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Taunton Daily Gazette's big-splash advance of the mayoral election is the front page of the month for November.
I caught up with Jon Root, managing editor of the Gazette, to ask him about the planning of the page. "That was all Emely (DelSanto) on the design, and Rory (Schuler, city editor) on the concept," Root said. "... She and Rory have been on a roll lately."
I do agree. I've seen many nice fronts and other pages produced recently in Taunton. In addition to this winning page for November, check out these front pages from the last couple months:
• Front page of the day 12/6/11
• Front page of the day 11/18/11
• Front page of the day 10/25/11
• Front page of the day 10/19/11
• Front page of the day 10/5/11
DelSanto was kind enough to send me some background on how this page came together:
"When City Editor Rory Schuler told me about the topic for the Sunday story, we knew the only art we'd have would be headshots. It was limited, but it gave us a chance to get creative with sparse resources. By focusing on the two mayoral candidates — the most important of the races covered in the story — we were able to distinguish our main art from the field of other headshots."
"But it was the skybox tease that really helped complete the page. Because the election story took up the whole front, we needed to put the day's other big story — the Miss Taunton pageant — inside; however, since it was a story that would normally go on the front, Rory suggested we break our regular style and go deep with the skybox. It was the first time we'd ever attempted it, and I was excited to get to try it.
"When staff photographer Dave DeMelia came back with the photo, it didn't look right. All that bright color of the dresses didn't seem to fit with the monochromatic scheme of the package below it. That was when I realized — desaturate it. By swapping out the color for a sepia tint, it flowed with the rest of the design, complementing it rather than distracting from it."
So glad to see there was an early conversation about the package and front page. That's so crucial when considering a break from the day-to-day design. The decision to give the pageant story a big skybox photo presentation was a great call. Lots of impact all around. Super page!
Let's hope the great page design continues in Taunton!
Joe Greco is corporate design director for GateHouse Media.
Contact him at jgreco@gatehousemedia.com.
