Daily Record Looks Good, Times Doesn?t
by October 15, 2001 12:00 am 67 views
Separate redesigns in August of two D-G sections — the Benton County Daily Record and the Northwest Arkansas Times in Fayetteville — could not have had more drastically different results.
The redesigns accompanied a reduction to 11.5-inch width paper from the 13-inch variety, a cost saving measure being employed by many dailies.
The Daily Record has taken on a more polished, cosmopolitan look. On days when its section fronts include strong photo or graphic elements, the Daily Record even rivals the D-G‘s appealingly clean design.
What ever it cost to hire veteran designer Alan Jacobson of Brass Tacks Design in Norfolk, Va., to help with the makeover was money well spent as far as we are concerned.
We can only assume that the Times hired a consultant from the Taliban to craft its latest look. The D-G section’s dorky new flag, distracting type fonts and archaic layout make the Times as visually frustrating as actress Penélope Cruz draped in a burqua.
Our biggest concern is that readers may now confuse the Times‘ drab pages with a VCR users manuel, or a rousing copy of Zeitschrift Fuer Nationalokomie (the German Journal of Economics).