Kristin Lenz of the Hartford Courant is one of my favorite business designers. She's also hilarious. Check out her portfolio here http://www.newspagedesigner.com/portfolios/portfolio1.php?UserID=2532
I sat down with Kristin virtually and asked her some questions.
What's you career/educational background?
Journalism has been a third arm since I was a sophomore in high school. A writer and editor then, looking back at some issues, I actually hand-drew the flag one time.
At Auburn University, I continued on a track of writing, editing and photographing. Design wasn't something that was concentrated on, it was something that was done. Though our school and student paper isn't known for design training, we are known for our excellence in journalism fundamentals. And that's where a lot of the professional personality I now have developed from.
The Tuscaloosa News was kind enough to offer me a job two days before graduation (my dad was so happy I wouldn't be moving back into his house). I was there for about a year and nine months before heading to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune for 11 months. The Orange County Register called and I made the trek west for about a year and nine months. Considering how wretched that southern California weather is, I moved to the other coast to experience the The Hartford Courant. I hate driving in snow.
Where did the design come in? All along the way ... trial by fire ... luck ... dumb luck.
What are your duties at your current job?
On the surface, daily business, sunday business, home & real estate and A1 two days a week, projects, photo essay pages, etc. Underneath it all: research; editing; reporting; photo editing; building graphics; conceptualizing; sketching; planning; asking questions; starbucks - venti passion iced tea unsweet with a small straw, please; pushing back; pushing forward, getting over it; not letting the important stuff go; raising the bar; hitting mediocre thinkers over the head with said bar; instant messaging martin gee; shape/generate content; innovate ..... and this is usually all before lunch.
Everything all of you do. We just work in different cages and run our wheels at different speeds.
What is your favorite thing about business design?
Oh, geeze. I don't think I have a favorite thing about business design specifically. And yes, I'll admit that on a business design website.
But I will say this, my favorite thing about design as a whole, is it's ability to extinguish ignorance (which is what the role of journalism is, to me) through the power of intelligent content displayed with sophistication.
I didn't get into the business to tie a pretty bow on a box that was filled with socks and underwear. If the bows enticing, it better be a damned good gift on the inside, too. Unfortunately, too many papers have too many bows on their package, and the reality often doesn't live up to the promise.
A designer plays an extremely powerful roll in how news is accepted by the public eye. Remember what Spiderman's uncle said, "With great power comes great responsibility." It's a hard thing to live up to. And I often wonder with the anti-media conditions we're moving through now, if our corner of the universe had a bit to do with that.
What is your least favorite thing about business design?
The age old request: Can you make something out of nothing? And again, this goes for all design. You might have a hundred sharp knives, but you still need the meat.
We run into it a lot in business. If it's nothing to start with, it's often going to be nothing in the end, no matter how many Photoshop filters you go through. And I know this is a tough issue, because we're asked to do it day in and day out. But I think it speaks volumes to the last paragraph of the last question.
When an editor asks you this question, reply politely, "If it's nothing to us, it's definitely not going to be anything to the reader. So what do you see us needing to make this nothing something?" Help them push their own ideas beyond their shortcomings.
The smart designer takes this opportunity to influence ingenuity in content. And if this can be accomplished, you're on your way to going home happy.
Admitably, this is where I currently struggle a bit. I get extremely frustrated with the mediocrity of some content, that I can't get past it to push for a better way to approach it. Because in theory, if it's mediocre, it's got all the potential in the world.
What is the hardest story/concept you have ever been asked to do? How did you do it?
Wow. Just one?
Most recently I was satisfied with The Courant 25 project. It's one of those things that comes around every year. It was my first year to tackle it.
Looking at past years' sections a few months out, they we not easily navigable, in turn making it difficult to understand. Though the section is slated the "top 25," part of the book is devoted to the 130+ publicly traded companies in Connecticut. So the purpose of the section is two-fold.
After realizing this and that it was never clear cut that there were two parts to the section, I mocked up a new pace for the book. Keeping the marquee of the section, the Top 25 in the front 5-8 pages of the book, then starting the publicly traded companies after. It's really hard to explain, better to hold both and see.
Anyhoo, as far as the concept for the presentation went, it all boiled down to one thing: We're calling this the Courant Top 25 section but all we've done in year's past to recognize them is an inside 6-col, 4-inch deep CCI chart. say it with me, "ick!"
I delved into the numbers, the basic formula for coming up with the list, and decided I wanted to try to show these factors more visibly. My first idea would have been too difficult to execute given the time and resources we had. So I'll save it for when that day comes. But from that, I pared down the idea and came up with the brunt of the concept.
It started with the inside spread on all 25 companies. We used all the same information we had in years' past and added to that the stock charts and explainer boxes. The idea behind the stock charts was that it made the numbers understandable in one glance. Hopefully, it made this information, if not interesting, at least easier to digest for a wider range of readers. The notes box was meant to be more of a brief of how the company got to where they are, but we don't cover every company so it was difficult to come up with this information in the time we had to come up with it. Next year.
So from that, and the initial idea still floating around in my head, I began work on the cover. The hardest sell on the cover concept was would we have any additional information so as not to repeat what was on the inside? The editor on the section was open to making it more than it had been before. When I approached him with the idea he said something along the lines of, "Yeah, we've got all the information in the world." So the difficulty then became what four indicators did we want to use.
Once all the hard stuff was done, it was on to playing with color palettes to see what worked best together and gave us enough contrast between the sectors and indicators without one overpowering the other.
The most difficult thing about the section, however, was that it's pub date got moved, and I had already scheduled a vacation. It was hard not being there to see it to the definite end, but it was in good shape before I left and was in the good hands of Chris Moore to see it through.
What is your favorite site to use for stock art?
Good question, cause we don't use stock stuff that often. I guess Getty, their creative stuff. We've also got a good stash of in-house resources.
What other publications or designers inspire you?
Oh wow, that list's too long and arbitrary.
A lot of my inspiration comes from experiencing and observing the absurdity of humanity. This can be found in a publication, on the web, in moments with friends and strangers a like, or on the side of the road. I was on the freeway last week and there was this high heel on the side of the road. Only one, and it was on the inside of the freeway, inches away from the chaos of the fast lane. It was there for days and all I could think when I passed it was, "Um? How did it get there? Who was wearing it? What were they doing when the lost it? Do they know it's even lost? Was it in the back of someone's truck in a bag on the way to Goodwill? Was it on someone who was hurt? Where is it's mate? I wonder if it's a Manolo?"
I might sound crazy, but that shoe has a story. I just wasn't crazy (or willed) enough to pull over and try to get it.
I love newspapers. I know it's a sick and twisted thing to love, but every time I think about leaving them, they draw me back in. A bad relationship, I guess.
But one has to draw their inspiration from something other than newspapers or they will never move beyond what newspapers have been into what they would, could, should be. Get your head (and tracing paper) out of those SND annuals and off NPD. Be smarter than what you've seen before.
However, I do look at what newspapers are doing, glance at them and absorb it. But when it comes to brainstorming a concept or section, I try hard to move out of the comfort zone of what I know, and into the turmoil of what I don't. The problem with this is two-fold. One, a lot has been done. It's hard to find what hasn't sometimes. And two, while you might have an incredible, ingenious idea, there's always going to be some complacent person who says, "Nah. Let's just do it like we did it last year."
And we wonder why people don't want to read us ... cause they've read us before.
Anything to add?
Yeah. This trepidatious time in the industry is what we need. Newspapers are far from reaching their full potential ...
