Newsletters!

Newsletter/ENewsletter Comparison

Similarities in all the Formats:

I noticed in all the formats that no matter what approach they were taking, key elements were all present.  All the newsletters, online or printed, had a Masthead, header, issue #, month & year, a deck, callouts, a columned grid system, and images.

Series Indicator:

The evidence on each of the newsletters that shows its a part of a series, is the issue #, month & year, or any other type of calendar element.

Differences between the Formats:

There is a huge difference between the format and lay out of ENewsletters compared to Printed Newsletters.  ENewsletters are all vertically laid out because moving up and down is the only feasible movement on a screen.

Printed Newsletters have many more options of what format and layout they can use, so there was much more variety differing the examples in the book.  

Content's Presentation Limited by Format:

One thing that bound printable Newsletters was making it a mailable size.  Many printable newsletters based their format off of the maximum size you can mail cheap to save money.   They are also limited to a set amount of space.  They have to pick the layout, size of paper, how many pages, etc.,  hoping it will accommodate every issue for the publication's duration.  Many of Newsletter's I've seen are a folded piece of paper, and that's it.  Not much to work with if your content switches up.

ENewsletters have many limitations I noticed.  First of all, they're flat.  They are one sided and non-interactive.  Then, they have to be scrunched on a very tall area, that is not seen all the time.  You only have the screen height to be seen at one time.  I'll be honest, I was getting pretty uninterested with many of them as I scrolled for eternity, looking at the same layout over and over again.

What Printed Layout would Translate Well to an ENewsletter?:

I think the Rund Herum format would translate well online.  If the consecutive pages were stacked on on top the other, it would flow nicely.  This publication has a wide, one columned grid for the most part that would be most easily read extensively in a long vertical column.  It's got nice white space which I longed for on the example ENewsletters on Wolske's Blog.  It has interesting pictures that would break up the reading to allow you some relief and amusement.   I think scrolling up and down this would be easiest because of it's simplicity and cleanliness.

Emigre & Fontshop Printing & Emailing Newsletters:

I think these two foundries are smart for doing both.  Emailing a newsletter offers you free quick information that you can get out to everyone.  A printed out newsletter however, can reach and speak to those more interested and serious in the foundry.  A tangible copy reaching these people is very beneficial because lay out options, format options, grid options, and typography options are much more available, in which a finer product could be produced and grab their interest more.  And also, there is something about having something in your hands that you can look at for reals, that a computer screen will never be able to compare to.  Also, sending out these newsletters is like advertising their style and giving a collectible keepsake to all who receive it, which I see as another bonus. 

Bradbury Thompson

Bradbury Thompson has done some pretty cool stuff in Magazine Design.

Early in his career, in the late 1930's, Bradbury took off to New York to seek new professional opportunities.  He took a position with Rogers-Kellogg & Stillson, where h

e began designing for West Virginia Pulp and Paper Compan

y.   Here is where he designed 60 eye-catching covers for their publication, Westvaco Inspitations, that made him known around the world.

After World War II he art directed for the women's fashion magazine, Mademoiselle.  He held his position there for 15 years.

Then he designed for the Smithsonian Magazine.   His Layout and Cover design was so successful that it hasn't been changed in subsequent years.

He also was the design director for 27 years for Art News, and Art News Annual.

Bradbury Thompson was also responsible for Alphabet 26, many postage stamp designs, and the Washburn Bible.  In 1950 he received the National Society of Art Director of the Year award. He also received the AIGA Gold Medal Award in 1975 and was inducted into the Art Designer's Hall of Fame in 1977.

Eleanor's Help

I went to the Library again to look up biographies, and I was trying to find one that had a san serif font so I could study the best ways to use a san serif in my b

ook design.  After checking like 35 books, I finally found one (this might be telling me something...).  

The lonesome book was, Eleanor Roosevelt by Sharon Whitney, published by Franklin Watts in 1982, ISBN #0-531-04479-3.

Typeface: Helvetica

I think Helvetica is appropriate for readability.  It doesn't have the serifs that guide your eye to the next letter, but I think the high x-height, and its simplicity gives it a lofty, airy feel which my eyes definitely like... as opposed to the cramped typefaces with lots going on.

I don't think Helvetica is the style I would choose on a book about Eleanor Roosevelt. It wasn't a part of her time style, cuz she died right after it was made in 1962.  No offense to Eleanor, but I'm guessing from her pictures she wasn't super hip and maybe traditional is a word that'd fit her better. 

However, I think the book designer used Helvetica in an effort to attract the older generation in the 1980's.  The cover is designed very 60's-ish which was probably intentional along with Helvetica to attract the young adults who embraced that st

yle, who knew of Eleanor when she was alive, who are then middle aged and are intrigued in knowing more about this woman that they heard of so much. If this is the case, then I think Helvetica is appropriate.

Typesize: 10 pt.

Leading: The Leading is spaced nicely.  It gives the tall x-heights room to breathe, but its not too much that you can't follow it.

Indent: 1/4 inch

I can't really tell if there's a correlation with the text size. The indent would make up 2 Em spaces, but that's a

ll I could decipher.

Line Length: 10 words/line average

I think it is very comfortable to read.  I was studying some other books and the longer the line, the m

ore I get overwhelmed.  10 words per line is about perfect because I see myself make progress, but it doesn't chop up it up so much that it seems fragmented. 

