Design
In a high school paper, it's the difference between making your message shine or allowing it to fade into the background.
Website Design Critique
Focus this Year
Website and print design are not mere aesthetic choices; they are the architects of communication in the digital and physical realms. Effective design can captivate, inform, and inspire, while poor design can hinder the conveyance of ideas. As students, mastering the art of design empowers us to express ourselves with impact and precision, ensuring our voices are heard and our ideas are embraced. So, remember, the importance of design is not just about making things look good – it's about making them work beautifully.
When we received critique on our website design this year, the Southerner staff, I included, took it to heart and worked to make the design of all stories a priority.
General Opportunities with Sno Flo Elements
Unique News Features to Develop Stories
Along these lines, I have discovered the wonderful landscape of the SNO Flow elements and their ability to enhance a story. Whether it be a quote box or a sidebar link to a relevant similar story, there are invaluable tools in the writer’s toolbox under the Flow webspace. In News specifically, the use of these features is especially important as we are trying to give our readers a broader context of all of our reporting that has been done on this specific topic.
Web Story Design with Sno Flo Elements
Superintendent Dr. Battle Story
The transition period between the two superintendents of Atlanta Public Schools was chaotic with a failure to renew the previous superintendent’s contract and an impromptu hire of an interim superintendent to grant the school board extra time to find the next best candidate. So, as I prepared a story for publishing about the new superintendent and plans for the district for the next year, I knew that it had to be well-organized in order to be digestible by the reader. This required using a particular Long-Form Container format with clear sections and useful side rails to guide readers to additional stories for context on the situation. Additionally, I utilized pull quote and extra photo additions to make a more vibrant and interesting platform to read off.
Web Story Design with Sno Flo Elements
Trump Indictment Story
The Fulton County jail and Trump indictments were multifaceted and complex. Therefore, the content called for division, for subtitles and guideposts as a reader progressed in order to stabilize and refocus the angle and nature of the story. Because we picked a local perspective, it was imperative to disperse subtitles throughout in order to distinguish our reporting from the national narrative. This story received a Best of Sno award for its content and organization.
Web Story Design with Sno Flo Elements
Isabelle Perry Story
Additionally, I assisted my fellow staffmate, Sports Managing Editor Cate Barton, with the design of an important story regarding the first ever female in our school’s history on the football team. The Sports editors had taken great eye-grabbing photos during practice of the subject, and I assisted them in understanding how to use the Sno Flow elements to best incorporate this multimedia.
Paper Design
Importance & Emphasis on Teaching Paper Design Freshman Year
The other aspect of design that we focus on is the physical paper, which is in its own realm. Throughout freshman and sophomore year, every staffer works hard to become adept in the inner working of Adobe InDesign and Photoshop in order to productively design pages.
