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Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

‘Business design’ archive

Number of comments in parentheses

March 22: Step-by-step through a fun, comic book-themed illustration

Illustrator Craig Schaffer of the Reading Eagle‘s Business Weekly won a first place in Pennsylvania Newspaper Association’s annual Keystone awards with a fun, comic-book-themed illustration about — what else? — A fun, comic book-themed local company. Craig writes that, for this story, he… I wrote the story, designed the layout, took photographs and created the illustrations. That’s the front cover. [...]

Jan. 7: Silicon Valley Business Journal launches redesign

The Silicon Valley Business Journal of San Jose, Calif., launched a redesign last week, executed by master redesign consultant Mario Garcia. On the left is a front from several years ago. On the right is the current edition, as tweeted over the weekend by American City Business Journals’ creative director Jon Wile. The overhaul was a major modernization, in terms [...]

Dec. 12, 2012: A look at day two of Milwaukee’s series on the paper industry

On Sunday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel embarked on a large, two-part project about the paper industry in the state of Wisconsin. Which isn’t doing so well. We looked at that back on Monday. Find that post here.     Today, the Journal Sentinel came back with part two, which focused less on Wisconsin and more on the Chinese paper industry [...]

Dec. 10, 2012: Financial Times’ German edition goes out with a smile

Last Friday, the German edition of the Financial Times printed its last edition. Master news design consultant Mario Garcia writes that… …the newspaper, which printed on the traditional Financial Times peach-colored paper, wore black, with a headline that read: Finally Black. Note the “fun” the Financial Times had with its nameplate. You’ll find the missing characters piled up at the [...]

Dec. 10, 2012: Milwaukee takes a lushly-illustrated look at the paper industry

This weekend, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel embarked on a large, two-part project about paper. Greg Borowski — the Journal Sentinel‘s senior editor for projects and investigations — tells us their… … Paper Cuts project examines the decline of the state’s paper industry, driven by the shift to digital and the drive by China to become a paper power. Part one [...]

Sept. 26, 2012: What you need is a big glass of whiskey (1)

Bill Wachsberger — a designer for Gannett’s design studio in Nashville, Tenn. — writes to show us the… …Sunday Biz cover I did from the Tennessean. Something very different: Stock photo  and no ordinary headline. The lede is treated as the head. Click for a larger look: The story was about the growth of whiskey distilleries in Tennessee. I had [...]

Aug. 13, 2012: A happy portrait subject

My old pal Rick Tuma of the Chicago Tribune creates watercolor portraits for the Trib‘s Monday biz page. Rick writes today: Some of the Chicago Tribune profile subjects are happier than others. Take today’s, for instance, Amanda Lannert, CEO of Jellyvision. Check out her instagram photo on Twitter: What’s even funnier is that Amanda’s sister, who works at Sirus XM, [...]

Aug. 3, 2012: A fascinating how-to by master illustrator Rick Tuma (4)

Recently, I’ve written about master illustrator Rick Tuma and the wonderful watercolor portraits he’s created for the Chicago Tribune business pages. Rick compiled a brief how-to instructional aide. And he offered it to the blog. Not being crazy, I accepted. Here is Rick’s narrative… — RICK TUMA WATERCOLOR ILLUSTRATIONS AS DONE FOR THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE Every artist has his or [...]

July 1, 2012: Cool sideways page alert (1)

My favorite part of the Virginian-Pilot today was the business front. While the business nameplate and the right-side rail are oriented conventionally, the designer chose to rotate the centerpiece — which is a brief history of the commercial shipping port here in Virginia — and present it as an alternative story form, using containers stacked aboard a ship as a [...]

June 21, 2012: Wonderful portraits of local business leaders, the old-fashioned way (1)

With its last redesign a year ago this month, the Chicago Tribune started a weekly feature for its business front in which it profiles a local business leader. The feature is illustrated with an enormous portrait, beautifully rendered by master illustrator Rick Tuma. Monday, the Tribune ran a retrospective of the entire series. Rick posted on his Facebook timeline: A [...]