Comparing all this to my Design.......EEEEEKK!

 

So there's lots of things I've realized th

at do not work with my design.... Here I go.

Typeface: Universe

I think its fine.  I just got to adjust everything else.

Typesize: 14 pt!

That's freaking huge for a san serif!  Ha, I'm going to bring it down to like 10 Pt.

Leading: 15 pt.

I think it'll be about perfect if I decrease my font size to 10. 

Indent: _Indent

I'm going to print out my book with this indent and see how I feel about it.  I think it's interesting, but I wonder if it'll be distracting.

Line Length: ? ?

So all my paragraph layouts are different and so the count is all different per line.  I'm definitely going to change my Froshaug book so the line length isn't so different throughout the page. With decreasing my font size it'll make the line length longer on all of them.

Grid Schmid

I found this website that talks about different kinds of grid layouts.  I had never heard of this one... its a multi-column grid with a horizontal anchor.  You set up your vertical grid then establish a horizontal section to be an area to put your pictures or captions... this is nice because it loosens up your layout so its not so predictable, and makes things more interesting, but still keeps it all in some type of order. 

The next grid I researched is the multi-column grid.  So this is a more familiar grid, it's just dividing the traditional manuscript grid layout into several different columns. There's many possible variations of this however. You can choose how many columns, the column depth, the column width, the width of the column gutter, and if you fill all columns with text or integrate pictures, captions or space into them.

The Format

I picked this book up at the Library when we were looking for modern type specimen books. I've never done wood type but I know I want to get into it. I think the turn out is fascinating. Anyways... This book is beautifully formatted. What I think makes it successful is the tall, lengthy grid within the portrait, large scale format. Check out the height the columns gives to the pages. And I love how on most of the spreads, the body text hugs the center fold, which leaves the examples for the outside edges. This definitely enhances the readablitly and keeps things neat but still interesting.

Writings on the Wall

So I'm going to jump on the less "well-known" publications that I have listed, and prove that they are just as legit as the more formal types of publications everyone is used to.

I'll start with the Bathroom Stall.

I don't think there's a better way of publishing whatever the heck you want to say. Its free... It's fun... It's a release (PUN)... and you can do it all, totally anonymously if you wish. The identity protection the stall provides invites people's true feelings to come out in their fullest.

In the University of Utah's, Women's, Library's, ground level floor, bathroom's 2nd stall, was a charade of heated conversations, scribbled relentlessly one after the other very often. I lived in the library last year, and week to week... even day to day sometimes, I was astounded at the new comments and topics that appeared. Everything from politics, war, abortion, marriage, love, love to another woman, and writing awful research papers came up with many commenters back.

Creepy as this sounds... I thought (and think) this was so interesting, that I did a whole drawing project on it for my art class. I actually got in different stalls around and traced their writing and collaged them all together. I was known as the weird smelly girl who hung out in bathrooms stalls.

I researched many other blogs and sites for bathroom writing and found I'm not the only one who thinks this is funny. There were tons of sites that had thousands of entries of clever, crude and random comments they had read on stall walls. I'd link them.. . But they're all pretty dirty.

But I did find this good article on California State University's Online newspaper site, "the Orion" where the writer agrees with a lot of the same stuff as me.

http://media.www.theorion.com/media/storage/paper889/news/2003/05/07/Features/The-Writings.In.The.Stall-1511989.shtml

There was an interesting part in the article where the writer (a staff member) gets information about this topic, from no one more knowledgeable in this situation than the janitor. I found this quote of his rather profound, "Restroom graffiti really reflects the public from time to time". Isn't it true? I don't think stall #2 at the library would exactly be talking about assassinating Bush and how girls are better lovers.

Another section of the article talks of the protected identity I spoke of already. I think he put it a little better.


"The Graffiti Definition Web site said motivation towards scribbling on the wall includes a desire for recognition that is public in nature, and/or the need of certain public or private space for group or individual purposes.
It also said political graffiti could arise from emergency situations and crises or in response to current politics.
And restrooms could be the most comfortable and safe places to voice opinions without any threatening situations.
Dick said the restroom provides "dual anonymity" for those who vandalize the walls.
"In doing it in that sort of a private situation, they are guaranteed (anonymity) in their political views, and they are guaranteed (anonymity) in their behavior," he said. "They don't have to deal with counter-arguments, being labeled or something."
He said the anonymity provides freedom. But some people take care of such freedom."

One part I disagree with in this article is how he makes ya feel bad for the woman janitor who has to scrub it off. I do appreciate that someone is cleaning bathrooms at Universities, but at the same time, they're erasing culture's finest and truest public speaking utility. How cool would it be if the writings were never erased, so you could read into the past and discover what issues pissed off college students in the 60's? It'd be like the Universiy's culture journal. That would be tight.

Publications

What is a Publication?

ChaCha defined it as "a copy of a printed work offered for distribution or an issue: the ac of issuing printed materials".

That is the closest to what I was familiar with before we had our discussion in class. Nowadays, printed work hardly even exists. Online resources offer so much now that this definition needs to be redefined. Also, I think there are a lot of things that get overlooked as good publications.

I'm going to stretch a little on redefining this definition, and assume that a publication is anything anyone says, writes, sells, or communicates publicly. This can exist on any means of material... ie: a book, a comic, a song, a brochure, on the web, a bathroom stall, or a brick wall in the middle of downtown. Lets see where I get with this.