Design
When it came to using InDesign, I frankly had no idea what I was doing. When I started off I did not even know how to place text in columns. Now, I can design spreads, one-pagers, and even re-design pages and train new designers - newspaper and yearbook related. Click the design screenshots to view the design.
I designed this first "News spread" -- page 2 by myself. With the news analysis, of the Gubernatorial election in Ann Arbor, I wanted Gretchen Whitmer and Tutor Dixon to face off each other. worked with Samantha, our design editor, and Anna, one of our online EIC, to establish how we wanted the page to contribute and enhance the article written about drag racing. We added a cutout of the car to inform readers more about it. This "3D" look added to the page. We included a QR code of the video of Mayrend drag racing as well.
This is another news page I designed. When choosing the dominant photo for this page, I wanted it to be something reflective of Choe's personality as opposed to a graphic that does not spike any feeling. With the brief on the second half of the page, I made it so the photo is on top, which is something we rarely do. As small of a change as it is, I love the overall look of this page. If I could change one thing, I would cut the piece so the entire story would fit on the page.
"We are America," is the first spread I ever designed. I had a great time designing it with Allison Mi, who is now my co-eic. We had two stories for the spread and found the common theme of microaggressions Asian Americans were dealing with. We wanted to go for red, to be representative of sacrifice and bloodshed, due to the hate crimes that occurred. Designing this spread taught me to be intentional with the designs I make, instead of just placing a certain design because it looks "cool."
We both had several meetings with Maya Kogulan and Mishal Charania, previous Emery Editors. I also taught myself how to make the percentages on the left side, on Adobe Photoshop.
I have trained several designers over the past two years. This is an Opinion page, which many staffers start off with designing as they are learning how to.
​
I taught Maya Fu, a sophomore and the co-online-eic, how to design this page. I went step by step, starting off with how to put text into columns, where we can find the quote boxes, bylines, etc.
When designing the front page, I added the QR code for our website so it would gain more traction. For the past multiple volumes these similar layouts have been used. As managing editor, I wanted to try something new and have a graphic or photo for the next issue.
Click on photos to view
I sketched this at home on my whiteboard and looked for newspapers/magazines that have done similar layouts.
The final product:
Yearbook Design
As I am a part of the yearbook for the past two years, I have designed spreads, help redesign spreads and edit them. I copy-edited several spreads last year. My adviser assigned me this spread at the bottom for our theme last year, "Breaking Through." These were two staff members - heroes that were breaking through with the counselor creating the food pantry and Huron nurse dealing with the evolvement of COVID-19 cases within Ann Arbor. I worked with design editor Elena, leaucht to fit the theme and break down the newspaper-y feel the spread had. I had such a fun time designing. With newspaper designs, it's more constructive than yearbook design. With designing spreads I have a lot more freedom and creativity, which I like.
This year I designed two spreads, mainly helping redesign spreads and marketing the yearbook. This first spread here, I had the idea of bringing several perspectives to a page with a majority of them being different questions. Initially, the page looked like:
This looked very empty and the idea was there. I took it a step further to add more people.
The final result:
When Yearbook EIC Morgan Hargrow looked at my final spread she said, "Oh wow, I really like that. That looks really nice, Ridhima." I was so happy the rest of the day since design has never been my "forte," but overtime it has become my forte. Mishal Charania, the EIC two years ago and my adviser also really liked this spread.
This is the second spread I designed this past year, aside from constantly copy-editing. This spread taught me more about how I can align a yearbook page in multiple different ways from the content that is brainstormed.