June 17, 2012: The coolest blobs of paint you’ll see all day

David Kordalski — assistant managing editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer — writes today in the Plain Dealer‘s Not-So-Plain-Dealer visuals blog: For the past three years, we’ve teamed with Workplace Dynamics to find the Northeast Ohio workplaces that are viewed highly by their employees. That partnership results in a special section. Here is the cover, illustrated by Andrea Levy: David [...]

May 31, 2012: You need a dirty mind to be a business editor (1)

Lee Steele of Hearst’s Bridgeport, Conn., hub found this today, reposted it on his Facebook timeline and called it… …A headline goof probably too dirty even for Charles Apple. Heh. Wrong. That’s pretty bad. Those of you considering phasing out your copy desks, take note: A newspaper or web site really needs to be able to catch something like this. [...]

May 24, 2012: Clever magazine cover alert

Here’s the cover of the next issue of Bloomberg Businessweek, cover dated May 28: Very amusing. But elevated to genius status by the small copy at the bottom of the cover: Find Businessweek‘s Flickr design page here. Find the Businessweek design department’s Twitter feed here. Find the Businessweek web page here. Thanks to Alan Formby-Jackson for retweeting a link to [...]

May 19, 2012: A fun way to show Friday’s Facebook stock debut

As you know, Facebook stock went on sale Friday. At the close of trading, Facebook‘s stock price was four dollars lower than when it went on sale at 11:30 a.m. EDT. However, the closing price was 23 cents higher than the official IPO price. Evidently, this disappoints a lot of folks who either hoped or expected to see the stock [...]

April 15, 2012: Fun front-page illustration depicts Facebook’s software engineers

Today, the San Jose Mercury News ran an interesting story on the learning curve — “Boot Camp,” they call it — through which Facebook puts all its newly-hired programmers. The Merc‘s Mike Swift writes: Bootcamp is one part employee orientation, one part software training program and one part fraternity/sorority rush. When new engineering recruits are hired at Facebook, they typically [...]

April 9, 2012: A fun way to illustrate gas prices eating up your budget (1)

This one was sent to me a week ago, but I lost it in the shuffle of my return from Nigeria. It’s a great page, too, despite it being a week old. My apologies. Click for a much larger look: Hugo Torres of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson sent us the page and also filled us in on the [...]

April 8, 2012: Cool front-page watercolor illustration by a tiny California paper

I’m familiar with neither the Napa Valley Register — a 12,710-circulation daily in Napa, Calif. — nor the work of illustrator Kelly Doren. But I just love the watercolor illustration he created for today’s story about the area’s possible glut of hotel rooms. And the way the Register played that illustration on page one today. Click for a much larger [...]

Feb. 27, 2012: Seven notable Sunday front page displays

I was on the road this weekend, so I didn’t get much of a chance to spend as much time as I’d like looking though the gallery at the Newseum. There were a number of pages Sunday, however, to which I’d like to draw your attention… — SIOUX CITY JOURNAL Sioux City, Iowa Circulation: 33,837 The most interesting package of [...]

Feb. 8, 2012: Cartoon characters invade page one in Hartford, Conn.

It’s rather low on the page. But there is an amazing assortment of cartoon characters on page one of today’s Hartford Courant. The story, of course, is a new advertising campaign by MetLife Insurance — the first commercial of which you may have seen during the Super Bowl. Here’s a closer look at the illustration, which is presumably a handout [...]

Feb. 2, 2012: How newspapers played the Facebook IPO on page one today (2)

Just a few papers had fun today with the announcement that Facebook is about ready for an Initial Public Offering — or IPO — of stock. This is expected to raise $5 billion or more for the company. — DAILY NEWS Palo Alto, Calif. Circulation: 18,500 The paper in Palo Alto led today with a picture of tourists standing beside [...]

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