Tips for visual journalists

Improve your skills as a visual journalists with some tips about the basics.

Designers
Be a planner. As you help plan stories, stick up for readers.

Watch for ways to unify coverage with a single package. Make it easy on readers.

Run lead photos large. Show them off.

Prioritize the news with headline size and shape.

It’s design maturity to use grids and maintain consistent internal margins, both horizontal and vertical.

Become adept at building graphics on the fly. Watch stories for lists, numbers and event information. They’re better presented on the side.

Pull a quote only when it’s worth it.

Appreciate the beauty of type contrast.

Putting type on art could ruin both.

Consult before you crop a photo or cut a story. Put type on a photo only in consultation with the photographer.

Appreciate the beauty of creativity — and the thrill of consistency.

Enlarge and crop line art and illustrations.

Kiss your design. (Keep it simple, stupid.) Design your page, and then drop an element. And another. And maybe another.

Photographers
Capture a lead photo worthy of dominance.

Without names in your caption, your photo dies on the vine.

And in a yearbook, it shortchanges history.

Talk to the reporter. Work to match the photo with the lead.

Wear neutral clothing to the game, and don’t cheer the home team.

Take charge of your crops.

Don’t be afraid to get close.

Consider a dramatic photo shape — horizontal or vertical.

The best packages have two or three photos, including a detail.

In a photo package, select each photo to tell a different part of the story.

If you didn’t earn a full photo page, lobby for a partial page.

Appreciate the beauty of portraiture.

With cutouts, know when to say when.

Marry photos with infographics and illustrations.

Enliven a routine assignment with a different angle — a bird’s eye view or a worm’s eye view.

Illustrators
Read before you illustrate.

Try different media. Pens. Pencils. Construction paper. Sponges. Go for it.

Try illustrating A&E, features and profiles.

Put white space to work for you.

Collaborate. Add infographics and photos.

Know the repro. Know what works and what doesn’t.

Watch magazines and sites for inspiration.