TRENDS In Modern Newspaper Design Compiled by Dianne Smith, CJE Alief Hastings High School Houston, Texas August, 1999

Modular Design

Newspaper Design Trends Newspapers have undergone many design changes over the years to make them more attractive to the reader.

Because newspapers must compete with broadcast media with their heavy emphasis on graphics, newspapers have had to update their image to include bigger, more exciting graphics, color, interesting type and other visual elements.

One of the major trends in newspaper design is to arrange elements in rectangular modules, which assist the designer in packaging the stories on the page.

Everything that goes with a story or a concept is “packaged” together Everything that goes with a story or a concept is “packaged” together. This includes the:

1. text

1. text 2. headline

1. text 2. headline 3. photos

1. Text 2. headline 3. photos 4. byline

1. text 2. headline 3. photos 4. byline 5. any other elements Thumbnail picture of reporter 2. headline Pullout Quote 3. photos Jump line 4. byline Photo caption 5. any other elements

All of these elements, which are related to the same story are packaged together in a module.

Everything else on the page is also “packaged” in modules with related elements.

Modular design begins with a dummy sheet with the modules drawn in.

The individual modules are then “built” using text, headlines, art/photos and white space.