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Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

‘Gannett studio/Des Moines’ archive

Number of comments in parentheses

today: A look at today’s notable Oklahoma tornado front pages

In the future, whenever you think of the horrifying tragedy Monday in Oklahoma, you’ll remember this image: That was shot in Moore, Okla., by Sue Ogrocki of the Associated Press. Sue’s first-person story is downright chilling: I expected chaos as I approached the piles of bricks and twisted metal where Plaza Towers Elementary once stood. Instead, it was calm and [...]

May 6: Move over, Batboy: Meet Van Meter’s winged ‘Visitor’

My old pal Nathan Groepper, creative director of the Gannett Design Studio in Des Moines, Iowa, writes: I thought this might appeal to your offbeat sensibilities. The Des Moines Register [ran on Saturday] a story about a sighting of a giant winged monster in a small town in Iowa 110 years ago. The mysterious creature was discovered in a coal [...]

April 29: Fargo Forum’s Bill Wambeke moving to Des Moines’ Gannett Design Studio

Nathan Groepper, creative director of the Gannett Design Studio in Des Moines, emailed his staff Friday: I am thrilled to announce the Design Studio has hired Bill Wambeke. Bill has earned attention from around the country for his creative work as Presentation Editor of the Forum in Fargo, N.D. You can find a portfolio of his pages here. Many of [...]

April 11: Andy Rohrback of Ames, Iowa, joins Gannett’s Des Moines design studio (1)

Nathan Groepper — creative director of the Gannett Design Studio in Des Moines — announced Wednesday: I am thrilled to announce the Design Studio has hired Andy Rohrback. Andy was most recently the design director for the Ames Tribune and has designed pages for the Omaha World-Herald and Colorado Springs Gazette. Andy will start with the Wisconsin Team before moving [...]

March 24: Des Moines’ ‘Mr. Sideways’ strikes again

Meet Jeremy Gustafson, the sports team leader of Gannett’s design studio in Des Moines. You can call him Jeremy or you can call him Gus. You can even call him Mr. Gustafson. I prefer to call him Mr. Sideways. Because when the photo is right and the situation is right, he’s not afraid to turn his page sideways to maximize [...]

March 1: The coolest thing I’ve seen lately: I scream, you scream…

While I’m in the process of relocating, a number of visual journalists around the country are lending a hand by telling us about the coolest thing they’ve seen lately. Nathan Groepper, creative director of the Gannett Design Studio in Des Moines, writes: I may be taking this “cool” thing a little too literally, but I thought I might pass along [...]

Feb. 24: The coolest thing I’ve seen lately: A sad, sad city

While I’m on my cross-country trek this weekend, a number of visual journalists around the country are lending a hand by telling us what is the coolest thing they’ve seen lately. Today, my old colleague Nathan Groepper — creative director at the Gannett Design Studio in Des Moines — shares: How do you illustrate a story about how your town [...]

Feb. 12: A look at today’s most outstanding Pope Benedict XVI pages (1)

Huge news broke Monday morning: The Pope is resigning. Pope Benedict XVI will be the first pope in 598 years to resign, as opposed to dying in office. This move — along with the baggage the Catholic church is carrying around these days — made for huge play atop page one of today’s New York Times. That picture by L’Osservatore [...]

Feb. 6: Inside Gannett’s special sections today honoring Green Bay Packer Donald Driver

The big news in the land of cheese today: Longtime Green Bay Packers receiver Donald Driver is holding his official retirement announcement and celebration today at Lambeau Field. Gannett’s Wisconsin papers celebrated with lots of special coverage of one of the team’s most popular players ever and his time on the frozen tundra. Feast your eyes on the cover of [...]

Feb. 1: ‘I found a driver, and that’s a start’…

Pass-catching wizard Donald Driver said Thursday he plans to retire after 14 seasons with the Green Bay Packers. He goes out as the team’s all-time leader in receptions and receiving yards. Driver plans to make a formal announcement next Wednesday at a ceremony at Lambeau Field. Wisconsin team leader Sean McKeown-Young of Gannett’s Des Moines Design Studio blew the story [...]

