Powerful print points

Hi,

They might not be hip and happening (more like hip-replacement). But newspapers are cool if you think successful communications is cool. Newspapers represent the end point of the survival of the fittest in all things to do with how humans in the western world like to have pages designed for reading. Newspapers which have defied the "Rules of Reading Gravity" (as codified by Colin Wheildon in "Communicating or just making Pretty Shapes") have failed to survive. Editors know what people want on the page to gain access to the information within. Advertising designers often don't or don't care, thinking that by breaking the rules they will attract more readers and therefore help their clients achieve their communications goals. WRONG.
For instance, why are the headlines in the articles (the things the readers by the papers for) always above the copy when headlines in ads often appear below the copy? Why is body text in articles set in 10+ point serif fonts when advertising designers prefer tiny san serif fonts? (Serifs are the little lumps at the ends of some letters like with Times Roman. Univers is sans serif.) Why do all photos in the newspapers always have a caption to explain what is going on in the picture? Advertisers don't bother with them. But then the punters don't vote with their coins everyday for the advertisers. They vote for the articles. And they've trained the editors and designers of the newspapers how they went to receive information.
There are a lot more secrets to communications success hidden in newspapers. Just look at what their designers do everyday, with boring repetition, and ask yourself, "Why?"

Cheers!

Michael Kiely