mario garcia

50

When design looks outdatedTypically, five years or more after even the best redesign, wrinkles

start to show in a publication's appearance.

The first wrinkles appear in typography, often in the headers used

to identify sections and individual pages, or in small type areas such

as listings and the type used for infographics.

The second wrinkles appear in story-structuring details. Redesigns

of a few years ago paid less attention to the process of creating

hierarchy on the page. Many publications relied simply on headlines

to get readers into the text; we now know that it takes other devicers

such as summaries and secondary headlines to achieve that.

The third wrinkles usually show up in the use of color. A palette

acceptable a few years ago may no longer look as good, or the

publication may be after a different target readership, or it may have

different printing equipment with different color capabilities.

When wrinkles appear, first study what they are, how they affect

the overall design of the newspaper. Often, one does not have to

redesign the entire publication to make some quick but long-lasting

fixes that can have a wonderfully rejuvenating effect.