Headlines and decks

We have a new, young designer who is very talented. However, he wrote a one-column headline with three decks and then a four-deck subhead. I told him that it's wise to keep the subhead decks shorter than the main heads and to do something like 2 over 1 or 3 over 2 or 4 over 3 instead of 3 over 4. He shrugged and said "my rule is just not to go more than 8 total decks."

It seems I was told to keep the second deck lighter than the first, but I can't be sure.

Any thoughts?

 

I always try to use fewer subhead decks than main head decks. Think it looks better.

 

the deck generally always has more words than the main head. as long as the main head "looks" bigger and fuller is our rule.

 

That sounds
like a very
bad idea
Even for a
youngster
working at
Podunk Press

 

I won't go over five, and that only on a one-column head. Three main lines, two deck lines.

Will only use three deck lines as one-column, and as a readout under a wider head.

 

It's hard to believe I haven't written anything but a one-line standalone head (story/column/recap) or a two or three-word hammer head (cover story) in coming up on 10 years.

 

Eight
Total
Decks?
Eat Shit!

Look Here
Punk, I'm
Going to
Deck You

 

You often can't say much in a 2-deck, one-column subhead, which makes them pretty worthless. Three-deck subheads with one-column heads are fine. Occassionally, I'll use a four-deck subhead if pertinent information would be left out without doing so. And it doesn't look bad as long as the headline font is signficantly bigger.

 

if everyone's Hell is different, mine will be writing one-column headlines

 

Our paper puts deckheads on virtually everything. I could count on both hands the number of times I've had a story with no subhead in the two-plus years I've been working here. And they're all (well, 90 percent) 1-column, 3-deck subheads.

 

Whenever I think of headlines and decks, I always think of the first page I ever designed, which included a two-column, four-deck headline with the word "thinclad" in it. I had a long ways to go when I started.