Last week’s post looked at graphics that appear in the Sun’s new science section, so I figured this week I’d discuss the pages themselves. As already mentioned, Science is among the more “magazine-y” sections of the newspaper, running longer feature stories and interviews. The first page has, so far, almost invariably held a single unified feature (though sometimes multiple stories within this feature).

Darwin Design Photo

Okay, so it turns out I wear quite a few hats down at the Sun. Most people happen to know me for the column I write in the opinion section (sex, politics and Palestine… basically). The majority of my time actually working on the paper however is spent working for the design department. And then there’s a little project I started last semester that goes by the name of “The Science Section.”

The story goes like this: one day I was sitting in the gorge sunbathing with Arts Editor Julie Block ’09 and Design Editor Carol Zou ’09. And I turn to them, and say “you know, the Sun needs a science section.” Three weeks, two staff recruiting sessions, three draft proposals and a few all nighters later, well the Sun had a science section.

Well folks, we here in the design department are working furiously to bring you fresh new layouts for the fall semester (I always thought fall fashion trumped spring's anyway!). Carol is in the home stretch, working on a brand new Ecplise layout on thick, white magazine-style paper. We're also pumping out a tweaked sports section, featuring a new "Inside Sports" bar, a new "Inside This Issue" bar for the front page and fresh infographic styles and ideas. The entire department has been revving up with assistants and night editors to get ready for the first intense months of school, where we'll be training new staff and balancing new coursework.

A few days ago, I received the email of doom from our resident newsroom god, John C. Schroeder ’74.

“Who is going to make the dummy pages [for the Eclipse supplement]?”

A little piece of me died as I said ‘goodbye’ to my summer and ‘hello’ to redesigning The Sun’s magazine-style weekend supplement, Eclipse. It wasn’t until I sat down at my laptop and opened up Quark 7, our publishing software, that I began to feel a bit of excitement at the task before me. The Eclipse redesign, while daunting, basically gave me carte blanche to indulge my wildest creative fantasies about white space and sans-serif fonts. What more could a graphic designer want?

Graphic design has always eeked its way into presidential campaigns. Many remember the famous analysis of the Bush/Cheney and Kerry/Edwards logos which analyzed everything from the choice of fonts (obnoxiously bolded sans serif vs. light highbrow serif) to the placement of the flags (firmly anchored vs. flying off the page). All this seemed to confirm Bush’s brawny, strength-obsessed politics, versus the perception of Kerry as an elite weakling.

Summertime, and the livin’ is easy! Your dedicated Sun editors are currently scattered across the US (and beyond) enjoying a much needed reprieve from Cornell prelims and endless “Sunny” nights putting together Ithaca’s favorite morning Daily.

Despite these large distances, e-mails have been whizzing over the heartland as we take this break from publication to examine the basic elements of the sun and how to improve them. One fun little project I’ve been working on for the past couple days is a logo for a new blog covering developments in the departure of Provost Biddy Martin.