.png)
Design
Since designs in the issue were first assigned to designers and then the few spreads left over were available for anyone to volunteer. In our third issue last year I decided to volunteer for the front of book gallery. Since I was photo editor my junior year I would be in charge of choosing photos from my staffers that represented the quarter. I decided to volunteer and although I had limited Indesign experience. It was a learning experience for me as I had to learn our style guide and think about how to arrange the images in a way that is visually appealing. Front of book can be difficult to design at times since it is solely photos and captions and there is not body copy or graphics to work with. I had to think about hierarchy and which photos I would want to be larger than the others so they would pop.
Now, as Editor-in-Chief I have had to work on my design skills even more. This is because the Editors-in-Chiefs and Managing Editors are responsible for applying all the proofs from the entire staff and our advisor. In proofing we are not only catching mistakes in the text, but most times we are having to fix a lot of the spacing of elements or even redesign. In our issue 2 table of contents I had to re-space the blocks since they were uneven. I also had to add in a story that was forgotten and fix some mistakes in the writing. In the behind the post there would have been inaccurate information and someone would not have been credited. Without catching things like this there would be aspects in the writing or design that would be off.
​
In our second issue I also had to proof extra spreads due to one of our managing editors being out sick. One of the specific of her spreads that took quite a bit of time to edit was "Arts After Dark." This is because I not only had to apply edits to the body copy, but I had to edit all the photos so they would have a vignette and blend into the black background. If this had not been done, the photos would have looked misplaced and would have stood out too much. When I had proofed it one of the photos was also missing entirely so I had to talk to the photographer about their plan of action for when to get the photo.
Web
Many times it can be difficult to make photos for web stories more engaging. Our website gives us the option to include an immersive photos that is the full page when the story opens up. I played with putting the headline of the story on the photo my sophomore year and it became more popular. While it may seem like a simple add to stories it has really added to making the stories seem more like a package.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
In order to make our stories more interesting we have also incorporated infographics and pull quotes into stories to make them more engaging.
Social Media
This is a specific graphic I created for our publication during midterm season. I used Photoshop and Indesign to put text over the photos. This helps to get our audiences attention and helps us to be clearer about what we are covering. As Editor-in-Chief we have continued to do this on our social media platforms. We have also incorporated infographics and graphics to draw in our followers.
​
Graphic based posts from The Muse this year:
I have been a part of the creation/brainstorm process for many of these. Our goal was to provide some information to our student body in a more interesting manner.
Leading the design team
Overall, as Editor-in-Chief I have been apart of the decision making processes for our issue. I have worked alongside our co-Editor-in-Chief and Print Managing Editor to set the pages for each issue. After the first draft my co-EIC and I got to the back table with the design staff and Design Editor. We go through all the designs and provide feedback in the earlier stages so any changes can be caught before the later drafts. I have had to learn more about design and design terms such as spread, kerning, leading, drop cap, etc. that are helpful when providing feedback. I wanted to ensure I was knowledgable in the terms so staffers would be willing to take my advice and know exactly what I was talking about. Since I have also had to use Indesign more this year I am also able to provide suggestions of things to do in Indesign and then explain how to do them. As a photographer I have an eye for what looks good and what doesn't which allows me to provide constructive criticism on colors and if everything looks cohesive. It is so important that every element has a purpose for being on a page and that is my goal when talking to our staff's design team about the issue.