The LAT's new design critiqued as "Ransom Note" ...

Wow, you hit that one out of the park ... nicely done.

 

What is the purpose of design? I am talking a publication's overall look, as opposed to an individual layout.

I think the purpose is a distinctive look that not only allows an existing customer to identify it as your product amid all the others for sale on a newsstand, but also tells a potential customer what kind of reading experience he can expect if he buys it. I think the LAT design succeeds at both, to my knowledge the only retro look in SoCal and the only locally produced product whose design says "serious content in here."

Whether a design is attractive is a subjective question. Readers are not aware of the "rules" that we use to judge it. The LAT clearly has made a decision not to try to attract readers' attention by screaming at them; given that restriction, I think the designer did his or her job, and whether the look appeals to my prejudices is irrelevant.

 

What they're getting is a mishmash of old and new, and it looks worse than the Post-Dispatch's redesign, and considering how pissed I am at what they did to my hometown paper, that is saying something.

 

Since the Trib Co. seems to be holding the LAT hostage, I find the metaphor appropos.

 

Old design or new, the Times has always, always done that.

 

Yeah, this isn't anything new, here.

 

Yesterday, Times sports cover had ANOTHER feature on cricket (first one was 2 weeks ago). Their space decreases, but they have cover space for CRICKET?????

 

Good question. Don't know where Plaschke is. IMO, he had been in about a four-month slump ... lousy, pointless columns or really going after something and getting it wrong. He had to back track on a couple of columns after info came out later that torched his point.

 

Heard Plaschke is writing a book ...