Design
Features is a generally fun, design-oriented section (though, yes, all sections are). When I found out I was going to be the editor, I would be lying if the task of laying out pages wasn’t insanely daunting to me. But, InDesign functions quickly became muscle memory. And in no time, I was creating pages that surprised my design-challenged self and my managing editors at the time. Design was not my strong suit, but with practice and perseverance came proficiency.
(Click images to enlarge)
Graphics
During Issue 6 my junior year, I stepped up for another editor and made one of my first online graphics for the news section. The story was about the anime club, a very prevalent yet unknown club at SHS. Covering a topic like this in something as simple as an infographic meant I had to really fit its impact and depth into it. So I went for a timeline of anime’s development since the early 1900s.
Magazine Spreads
The first centerfold I had to lay out was about the Red for Ed rally that took place on November 19, 2019. A story that size had to come along with a package just as good. This centerfold of Issue 4 of The Journal 2019-2020 featured extremely story-telling dominant and cover images, a bar graph for an infographic, and sidebars about teacher opinions, and an experience piece about the rally. It is probably the spread I am the most proud of to this date.
I attend school in one of the most diverse townships in the state of Indiana. With that comes people from all different walks of life who are trying to achieve a plethora of different things. I found it important to cover a senior who had moved from Syria only a short four years ago. He was busy accomplishing his goals of going up the chain of McDonald’s management, and what better way to showcase this than to use that big picture for a big impact?
Magazine Covers
The importance of planning was emphasized when we realized that putting together a cover for The Journal would take figuring out what days everyone would be in the building, when they would be available, and how we could safely get everyone together for one picture. I helped our Design Managing Editor and our photos editor design and plan the very first cover of Volume 99 of The Journal. Not only did it feature a powerful photo, it also had a completely new look than the year before. We wanted a sense of newness in a boredom-struck world.
