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Yorkshire Post redesign

Click here to read more about my three-page redesign of the Yorkshire Post.

Overview

Front page

Centre spread

Back page

Scroll through my evaluation...

Redesign as a whole
Overall, I intended to modernise the somewhat outdated Yorkshire Post and attempt to incorporate the attraction of lively and engaging tabloid design without losing the consistency and sophistication of broadsheet design to help it appeal to a younger, more modern audience.
The original news paper had many design faults. I removed butting headlines by using adjacent photos or art and attempted to vary the ways in which I presented smaller headlines. I sectioned off separate stories via ruled lines, colour blocks and graphics as well as aligning stories so they did not clash. This additionally allowed the photos to be clearly associated with their stories. Throughout the redesign I scattered my art, balanced photos and varied the shapes and sizes of stories and photos in order to keep it interesting and clean.
I used drop caps of varying sizes to indicate the beginning and importance of stories and guide the reader through the articles on each page which previously were all portrayed as equally important. I used contrasting light and bold text and headlines in order to differentiate between stories and make it clearer to read.
The addition of pull out quotes worked well in breaking up long lines of text with text wrap whilst also providing a hook to draw in the reader who was intrigued by the unusual quote. However, I feel this would have worked better had the newspaper cited all of their quotes as a name and photo would further reach out to people who knew of the politician/ spokesperson.
Front page
For the front page design I intended to create a more eye catching flag that would reflect the more modern design of the Yorkshire Post newspaper by incorporating the recognisable symbol of the Yorkshire rose.  However, I feel it would have been improved had I made the rose bolder.
I attempted to improve the banner with the use of cut out graphics as opposed to bland square pictures to create interesting shapes to catch the reader’s eye. Additionally I adapted the colour theme to make it more uniform and relevant to other pictures on the page to make it more aesthetically pleasing.
I used a more shocking main picture which better emphasised the contrast between the headline and the disagreement in the photo and would help draw readers to read more inside about the riots. However, I feel that whilst this picture dominates as the main story, it would still benefit from being larger and more dramatic along with the headline. However, I felt that the dominating main story lay out and the article sizes worked well in guiding the reader through the hierarchy of articles.
The use of the colour coded content box works well in guiding the readers through the paper which I colour coded in sections, (main news and G20 being green, sport being blue etc.) Although I feel that the colour coded pages gave coherence to the whole publication, I feel this may have worked better had I incorporated small cut out graphics to accompany the bullet points which would perhaps better draw the reader in.
I used a teaser box breakdown of shocking allegations in the alleged abuse story to lead readers into the full story inside. However, I feel this may have worked better had I used a header above them saying “Shocking allegations” in order to more clearly define what the reader was looking at.
Centre spread
For the double page spread I attempted to draw readers in with a variety of different methods. The original paper had black and white photos and plain, uninteresting columns of articles. I incorporated a map to show where events were taking place and a timeline to show where unrest had taken place during the day. I feel these worked well in drawing the reader in and explaining events clearly and quickly without reading the articles in depth. However, I feel that the timeline may have worked better at the top of the page in order to break down events before they read the articles.
I balanced the photographs well using varying shapes and sizes to keep it interesting with the cut out of a protester and policeman whose positions appear as if they are attacking each other through the text which clearly portrays the article content. The main photo dominates the page and differs from the main photo that the Yorkshire Post used as I felt it better emphasised the emotion of the headline and the article’s content. Although I cropped this photo from a square to a rectangle with an off balanced perspective in order to portray the uneasy, out of the norm riotous event, I feel that it would have benefited from being even larger and more dramatic or using a close up of the protesters smashing the windows. Additionally, I feel that the white on black headline of the left story, whilst being easy to differentiate, detracts from the dominance of the main story slightly due to its position and bold eye catching font. Consequently, the main story headline may have benefited from the white on black font instead.
The addition of the celebrity photo would have been a recognisable picture to draw readers into the smaller article. Additionally, the faded tent graphic clearly defines what the article is about and leads the reader through the page. However, a picture of the climate camp itself may have been more illustrative.
Back Page
I used cut outs to give the impression of 3D pictures actively jumping out of the page to reflect the energetic sports news round-up and to encourage readers to read related articles inside.
For the main story I cropped and cut the picture and designed a small banner in Photoshop to indicate world cup news. Although the main story dominates, I feel that the headline font may have benefitted from being larger as the Shearer white on black font, although smaller, is just as eye catching.
I created a brief news column using excerpts from inside stories to draw readers in to small related news stories. Although I feel this box and contrasting font worked well in ordering information and leading the reader, I feel that a small border within the blue text box would have made the articles even easier to read.
I used many links to related articles and online content in order to encourage the more modern and younger reader. However, I feel that the use of more unusual fonts and graphics may have been beneficial in achieving this.