Cherubs get bold in design workshop

By Molly Davis

“We do minimal work with design programs at my school,” Shin said. “Our newspaper’s focus has never been design. All schools in our district send their papers out to a print place for formatting.”

Cherubs work together to devise new layout strategies.

While some cherubs like Shin came to Northwestern with limited layout experience, they were able to practice their design skills through various lectures and workshops. 

Professor Roger Boye, director of the National High School Institute for journalism and associate professor emeritus at the Medill School of Journalism, said exposing cherubs to design techniques is important because many will need to employ these skills when they return to their high school newspapers.

Ed Brud, visual editor of the Milwakee Journal Sentinel, taught the cherubs “10 things student designers need to know.”  He showed the cherubs ways to make their school newspapers as aesthetically pleasing as possible.

“What I hoped to inspire students to do is think boldly and creatively about the content they're presenting,” Brud said. 

Gabe Debenedetti, a cherub from Princeton, N.J., wants to implement Brud’s tips into his features section when he returns to his high school newspaper.

“As the features editor, I plan on making some changes in the way I lay out my page each week because our paper has a fairly standard design, and it’s boring,” Debenedetti said. “I think we could greatly increase our readership if we redesign the page. I’m definitely going to talk to the photo editors and make the page more dynamic.”

In particular, Debenedetti hopes to have “catchy” pictures on his features pages and run more in-depth articles.

Lorraine Lee, a cherub from Los Angeles, plans to take Brud’s advice and use only one or two fonts throughout the newspaper.  She wants to encourage her staff to look at major publications for inspiration, just as Brud did in his lecture.

“When I came, I was lacking creative ideas for my newspaper,” Lee said.  “I was inspired by the newspapers he showed us in terms of artwork and creativity.  Hopefully my paper at home can aim to be more creative with artwork.”

For Robert Pino, a cherub from Naperville, Ill., the design workshops and lectures were helpful in reinforcing what he has already learned about layout.

“Some of the design tips seemed obvious, but it’s good to hear them explained,” Pino said.  “When I go back to my school newspaper, I think I’m going to have a lot of suggestions to make the paper something the students are going to want to pick up.”

The instructions cherubs received while at the program have equipped them with the knowledge and skills to improve their school newspapers’ layout and overall design, according to Shin.

“Brud brought up some good points, and it was really interesting,” she said.  “Hopefully I can go home and help people learn design.”