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Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

‘Features design’ archive

Number of comments in parentheses

Feb. 3: Cool idea alert: Printable Valentine’s Day cards

Chris Morris of the Cleveland Plain Dealer tells us about his latest project: I figured my kids didn’t want to hand out Spongebob and Buzz Lightyear store-bought cards. So I drew up 30 quirky little cards and we’re making them available online as PDFs. Kids can download and print and cut out to their heart’s content. Chris drew six cards [...]

Jan. 26: For your consideration… (2)

I like it. I’m just not quite sure I get the cover of Thursday’s Libération of Paris, France. Click for a larger look: The headline for the main story — superimposted on that blimp-looking airplane in the foreground — says: The U.S. president launches campaign Obama 2 I can’t get a decent translation out of Google for the bit across [...]

Jan. 19: Behind that cool abstract-looking art across the top of today’s Huntsville Times

I was intrigued today with the page-one nameplate art used by the Huntsville (Ala.) Times today. Here is today’s front page from the Newseum… And here is just the nameplate promo. Click for a larger look: Design director Paul Wallen tells us: I designed the nameplate at the top of A1, it teases to the Go! cover story. Steve Johnson [...]

Jan. 13: A celebration of New Mexico’s 100th birthday (1)

Did you know that New Mexico recently celebrated 100 years of statehood? Jan. 6, 1912: New Mexico becomes a state Feb. 14, 1912: Arizona becomes a state Jan. 3, 1959: Alaska becomes a state Aug. 21, 1959: Hawaii becomes a state So, for 47 years — including both of the World Wars — the United States flag contained 48 stars [...]

Jan. 11: You’ve got a friend in me…

Hey, wait a second. I thought Woody’s best friend was Buzz Lightyear. Evidently not. Woody Allen‘s best friend is Woody Allen from 35 years ago. Or, at least, that’s the way it appears in this piece in last Sunday’s Los Angeles Times by master illustrator Chris Morris. A 1987 graduate of East Texas University in Commerce, Texas — now known [...]

Jan. 9: Las Vegas Sun’s Kyle Ellis moving to CNN.com

Kyle Ellis of the Las Vegas Sun announced today via Twitter: I have accepted a new position as a designer for CNN.com in Atlanta. My first day will be Jan. 30. He tells us: I am thrilled to be joining the team at CNN.com. I will have a wide variety of opportunities to take my skill set and build on [...]

Dec. 31, 2011: Today’s top ten ‘top ten news stories of 2011′ pages of 2011

Is it just me, or has news ever been as slow as it’s been this week? Unless you’re in Iowa, covering the last week of caucus campaigning. Or the New York Post, I mean. Many papers chose to fill the time — and their space — with the traditional look back on the biggest stories of the year. These stories [...]

Dec. 30, 2011: A cool movie roundup page by the Boston Globe’s Ryan Huddle

Ryan Huddle of the Boston Globe sends along this movie year in review page from last Sunday’s paper. Click for a larger look: Ryan tells us: This is a new style that I have wanted to do for a while now but never had the right project to do it on. The people at the bottom of the page are [...]

Dec. 28, 2011: Leaving the newspaper business: Craig Runyon of Eugene, Ore., Register-Guard (2)

Craig Runyon, a designer for the Register-Guard in Eugene, Ore., covered the news pretty well in a Facebook post today. So here it is, nearly verbatim: I’m about to embark on a life-changing event. I’m switching to decaf. I’m kidding. I’m not that stupid. Actually, I’m leaving journalism. After 15 years in the newspaper business, tens of thousands of pages [...]

Dec. 25, 2011: Twelve wonderful Christmas Day front pages

In honor of the Twelve Days of Christmas, here are the 12 most outstanding newspaper front pages as seen today at the Newseum… — PLAIN DEALER Cleveland, Ohio Circulation: 243,299 The Plain Dealer sent its outstanding photography team out into the area and asked them to take Christmas card-like pictures. The best — by Lynn Ischay — ended up atop [...]

