At our last OCA Scottish Group meeting our tutor Wendy set us the challenge of making a newspaper to showcase our work.
I used The Newspaper Club, which is based in Glasgow. They have a template which you can use, and as it was my first time, I used it. That had pros and cons. It was simple to use (once I had worked out that you could only upload images that were set to the correct size and pixel count – all of mine needed considerable adjustment to fit this). However, it was very limiting. I would have liked to either add some full bleed images, or some that went across the midline, especially on the centre page, and, although you can do this – shown in both the demonstration newspaper they send out and on their website, it is not possible to do so using the template. To do so you need to make up your own PDF and send it in.
I chose to use colour images to see how they would work out. Because I used colour, I went for the higher quality whiter paper. I used some very small amounts of text. The paper was printed and delivered very quickly. The colours, as had been suggested in the information on site were, less vibrant than ideal, especially the blues and purples.
Overall, I was pleased by the outcome as initial trial. I think I used too many images. It would have been better with even less words (or maybe none). The layout definitely could have been more interesting if I had designed it to run across the centre or have larger images.
Whole pdf:
Two other people brought their newspapers. Both had chosen to use black and white, one on each type of paper. I felt the black and white images were more successful, and actually preferred the more tactile feel of the lower quality standard paper.
An interesting experiment, and definitely one worth taking further.
Future plans:
- Learn to use some form of design software. The obvious options are
- Indesign – very expensive
- Scribus – free, but less tutorials available
- Make another newspaper – with black and white images
Identity and Place 
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