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High School football coverage is big this time of year, and for one GateHouse paper, it's no bigger than in Rockford, Illinois.
The Rodkford Register Star staff rocked this preview section with a cool idea, culminating with fantastic photography and stellar design. Let's take a look, shall we?
First of all, these pages were sent to me by Rockford's assistant delivery editor and rock star designer Adam McHugh, who also sent me some comments regarding this section. (Thank you, Adam!)
The Gridiron section front makes the design direction of the sectino immediately clear. The familiar section name in a polished chrome motif is used regularly for the Star's high school football coverage. The montage of cutout images is an homage to The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" album cover.
"We decided to go with a “rock star” theme, using iconic albums as inspiration for our photos," McHugh said. "I pitched this theme about two months ago, and it evolved from there."
Let's take a look inside
The first team page, at first glance, looks to be much like any other feature story in a high school football preview section. ... But then you begin to notice some details, such as the Gridiron logo. Look familiar? It should.
Yep, it's a spin on the Billboard pop chart logo. Looking closer, you see the team roster is designed much like a Billboard chart itself, even down the circles around some players number to indicate who to wach this season.
Bravo.
The main photo looks like a player and coach shaking hands — it is. But the photo is a recreation of Pink Floyd's 1975 album "Wish You Were Here."
Here's more from McHugh:
"With the help of sports editor Randy Ruef and writers Matt Trowbridge and Emily Tropp, we matched the albums to individual players and teams. We got most of them shot before football practice started. Photographer Max Gersh totally rocked (pun intended) these shoots. I designed all of the pages this week. The only photos that needed photoshop work were the cover, the “Saturday Night Fever” photo and the “Meet the Beatles” photo. The section was a total of 22 pages."
Here's the rest of the pages he send me, along with details to show the album covers:
For the record (pun intended), the rest of the album covers included here are:
P1: The Beatles, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonley Hearts Club Band" (1967)
P3: Pink Floyd, Pink Floyd, "Wish You Were Here" (1975)
P4: “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” (1963)
P5: Bruce Springsteen, "Born to Run" (1975)
P6: "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack (1977)
P7: The Beatles, "Abbey Road" (1969)
P8: The Clash, "London Calling" (1980)
P9: Michael Jackson, "Thriller" (1982)
P10: Cheap Trick (from Rockford), "The Dream Police" (1979)
P11: "Meet The Beatles" (1964)
P12: U2, "The Joshua Tree" (1987)
Great stuf by the talented staff in Rockford!
More on Rockford's preview section by blogger Charles Apple.
Send your football preview sections, or any other project pages, to Joe at his eamil address below!
Joe Greco is corporate design director for GateHouse Media.
Contact him at jgreco@gatehousemedia.com.
