Production ResearchHayley Roberts

When looking at newspaper articles and the layout of them, they are all really similar and have the same layout. This example is from the Herald Sun newspaper and they use a really big and bold font for the headline of the story. They make it large on the page so it stands out to the audience and leads their eyes in from the start of the article. It is quite a soft and rounded font so it’s softer on the page and still stands out to the audience. They have a line at the top which gives a few words to describe what the story is about and this is still quite a large font so it stands out and the audience read it. The font of the article is really small and in some aspects really hard to read but once the audiences attention is caught from the title of the article they will lead onto the article so it doesn’t need to be too big. The first paragraph is in a different font which is more sharp and it stands out a lot more than the rest of the article and this is so the audience read on from the headline onto the paragraph and this then will intrigue them more. The article is really monochrome and there is no colour in the article at all apart from theImage that they have. This is because the imageis really large on the page so all the colours from that will attract the audience. The only other colour is from the button that they have on the page that links the website to it but it works really well with it being reallymonochrome. The layout of the page itself isreally organised and the use of grids show inthe article. The headline and the article all fitson one side of the article and the image fits onthe other side of the page. It is all put in a certain grid layout as it is clearly shown bythe gaps on the page and it’s clear to how they have layed it out. I think that the title andimage are the first two things that grabs theaudiences attention and the title stands out a lot because it has quite a large amount of room on the page for it and with the image being really large it also stands out. The style of the article is really formal this comes across from the layout of the article. It hasa rhetorical question for the title which getsthe audience thinking. But with the whole design being really dull and in monochrome, ithas a formal element to it rather than informal.

This is a front page headline from the Herald Sun and the font for the headline for the article is again really big and bold but it’s really sharp on the page because it’s a really serious article. It stands out a lot as this is what the audience needs to read first instead of just starting to read the article. The font for the article itself is really small and doesn’t stand out as much as the title but it’s a really sharp font for a serious story. There is a sub heading just above the article and this is really bold and slightly big on the page so it gives the audience an insight to what the article is about and this is what they need to read before the article itself and that’s why it stands out more than the article itself. There is quite a bit of colour on this page (more than the last article). The article itself again is monochrome as it’s a really serious article but the image is in colour and would draw people to the article. The layout of the page is slightly different as it has the main article in the middle of the page and takes up most of the page, but around the edge of the main article is previews as to what else is inside the newspaper and this is to draw people in. There is a lot of colour within the little previews as they are really bright to catch the audiences attention as they are seen as really interesting that will attract the reader to buy the newspaper. The style is really formal as it is a serious article and it’s really monochrome and dull as it’s not really a bright subject for the story. The adverts at the top to attract people are really bright and the style is still quite formal with the writing but has an informal element as it’s bright and colourful. The image used for the main article is a really happy image to show how the family was really happy before the murder and shows the sadness to the article. The images at the top are cut outs and placed over the coloured boxes and they fade into one another and this helps them stand out more on the page.

This is a page from a newspaper and this article takes up a whole page. This is a slightly different layout from the last two articles I looked at as it’s a little brighter and more attention grabbing. Instead of the headline being in black, they have overlapped it with the image and made it white so it still stands out to the audience and if it was in black it wouldn't have stood out as much with the image being quite dark. It’s quite large on the page so it stands out and grabs the audiences attention. There is no sub heading for this article but they have used a side bar over the image to add extra information on the article and they have used a slightly larger font to grab the audiences attention. The red box at the top has a bold, white font to the writing and it stands out so much with the red that contrasts with it. The font for the article itself is really small and is really sharp so it stands out more on the page and it matches the font for the headline. This article is a lot more colourful, especially with the headline being in white instead of black it brightens up the article a little. The graphic of the checklist in the bottom right corner stands out a lot as it overlaps the image and the title is in colour which matches the colour of the bullet points and there is a border at the top in a blue. The red bar at the top stands out a lot because it contrasts with the image itself because it is really bright. The layout and style of this article is different from the other two as it’s again quite formal and so is the article and the way it’s written. It’s also got the image which takes up half of the page and the article itself takes up the other half of the page. There are boxes overlapping the image and so does the title there isn’t much of a structure to it like the other two and has a more relaxed grid method rather than a strict one. The image is large on the page and takes up half the room and is really bright to attract the readers.

Overall Summary Overall, the articles all have a really bold and catchy font for the headlines

to grab the audiences attention and they take up a large proportion of a page. A majority of the articles have a sub heading which is quite large and bold so that it’s the next thing the audience reads on the page. The text for the article itself is quite small and the outline is really sharp so

that it’s easier for the audience to read. The images are really bright and they draw the audience in and all of the articles have a main image which

stands out and takes up quite a bit of the proportion on the page. The images are a high quality and are not pixilated and this is what people

expect when reading a newspaper. There is minimal colour to the articles it’s only the images that attract the audience with the colour. All the

layouts involve a grid method so they are all placed and thought about really well and the design of it is really neat. It all fits together well and the overall style is formal and serious but with the last article I looked at

is quite an informal and less serious article. When I do my newspaper article I need to consider these elements and make sure that I keep a well

balanced article design with the text and image ratio fairly even.

Fonts

These are some of the fonts I have looked at. For the headline I want quite a bold and chunky font which is also easy to read as I want it to stand out on the page. For the subheading I will use the same font but just make it a little smaller so that it doesn’t take over the heading. Then for the font for the article I want a sharp but small font which will still stand out on the page and will be easy for the audience to read. I would test with the capitals to see if all capitals would work well for the headline or with lower case.

Images

I would mix two images together as the story is to do with the two bands (Arctic Monkeys and The Kooks). This would then show the audience who the article is about and gives them a visual sense of what they look like if they don’t know already. I would combine two of the images I have and turn it into one and I would use high quality images like newspapers do.

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Flat Plans

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