Project: Trinity Newsletter
Patron: DOP
Medium: QuarkXPress 5.0
Status: At the printers
Deadline: 11/7/03

I'm sort of distanced from this project since I was away for half of the production time. So these are not my inital reactions. More of an attempt to stop worrying about things I can not change. You see I felt rushed on this iteration of the newsletter. It wasn't so much that the design suffered for it, but I had trouble shaking the feeling that it needed to be reviewed *one more time* to catch small graphic errors. (like page numbers being repeated, headline fonts matching, etc.) I felt like that throughout the whole project. On top of my rushed impression, we also added 4 pages at the last minute. This turned out to be a good thing since being a natural procrastinator I responded well to being under the gun and created some pretty cool layouts. Though I had at least one photo I wanted to do more with. But considering I had only a few hours to crank them out, I think they turned out good.

I think a lot of this is because I wasn't around for the final pass into production, so I never got a deadline "payoff". Detremental to this poor little J. :( I guess this is a growing experience. I can let go any time I want. I don't have a problem...
*wiggle*

Now its time to move on to other projects that have been in the wings for the last few weeks, but I do hope to keep in mind the pace of this last newsletter so I can be prepared for it next month when we start the christmas one.

The final piece ended up being 32 pages long, still with the color covers and inside spread. It is definately an interesting newsletter, full of lots of pertinent articles for the diocese. I'd like to develop a more interesting treatment of the non-column article headers. Something more uniformed yet interesting that isn't too time consuming. I also didn't tone down all of the photographs, just the ones that didn't have any special treatment on them. I also increased the interior margins to make it easier to read, and reduce the type size to 11pt as a compromise. (we had originally been using 12 and but 10pt looked better) I always feel 12 pt is to big, but I like small fonts so... *shrug*

I think design-wise this project is definately starting to solidify, though I think we won't have a "solid" look until 2 issues from now, or starting the new year. It's character is still becoming apparent. I would say that it is a bit more contemporary than what I would have expect for a diocesan newsletter. It is possible I will get feedback from this iteration that proves that it is too far forward. I am open to that type of change, since this is really the defining time for it, when everything is in flux. I'm getting use to the diocese; they are getting use to me; we are both seeing how the public reacts to the document; etc. So change may be necessary. But overall I would say I feel very positive and I'm looking forward to the challenge of the next one. Hopefully I can turn as much attention to my next projects.