Jan. 30: A fun way to illustrate Wisconsin’s weather swings this year

Here’s a rather unusual front page for today’s Post-Crescent of Appleton, Wis., illustrating a story on the wild weather extremes the area has dealt with this winter. Click for a much larger look. That, of course, is the work of Sean McKeown-Young, the Wisconsin team leader at the Gannett Design Studio in Des Moines. Sean tells us: Jamie Mara, the [...]

Jan. 18: Today’s genius sports front is brought to you by… (1)

I don’t have a whole lot to say about this sports front from today’s Des Moines Register. Other than: 1) It was designed by Jeremy Gustafson, sports team leader at the Gannett design studio in Des Moines. And 2) It’s pure genius. Creative director Nathan Groepper tells me that Jeremy… …was responsible for coming up with that great headline, too. [...]

Dec. 25, 2012: A look at today’s best Christmas front pages (2)

There was an awful lot of great work out there today. Really, too much to try to take note of. However, let’s give it a try anyway, shall we? Take special note of my picks of the ten best pages of the day, mixed into the categories below in no particular order… __________________________ PHOTO-DRIVEN FRONT PAGES — No. 1: DENVER [...]

Dec. 5, 2012: ‘Blindsided’ by the departure of a successful football coach

It’s gotta hurt — if you’re a Big 10 conference school — when your coach jumps ship. Especially if it’s to an SEC school. That’s what happened yesterday when the University of Wisconsin’s Bret Bielema announced that, after seven winning seasons and three consecutive Big 10 championships, he would leave Madison for Arkansas. Disappointed. Betrayed. Blindsided. All those words fit [...]

Dec. 2, 2012: Eight front pages; eight superlative uses of design tools

My daily spin through the Newseum produced a handful of front pages you really ought to see… ___________________________ GREAT USE OF POLICE TAPE PHOTO — STAR TRIBUNE Casper, Wyo. Circulation: 24,791 Something many of us run into when there are horrific events in our communities: Building a front page with the best art we can get: Police tape surrounding the [...]

Nov. 28, 2012: A buffet line of infographics on today’s front pages

Today is a day in which the day’s most notable front pages seemed to be ones featuring various types of infographics. ____________ FEVER CHART — DALLAS MORNING NEWS Dallas, Texas Circulation: 405,349 The story today in Dallas: Home prices are rebounding. A bit. Finally. The centerpiece chart on page one today graphs composite home prices over the past decade in [...]

Nov. 22, 2012: Today’s ten best page-one Turkey Day presentations (1)

Lots of newspapers built elaborate Thanksgiving presentations for page one today. Here’s a look at my ten favorites… — GASTON GAZETTE Gastonia, N.C. Circulation: 24,354 What’s Thanksgiving all about? It’s about family. It’s about being grateful what what the year has given you. But it’s also about shopping. Or, to be more precise, preparing for a long day of Black [...]

Nov. 7, 2012: Three brief case studies for wonderful Election Night design

First of all: Sorry, there will be no national roundup of front pages today. Here’s why: On big news days like today, the Newseum suffers from web sites big and small scraping their front pages and even hotlinking to them. The results have been slow access times (that was certainly the case for me today) and server outages. So I [...]

Nov. 6, 2012: Today’s five best Election Day front pages (1)

Let’s start today’s roundup with one I do not like: This one from the New York Post that I’d call less of a newspaper front page and more of an editorial. I don’t have a problem with page-one editorials per se — in fact, I’ve been known to praise them from time to time. But an editorial should be labeled [...]

Nov. 4, 2012: A look at today’s election-oriented front pages (4)

Is it just me or has this presidential election cycle seemed way too damned long? Either way, it’s finally nearing its end. Here’s how my old friend Mark Marturello illustrated this today for the Des Moines Register. Let’s take a look at the day’s most notable presentations featuring the election on the Sunday before Election Day… — DES MOINES REGISTER [...]

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