Life and Alternate Story Form

As a first year editor, I had never used InDesign prior to journalism. I really enjoy designing the Life and ASF pages, and have learned a lot about design through the many MIPA workshops, and late production nights. I think the growth of my pages is obvious, and I can't wait to see what I can do for our upcoming issues.

My Process

When we start a new issue in North Pointe, the first job for editors is to create a "dummy" of how we want our pages to look. I work closely with the managing editor, and writers of the stories to see how we can create the most innovative and eye-catching page. Most of the time the final draft ends up looking slightly different than how I anticipated in my dummy, but I'm always happy with the result. The process of designing the page lasts for a few days and I get the input of my editor-in-chief and advisor to see what I new things I can incorporate into my pages. Although it's tedious, some of my favorite page designs were when I went into Canva and created unique elements that make my page stand out. The pictures to the left show the spread of all of the dummys that each editor creates, and after designing the page, we hang them on top of our dummys to see what the final paper will look like. This helps editors tie in color schemes and shapes that other pages have to make our paper look more uniform.

Issue 1

October, 2023

For my very first issue designing, I knew my life page would be pretty easy, which it was. However, I struggled with my ASF page. I had to get last-minute photos of the marching band, and we urgently contacted a worker from InDesign to get the cutouts right. I really liked how it turned out, and although the pictures were super inconvenient, they really elevated the page.

Issue 2

November, 2023

This issue was really fun to work on because it was something new to me. I wasn't really sure how I would do a by-the-numbers, but I think that it turned out really good, and caught the eyes of our readers.

Issue 3

December, 2023

This issue was more stressful than the rest. The art for my life page didn't go as planned, so we made an infographic last minute. However we didn't have enough writing to fill the page, so I had to play around with more elements. However, the ASF page turned out way better than I was expecting. With the guidance of my advisor, I was able to create a map and layout the page in a really aesthetically pleasing way.

Issue 4

January, 2024

This issue was the hardest one I have worked on by far. I was feeling bored with my life page and decided to add some cutouts for something new. My ASF page didn't go according to what I had planned, but after talking about it with my advisor we designed page to have a pie chart and statistics. I wanted to make the background something new, and I think the piece of loose-leaf gave it a clean look.

Issue 5

February, 2024

So far, this has been the most frustrating spread that I have worked on. My life page turned out pretty good, but both my advisor and I didn't like how the pictures lined up. However, due to the sources and photos available, this was the best I could make the page. I wrote the ASF story for this issue and scrambled to get pictures at the last minute because some of our sources fell through. This caused me to have to work on this page at home, the day before pages were sent to printers. Despite that, I liked how the shapes behind the pictures made my page feel less boxy and slightly more unique.

Issue 6

March, 2024

This issue was like a breath of fresh air compared to the last issue. I had written the German Club life story, so I was able to complete that spread with no problems. I also made a map in Canva so I could add more art to the page. I was really excited to do the ASF page because of how creative I could be. I made shamrocks in Canva to take up some white space, and made a rainbow through InDesign. I think it would've been easier to make the rainbow with Canva, but I figured I should practice more with InDesign art.

Issue 7

April, 2024

I love the life page for this issue. Although it is very basic, I think the plant cutout was a nice touch that made the page stand out more. I was experimenting with my advisor to make something more magazine like for the ASF page, and we came up with hexagons. However, I did have some difficulties because the pictures provided for this story weren't great, and I was running out of room. I don't think this page turned out as good as it could've been, but it was still insightful to try something new.

Issue 7

May, 2024

I really like how aesthetically pleasing this spread came out. I had to work very quickly this issue because neither of these stories were finished by production night. Despite that, I was able to figure out where I wanted the pictures to be, and place them accordingly. In my dummy I had an idea to put the moon phases on the ASF page. In my first draft the drawing didn't come out as neat as I would've wanted, so I did it again, and I'm really happy with how it added to the page.

Senior Issue

May, 2024

This spread was incredibly bittersweet, as it was my final time designing for North Pointe. The seniors theme for homecoming this year was 80's, so I wanted to try to tie that in to the spread. I decided to take inspiration from the issue 5 spread, and put colorful shapes behind the photos. At first my advisor was skeptical, because red isn't commonly used in our paper, but since it was the senior issue, we decided it would be ok. All of the photos used were student summitted, so we had a nice range of photos from throughout the year.