‘Sports design’ archive

April 3: A look at today’s NCAA Championship front pages (1)

Kentucky pulled out a nice eight-point victory last night to top Kansas for the NCAA men’s basketball championship. Here’s a look at the way the result was played on front pages in Kentucky and Kansas… — HERALD-LEADER Lexington, Ky. Circulation: 89,050 This is the eighth national title for Kentucky. The Herald-Leader made that the focus of a poster treatment on [...]

April 1: Today’s basketball Final Four front pages

Your team goes to the Final Four in New Orleans Saturday, wins and secures a place in Monday’s NCAA Basketball Championship game. So what do you do on page one today? You clear your front and go with basketball, of course. Because there ain’t no madness like March Madness. — LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER Lexington, Ky. Circulation: 89,050 A humongous battle between [...]

March 30: For your Friday enjoyment: Two truly clever illustrations

As you know, I spent the past two weeks in Nigeria teaching infographics. But all of you who have attended any of my sessions over the years know: I never teach just what I’ve been hired to teach. I see the job of a visual journalist as being much bigger than that. Our job is to tell the story, no [...]

March 25: A stunning basketball maneuver results in a stunning photo

While the rest of the sports world is watching the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, there is also a women’s college basketball tournament going on. It’s typical that the men’s tourney gets more attention than the women’s. One of the regional semifinals is being held in Des Moines, Iowa, where powerhouse Baylor defeated Georgia Tech by 15 points Saturday, preserving its [...]

March 20: Paths not taken today in Nashville (1)

By now, you’ve heard the news: Former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning has signed with the Denver Broncos. This is — and will be — huge news in Denver. And perhaps in Florida as well, because the smart money is saying that the Broncos will now try to deal Tim Tebow to the Jaguars, putting Tebow back into his hometown [...]

March 18: Happy times on page one (1)

With all my trip preparations — and then the start of my trip itself — I haven’t had a chance to do much with the NCAA tournament this year. I did steal a few minutes today, however, to check out the Newseum. And I saw a number of very, very happy college hoopsters around the country. You gotta love art [...]

March 16: Emilio Rabago returning to the San Antonio Express-News

Emilio Rabago of Gannett’s Design Studio in Nashville, Tenn., is returning to the San Antonio Express-News. Emilio departed the Express-News in 2009 after taking a buyout. Emilio tells us: This week I’m helping with the launch of the Montgomery Advertiser‘s sports/features section here in the Nashville Design Studio. Next week, I am back in San Antonio at the Express-News as a [...]

March 13: Calling all fans of sports photography

Do you have a discount store in your area called Five Below? It’s like a dollar store, except everything is priced $5 or less. The chain is based in Philadelphia. Everything there is a “close out,” so they don’t take returns at all. We stopped by our local Five Below last night, where I spotted something you should know about: [...]

March 12: A look at a few notable Bracket Monday pages

Today is one of the biggest days of the year for any sports section: The day we present to our readers this year’s NCAA basketball tournament brackets. Years ago, all the better papers out there began building their sections around themes. Over time, those themes have become a) more inventive, and b) better executed. Meaning it’s a great time to [...]

March 9: The lengths we’ll go to in order to keep a reader from canceling a subscription

Back on Monday, Virginian-Pilot columnist Kerry Dougherty cited a few of the reasons readers give for canceling their subscriptions. One really caught her attention, however: This reader called me recently with a complaint about our Sports section. Her gripe was simple: She’s a sports fan who doesn’t like to look at the front page of the section during basketball season. [...]

March 8: You need a laptop to edit and send sports photos? That’s SO 2010. (3)

By his own admission, Brian Ray — chief photographer for the Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa — is an idiot. Why? His newspaper sent him to the Big Ten conference basketball tournament this week in Indianapolis. But he went off without his laptop. He writes this afternoon in his photo blog for the Gazette: I could make a bunch of [...]

March 6: Huntsville sports editor John Turner moving to the Sporting News

Sports editor John Turner of the Huntsville Times announced today via Facebook: I’ve accepted a position as Senior Digital Editor with The Sporting News and will be moving to Charlotte two weeks from today. I couldn’t be more excited for this opportunity, yet at the same time grateful for the chance The Huntsville Times took on me as a young [...]

March 3: Wonderful student-drawn hoops graphics to brighten your (Carolina) blue Saturday

The students of J484 Information Graphics at the University of North Carolina are at it again this year. Professor Terence Oliver has his students draw up a batch of basketball graphics for the start of ACC Tournament season. The graphics are posted on the Reese News web site and some even make it into print in the student newspaper, the [...]

Feb. 23: If you think Jeremy Lin is big in THIS country… (2)

If you think the New York Knicks’ Jeremy Lin is big in this country, then check out this photoillustration of him from a Taiwanese newspaper: Angel wings? Really? That was posted today by Dan Patrick. Thanks to Ben Ramsden for the tip.

Feb. 22: Great interview; dumb comment (9)

Dan Levy of Sparksheet interviewed Time magazine art director D.W. Pine in a Q&A that was posted yesterday. It’s a great interview and worth the few minutes it’ll take to read it. However, this one sentence — embedded in a question — jumped out at me: You may be the only person ever who has made the jump from sportswriter [...]

Feb. 21: A face not even a mother could love (1)

Now, be honest. You’re suddenly dying to know the story behind the gentleman in this photo, aren’t you? I was. Meet Jack Blankenship, a freshman engineering student at the University of Alabama. He began making that face to amuse friends in the seventh grade, he tells Turney Foshee of the Tuscaloosa News. But then, one day recently, he thought it [...]

Feb. 20: Apparently, there are a few cute Jeremy Lin headlines left to use

I would have thought the controversy surrounding ESPN’s debacle Friday night might have cured us all from using cute headlines for the continuing story about the admittedly astounding Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks. No such luck, though. The Knicks won big again last night. Eliciting this truly stretched-past-the-breaking-point pun from the New York Post. The Daily News gets [...]

Feb. 19: Two — count ‘em, two — big visuals projects in today’s Fort Myers News-Press

There were two — count ‘em, two — giant visuals projects in today’s News-Press of Fort Myers, Fla. And both of them are worthy of note. First up is an A-section look at Saturday’s Edison Festival of Light. Check out the great A1 photo by staffer John David Emmett of two local kids on a parade float. Click that or [...]

Feb. 18: Surely this will be the end of the ‘cute’ Jeremy Lin headlines (5)

I was hoping those Mad magazine parody Jeremy Lin headlines the other day might be the last word on that topic. But apparently not. Following Lin’s 9-turnover performance Friday night — which snapped the Knicks’ winning streak — ESPN decided to spit out one more attempt at a cute headline. A misguided attempt at a cute headline. I mean, really. Not [...]

Feb. 16: Do those Jeremy Lin NY tab headlines push far enough? (1)

Last night, we took a look at a number of headlines in Wednesday’s New York tabloids regarding Jeremy Lin of the Knicks.           Hey, I’m a guy who likes pun headlines. But even to me, some of these seemed to be a bit of a stretch. But let’s flip this around: Did those headlines go far [...]