Philosophy of a redesign

...but the website looks the same

August 04, 2010 Jake Hallman

jake@connectstatesboro.com

    Wow. That thing up there in the print edition looks different.
    In fact, there are lots of little changes going on throughout the magazine. If you’re interested in this sort of thing, keep reading.
    If not, well, just continue on to the cover story.
    Yeah, the header (that thing up there that says “Jake’s Take”) is different. I won’t say that it’s better, but it’s different.
    The old headers were some pretty labor-intensive and quite nice design. They weren’t terribly well-received by a lot of readers, though, and also took up a whole lot of space, so we’ve opted for a cleaner, easier-to-read look.
    There's been some tweaking in headlines and subheads, too. Who are we to buck the trend of sans-serifed typefaces?
    That's one of those things you learn as an editor — what "serif" means. Ad manager Courtney Caldwell's even beat a little bit of best design practices into my thick skull.
    Another big change is in how the calendar looks. Again, it was a striking example of something that looked great, but didn’t convey information quite as well as we wanted it to.
    That’s one of the problems with grid-based calendar designs — they don’t have a lot of flexibility if you have several different venues, some which have events, some which don’t, and some that are closed at odd times.
    Connect is the paper of record for the entertainment scene in Statesboro, so it’s imperative that we be able to list every single event that we know of in the calendar.
    So we’re back to a list-based approach. We’ll try our best to have accurate listings, cover charges, and even phone numbers if it’s something you have to call ahead and get tickets for.
    There’s even room to have more featured events. This is a happy thing.
    One thing that's really important to us is having an accurate calendar. Want to make sure that we don't miss your event? Hit up our website at Conneststatesboro.com, and put your events on our online calendar there — that's always our first go-to stop for filling out the events every week.
    A good bit of the magazine's stayed the same. There's no reason to change what works, and as the publication's fifth birthday approaches (swimsuit issue in September!), we've had a little experience in figuring out what works and what doesn't.
    As the weeks go on, we'll continue doing little tweaks here and there. A magazine's always evolving, and we want to make sure that we're giving you all of the information you want. Shoot me an e-mail or give me a phone call if you've got ideas!
    Update:
    First, I made a big error in last week’s Connect. If you’re interested in taking part in the murder mystery event sponsored by GSU’s Continuing Education Center on Aug. 13, please call (912) 478-5551 to make reservations. The phone number listed in the story is incorrect.
    To whoever has the phone number that was incorrectly printed, I offer my most sincere apologies for any confused phone calls you got over the last week.
    Also, we realized that we haven’t been crediting ace graphic designer Kenon Givens in the bishop every week (that’s the thing over  on page 3 by the table of contents that you’re just now noticing).
    Y’know the awesome Connect covers you’ve been seeing the past few weeks? That’s Kenon’s work. He’s top-notch, and we’re lucky to have him.
    In continuing the string of mea cuplas, there was also an error in last week’s word search. I got a call about it from a nice gentleman in Claxton, so I’m going to take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about how things work here in the Connect Batcave.
    Some features we pay for, some are produced in-house. The comics every week? Bought. Astro-Graph? Bought. Sudoku and crossword? Bought.
    Sorry about the crossword difficulty, by the way. Those things are tough. Think of it as a learning experience.
    Those syndicated features are great. They allow us to have good content every week without breaking the bank. It’s sheer economy of scale — if a lot of media outlets pay a little bit of money to the people creating that stuff, it eventually makes a big ol’ paycheck for them.
    The word search, however, is created in-house. As such, there’s definitely a possibility for errors to creep in, seeing as we’re only human. Last week, “Andalusian” was spelled wrong in the list, but spelled right in the search. Sorry for any confusion that might have caused.
    I’ve got to say, though, that seeing as that’s the only complaint I’ve ever received about the search in four years of running it, I think we’re doing pretty well on that count.
    Jake Hallman is the interim editor of Connect Statesboro. He can be reached at (912) 489-9405 or via e-mail at jake@connectstatesboro.com.

Print

E-Mail Story

News Letter Sign up

« Previous Story | Next Story »