{"id":1110,"date":"2016-03-29T18:03:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-29T18:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.porticomagazine.ca\/?p=1110"},"modified":"2020-10-28T14:40:32","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T18:40:32","slug":"the-art-of-newspaper-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/the-art-of-newspaper-design\/","title":{"rendered":"The art of newspaper design"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt French tells stories not with words but with design.<\/p>\n

An award-winning page designer and assistant art director for The Globe and Mail<\/em> newspaper, he aims to create eye-catching page layouts that give readers a clear idea what the story is about before they read a sentence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe designer is there to make the message as clear and effective as they can,\u201d says French, adding that a skillful design draws attention to the article rather than to the design elements, including graphics, photos and typography.<\/p>\n

Take the Globe<\/em>\u2019s front-page coverage of last fall\u2019s final report of Canada\u2019s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The story was illustrated by oversize numerals that punched out the key points: numbers of victims, witnesses and deaths associated with the country\u2019s former residential schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story was the numbers, and the numbers are the impact,\u201d says French, B.Comm. \u201907. \u201cIt\u2019s not about any highfalutin\u2019 image or fancy colour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most days, French, 30, helps design the newspaper\u2019s front page, working with a \u201ccast of many,\u201d including editors, headline writers and the paper\u2019s creative director. Over the past year, he\u2019s designed more than 300 front pages and thousands more inside.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

French\u2019s design skills are self-taught, but his career path started at U of G. Always driven to do creative work, he pursued a commerce degree thinking he could \u201cmake a living doing something creative in business\u201d such as working for a marketing agency.<\/p>\n

During a summer job in a marketing department, French took a stab at creating promotional material for trade publications. Back on campus during third and fourth year, he then worked at Guelph\u2019s student newspaper, The Ontarion<\/em>, as photo and graphics editor, and layout editor. Recalling those days, he says, \u201cYou were able to cut your teeth doing what you wanted. Learning from your mistakes gave you the freedom to make mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following graduation, he worked at the Woolwich Observer<\/em>. After three years there, he worked for 24 Hours<\/em>, a Toronto commuter newspaper, and the Toronto Sun<\/em>, among others.<\/p>\n

French got called up to the \u201cbig leagues\u201d in 2011. Up to 400,000 people read The<\/em> Globe and Mail<\/em>\u2019s weekend edition.<\/p>\n

Among his notable Globe<\/em> projects, he points to an \u201cUnremembered\u201d series of articles last year about the suicides of Canadian soldiers and veterans who fought in Afghanistan, as well as the 11th-hour package of reports covering the 2015 federal election that vaulted Justin Trudeau\u2019s Liberals into power.<\/p>\n

Another favourite was the 2012 Remembrance Day cover, with the word \u201cRemember\u201d stamped over a soldier\u2019s image. \u201cIt did what it was intended to do: cause the reader to pause and reflect.\u201d<\/p>\n

A fan of the Washington Post<\/em> and the Guardian, <\/em>French brings what he calls a simple and subtle but graphic approach to his work, as well as a refined sense of visual literacy \u2014 all without getting in the way of the story.<\/p>\n

Sitting down to assemble a page, he knows that reporters and editors might have put months of work and passion into the article. \u201cAt the end, I\u2019m the person responsible for taking it over the finish line, making it sing so that people connect with it.\u201d \u2013 ANDREW VOWLES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt French tells stories not with words but with design. An award-winning page designer and assistant art director for The Globe and Mail newspaper, he aims to create eye-catching page layouts that give readers a clear idea what the story is about before they read a sentence. \u201cThe designer is there to make the message<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"Photo by Lindsay Lapchuck","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":null,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":null},"categories":[16],"tags":[33,120,119,121],"yoast_head":"\nThe art of newspaper design -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/the-art-of-newspaper-design\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The art of newspaper design -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Matt French tells stories not with words but with design. 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