Updated Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009, at 06:22 EST
TAKEAWAY: With the academic year barely one week old, it was a grim discovery at the Yale University campus. A graduate student who had gone missing for days is found dead. For the Yale Daily News a very local story. We show you how the YDN covered it, as well as other regional and national newspapers. AND:Good work that inspires: New design for Die Zeit’s website. PLUS: Pure Design download #50: Culture and Design
The grim discovery of the body of a Yale University graduate student stuffed inside the wall of a lab has become national and international news. The student, identified as Annie Le, had gone missing for several days.
I have been following the story on CNN International here in Germany.
For the student journalists at the Yale Daily News, this is a most local story, and Reed Reibstein (Yale University ‘11) has shared what the YDN has done with this sad and horrific story. Reed has also sent me front pages of how other newspapers, both local and national, have covered this story, occurring barely a few days after the opening of the school year.
YDN pages: A very local story for the Yale Daily News crew, and they covered it thoroughly. See inside page packages with a variety of different related stories.
Connecticut papers: local and regional newspapers in Connecticut displayed the story on their page ones
Tabloids in NY/Long Island: New York Post and Newsday—-the big headlines
The nationals: The New York Times and USAToday carried the story of the murdered grad student on their page ones
Note: For updates of the Annie Le murder story, go to the Yale Daily News website, http://yaledailynews.com, for the latest information. Reed advises me that the following stories are in the making: The first piece is an update on the YDN’s investigation, including information about suspects; the second looks at how the investigation was undertaken; the third is about the “extremely moving” candlelight vigil at Yale; and the fourth is about how crime in New Haven and Yale compares to other comparable cities and schools.
Print and online editions of Die Zeit: elegance, simplicity transfer from one medium to the other
The zeit.de home page: clean, elegant, good navigation to the right
Type is clean, with good sizing, easy to read
Effective navigation to features in the site
Germany’s elite weekly newspaper, Die Zeit, has revamped its website and it is a wonderful example of what simpllicity, elegance and good navigation can do.
Die Zeit is a newspaper we know well, having worked with its print design several occasions. The print design emphasizes white space,exquisite typography and large photos and illustrations. It is a good combination that works for a newspaper read by the most elite of German readers. The content is analytical, in depth and invites reading. It is said that German readers of Die Zeit look forward to its Thursday afternoon arrival, then keep it during the entire weekend, taking it to the garden, or by the fireplace, a good friend with whom to share great moments while learning on everything from politics, economics and literature to fashion, gardening and architecture.
Its website does it just as effectively. It is, indeed, a visual extension of the newspaper.
Highlights of the zeit.de redesign
1. One sees the presence of white space here, just as one does in the print version.
2. The type dances on the screen. Not too big, not too small.
3. Navigation, with touches of color for key words, allows one to get an idea of what appears in the site.
Minimalist, efficient and aesthetically pleasing. A good recipe for any website. A great recipe for any design project.
In its subtleness, the www.zeit.de concept becomes a design lesson for all of us.
Sun Sentinel: good use of page one navigation
Florida’s Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale) is a newspaper to watch for its creative use of stories/visuals on page one. Today, what catches my eye is the effective promotional unit at the bottom of the page, almost in the shape of CD covers, promoting the best of various contents inside.
Germany’s Bild does it again
Following a TV debate (the Germans called it a duel) between Chancellor Angela Markel and her political rival in the upcoming Sept. 27 election, Frank-Walter Steinmeier , the lead headline today is a play on the famous Barack Obama line: Yes, we can , except that the German version here is : Yes, we yawn! . At Bild, having fun is part of the planning of Page One, and it shows
Chicago’s Red Eye: gives Kanye West a….red eye: Bild editors approve!
Rapper Kanye West stirred controversy at the MTV Video Music Awards Sunday night and was booed by the audience when he strode onto the stage as young country star Taylor Swift was making her thank you speech for best female video, in which she beat the likes of Beyonce and Lady Gaga with her video for You Belong to me. West jumped on stage and said: “Taylor, I’m really happy for you, and I’m gonna let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.” The audience began to boo as cameras panned to Beyonce, who looked stunned. Here we see Red Eye’s reaction to the rapper’s improper outburst. Bild would have done the same. Well done!
Pure Design download: Culture and Design
In Scandinavia and Nordic countries: white curtains; in Brazil, India colorful curtains.
What do white and colorful curtains have to do with design? Read this “fable” from Pure Design to find out.
The Impact of the Compact
Pure Design: Download entire section: Type
Download entire first section of Pure Design: Words
Now that I have fully presented the first of six sections of Pure Design on TheMarioBlog, I am offering the entire initial section, “Words,” available for download—all 33 pages of it. This may be useful for those of you saving or printing out Pure Design and will be done following each of the remaining sections. At the end of our journey through words, type, layout, color, pictures, and process, I will publish the entirety of Pure Design in one file.
Who is Jacky?
Jacky belongs to Frank Deville. The Luxembourg-based pooch is an “avid reader” of the German newspaper, Bild Am Sonntag. Every Sunday Jacky picks stories and interesting graphics in Bild Am Sonntag , the German newspaper.
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TheMarioBlog posting #366