd Left and found: Jyllands Posten edition and some tips for inside page architecture

Most newspapers can manage to have a well designed section opening page, a blank canvas for creativity usually without ads; inside pages are a more challenging task. The Danish daily, Jyllands Posten shows us new approaches.

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Jul. 1st Covering Euro 2008 for print and online: the Spanish dailies are winners, too

What a better opportunity to experiment with the best that each medium has to offer. From print to web, the Spanish dailies have shown us good examples.

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Jun. 30th Spain Conquers Europe, read the headlines

A proud country celebrates its football team’s victory in the Euro 2008 Final. Stores in Gran Canarias run out of newspapers by early morning. On a day like this, readers can’t get enough!

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Jun. 29th Without connection in Maspalomas, where the sun shines

Suddenly, no wireless communication in the hotel, and it requires a trip to an Internet cafe to login and enter cyberspace. A thought comes to mind: how did we ever survive before we had instant access to emails, the net, communication in general? Perhaps it is a good thing.

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Jun. 28th It’s football in the menu tonight for Europeans

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Jun. 27th My Moleskine: good for sketching that first idea or for explaining Amy Winehouse

Hold on to your sketch pad, it is a guarantee that your idea will get a chance to be executed.

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Jun. 26th Goteborgs Posten: the poster front page that tells a story

I joined the editors of the GP when we conducted a workshop May 23 about the impact of poster front pages, but Wednesday they had a chance to apply that experience to a real front page, and it worked!

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Jun. 25th The New Ugly, The Plain Ugly, The Not So Ugly: How do we define beauty in our craft?

While the “new ugly” gets more status as the catch phrase of the moment in many essays and blogs devoted to design, it is difficult to arrive at a definition of beauty that pleases everyone.

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Jun. 24th The Artist Looks at Newspaper Design in Nigeria: A Three-Minute Interview with Victor Ehikhamenor

THE SET UP: Victor Ehikhamenor is a Nigerian-born artist, writer, and photographer, who has returned to his native country after many years in the United States, where he taught English and creative writing at the University of Maryland until recently.  Here he discusses art and how the concept of design has evaded Nigerian newspapers—-and how that could change soon.

1 comments Posted by Dr. Mario R. Garcia

Jun. 24th Color and Culture

COLOR WEEK CONTINUES: The culture and environment of the place where a newspaper or website is created contribute to determine whether the designer should use a soft color palette, or a bright one, or one in between. For the designer, the inspiration could be anywhere. Don’t miss that colorful overcrowded bus passing by!

3 comments Posted by Dr. Mario R. Garcia

Jun. 22nd Orlando Sentinel’s black nameplate: a reminder that black IS a color, too

COLOR WEEK CONTINUES: Above, two pages from the new Orlando Sentinel’s redesign, both using black as a strong component of its headers. Not a bad idea if used in small units.

2 comments Posted by Dr. Mario R. Garcia