Page Layout

1 2 3 next   Click on layouts to see PDF. PDF's take a moment to download, please be patient.

   Click here to get the latest version of Adobe Reader.

Watch What You Borrow
Original Print Date: 11/21/06
The Northern Star
Mixed Media

Role:
Art Direction: The graphics at the top of the page; I directed the artists I managed as the Northern Star's Graphics Editor to create them to the size and theme I requested.

Graphic Creation: Using at stock photo of an old bank note I created the background for this page. The art head titled "Watch what you borrow" was created in Adobe Illustrator and imported into InDesign.

Compass Points to Pointsettia
Original Print Date: 11/30/06
The Northern Star
Mixed Media

Role:
Art Direction: The graphics at the top of the page ("Submarine Warfare") I directed the artist I managed as the Northern Star's Graphics Editor to create to the size and theme I requested.

Graphic Creation: Using icons and graphics made by myself and one of my staff artists; I repeated the "poinsettia flower" as a theme in the background of the page (behind the text) as well as at the bottom of the page as a framing element. The map and torn texture were created by myself. The football texture was taken from a picture that one of the Star's staff photographers had taken. This graphic was created in Photoshop and placed on the page using InDesign.

Hot "L" for the final paper of the semester
Original Print Date: 12/11/06
The Northern Star
Mixed Media

Role:
Art Direction: Working with the Northern Star's Design Manager Billy Kulpa, he and I came up with a great image for the final printing of the paper for the semester that took advantage of the L format that the new paper design had taken advantage of (but seldom REALLY took advantage of).

Graphic Creation: Using images taken from the Associated Press, as well as stock images, the L shaped graphic was made as one large Photoshop file that was placed into the page using InDesign.

Underdogs
Original Print Date: 08/31/06
The Northern Star
Mixed Media

Role:
Graphic Creation: Using images taken from the Associated Press (the pic of the Ohio State Stadium), and images from Northern Star photographer Ben Woloszyn, I cut out the players and used a halftone effect in Photoshop to make a larger than life image to promote NIU's first game of the 2006 football season against Ohio as well as the inagural paper for the Fall 2006 semester. This image was a Photoshop file that was placed on the page using InDesign.

How Much Is Too Much?
Original Print Date: 04/24/06
The Northern Star
Mixed Media

Role:
Art Direction: Working with the Northern Star Editor of the semeseter, Derek Wright, we worked together to come up with an idea for the cover of this paper's edition. This image would compliment a large spread on inside pages about the effects of alcohol over-consumption on college students.

Graphic Creation: I had to get props for this image from a neighbor of mine, and staged and photographed the composition myself in my art studio at the time. The images were then cut out in photoshop and the photos were posterized and a film grain was applied. I later added a halftone layer to the image to add to the idea of "blurred vision" from alcohol over-consumption. The final image was a Photoshop file that was placed into InDesign.

Two Teams. Two Pasts. One Bowl.
Original Print Date: 12/05/06
The Northern Star
Mixed Media

Role:
Art Direction: Working with the sports editor at the Star, Sean Ostruszka, we worked to layout the page to promote a weeklong play-up of the upcoming bowl game that NIU was playing in.

Graphic Creation: Using a photo from the Northern Star's photo department, I cut out NIU's star runningback Garret Wolfe. As the center element of the composition, he runs through a sea of TV's that were to represent the progression of old bowl games to new (the idea of bowl history) as well as the fact that most NIU students would be watching this game on TV (the game was being played in San Diego). Using bowl logos obtained from the Associated Press I superimposed them on the TV's to represent other televised games, and hinted that NIU's game would be the one to watch with the smoking TV in the lower right hand corner. This was a graphic created in Photoshop and placed on the page using InDesign.

House Shift Unplugs Speaker
Original Print Date: 11/08/06
The Northern Star

Role:
Art Direction: As the Graphics Editor, I worked with the Design Editor, Cheryl Scot, and the lead designer, Billy Kulpa to come up with a non-traditional cover design to promote the election results of late 2006. Hastert was based in DeKalb and the power shift resulted in his loss of the Speaker of the House. Using a white board, the three of us sketched out ideas for the cover. We ended up using my layout idea inspired by Billy's wish to have the cover as a landscape format on the page, instead of our usual portrait style covers. Billy executed the page design, and I directed and also designed the page.

Graphic Creation: My staff artist created the icons for the Republican, Democrat and Green parties. I vectorized the logos of the elephant, donkey, and green bulb, which he then took and gave a "smooth icon" look to using Illustrator and Photoshop. The icons were used throughout the paper as well as on this page.

Last Call for Sin
Original Print Date: 10/20/06
The Northern Star
Photoshop

Role:
Art Direction: As the lead designer, I worked with the Weekender Editor, Chris Strupp, and the Star Editor, Derek Wright, to come up with the first color cover of the Weekender section.

Cover Design: Using a couple hundred photos given to me by the Northern Star photo editor, it was my job to create a cover that took full advantage of the color that was to be used for this cover (and no, I didn't use all of the photos). My idea was to have the pictures as a haphazard collage that you might see on a bar wall (which is how most are). I included a graphic of a piece of film as well as a old school picture border for the main images. The idea to have a napkin with the phrase "call me somtime" was mine, but was later changed to so it had "Call me!...Weekender" The number on the napkin was the actual Weekender Editor's office phone number. Sadly, he received no calls.

!Karaoke!
Original Print Date: 09/14/06
The Northern Star
Photoshop

Role:
Cover Design: This was the first cover I did for the Weekender section. The section had quite a few covers that were created for it by past designers hanging on the walls of the Northern Star. My job was to carry on the tradition. My original concept was to break from the typical cover designs that tended to be minimal, full of whitespace, and to fill the entire page with art. I was influenced by the "maximalist" school of design at the time. This, obviously, was the cover I came up with that was printed for the September 14th edition of the Weekender.

1 2 3 next