Dec. 24, 2011: Four fabulously creative Christmas front page treatments

It’s that time of year again — when news slows to a crawl and it’s increasingly difficult to sell papers to single-copy customers. Therefore, why not wipe everything off of page one and do something spectacular? The folks who read you anyway might be wowed. And the folks who don’t read you might notice your splash. Here’s an example of [...]

Dec. 21, 2011: Muckraking, Kansas style

The Journal-World of Lawrence, Kansas, has thrown its resources — including a large amount of page-one real estate today — at one of the biggest issues facing mankind. The ugly Christmas sweater. Staffer Shaun Hittle reports: The demand for tacky Christmas sweaters has increased the past six or seven years, said Corey Sievers, store manager at Arizona Trading Co., 736 [...]

Dec. 20, 2011: Behind the St. Petersburg Times’ ten-page drug court story (2)

Suzette Moyer of the soon-to-be-renamed St. Petersburg Times was kind enough to send us this ten-page section that ran this past Sunday. She tells us: Reporter Lane DeGregory and photographer John Pendygraft met the subject, Stacy Nicholson, in drug court in February 2011 and followed her, with her permission, throughout the year. At the start of the tale, Stacy was [...]

Dec. 20, 2011: Chris Morris’ take on ‘the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ (1)

A very cool, deceptively simple illustration by Chris Morris in the arts section of Sunday’s Cleveland Plain Dealer. Click for a much larger look: A 1987 graduate of East Texas University in Commerce, Texas — now known as Texas A&M-Commerce — Chris worked at the San Francisco Examiner and then spent four years as presentation director of the Dallas Morning [...]

Dec. 16, 2011: Huntsville intern Alyson Morris moving to Naples, Fla.

Bethany Bickley, designer and illustrator for the Huntsville (Ala.) Times, writes today: Our current design intern Alyson Morris has accepted a features design position at the Naples Daily News in Naples, Florida. Ali has done fantastic work with our front page and has helped incorporate more graphics into the paper. She will be missed, but is very excited about her [...]

Dec. 9, 2011: Inside the Boston Globe’s eye-catching, high-end ‘style’ gift guide

Thursday, the Boston Globe ran its annual “style” holiday gift guide. The guide appeared in the Globe‘s regular features section, which is a tabloid. The custom type treatment features design supervisor Martin Gee created for the cover reminds us a lot of the Lite Brite sets we had as kids. The inside pages displayed all sorts of high-end luxury items [...]

Nov. 24, 2011: Guaranteed to go viral today: Dogs in cute little football outfits

The big story in Alabama this week: Saturday’s annual Iron Bowl between No. 2-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide and the unranked but defending national champions Auburn Tigers. The inventive folks at the Huntsville Times found an interesting way to get folks talking about the game — and their paper today. Design director Paul Wallen tells us… As you know, the Alabama-Auburn [...]

Nov. 23, 2011: The Muppets take Manhattan… and Boston… and Dubuque and Elyria and Crystal Lake

Unless you’ve been hiding behind a plate of fried frog legs today, you probably know that the next blockbuster movie opened today: The Muppets. Now, this one I’d like to see. Last week’s Twilight movie? Not so damned much. I already showed you a cool Muppets treatment from last Sunday’s Boston Globe and I asked you to send me more. [...]

Nov. 22, 2011: The Boston Globe’s take on the upcoming Muppet movie

Master designer Ryan Huddle created this for the movies front of last Sunday’s Boston Globe. “Heart felt.” Get it? Wocka-wocka. Four pages later, you find the jump page. Which is where you see the back side of the front page illustration. Mixed into the many Muppet characters in the audience are stars who famously made guest appearances in various Muppet [...]

Nov. 21, 2011: Adding some spice to a food front illustration

Over the weekend, I was sent this cool features front illustration from last Thursday’s Newsday of Melville, Long Island. The story is about using spices as you cook your Thanksgiving turkey this year. The turkey was illustrated with — yes, spices — by staffers Elysia A. Smith and Ned Levine. Thanks to my anonymous tipster for the page. Average daily [...]

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