Designing at the speed of news
Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:35 PM
For Iowa�s big night, I was the designer in charge of helping our two cover editors make the best cover-grids they could make and troubleshoot technical issues they might encounter. Turns out that I barely earned my free pizza that night because no matter what surprise political win or early candidate speech was thrown at the editors� wire-feeds and TV screens, they were ready for it!One editor focusing on the current cover and one anticipating the next move worked like a charm! Aside from a couple minor tweaks, I was just there to admire what I thought was impossible to achieve less than a year ago: editors making light-speed changes, big and small, to a visually complicated cover without the intervention of a designer. The media editor was able to constantly switch to better photos as they became available. It was amazing to watch everyone in the newsroom pulling together to beat the competition and deliver up-to-the-minute coverage, and I think we did just that. In terms of layouts, t