Editing, Leading & Team Building
My first formal leadership position in the newsroom was serving as West Side Story's Assistant Design Editor my junior year. Working alongside our Editor-in-Chief and Design Editor at the time taught me the value of editorial leadership. From conducting critique circles to monitoring the progress of designs, I have learned to be even more intentional and detail-oriented with each page of our publication.
As the current Design Editor, my responsibilities have since grown. Last year, nearly all the experienced designers graduated, leaving only one other designer and me. With a new group of designers joining, I took on the task of teaching them everything from the publication's design rules to how to navigate complex tools in Adobe InDesign and Procreate.
Furthermore, our publication encourages staff members to explore different aspects of journalism, regardless of their role on staff. During my time with West Side Story, I’ve had the opportunity to teach and expose many of our writers to design!
DESIGN EDITING
With the addition of many new designers this year, ensuring that design protocol is being followed is crucial. Beginning from maestro meetings to exporting, each design's progress is closely monitored. Round 1 and 2 are important steps in the process when all the designers come together in a circle and provide feedback on each other's designs. These critique sessions are often very helpful for discussing design concept execution or catching any early mistakes. After these rounds all designs will receive feedback from every member on staff. Before exporting is complete, designers are required to receive two more in-depth peer reviews to again look over the spread. Finally, the design will get sent to either myself or my assistant design editor and we will make any final tweaks before getting exporting approval from the editor-in-chiefs.
Last edits made to the designs will vary from very little to many. I find that sometimes going the extra mile to improve a design is worthwhile. When seen together with the other pages, changing the most minute details can really make an issue look more professional.
Throughout this whole process, I will be consistently checking in with each designer.
BEFORE FINAL EDITS
AFTER FINAL EDITS
NEW DESIGN RESOURCES
During my first year on staff, I often felt lost and overwhelmed with all the new information being thrown at me. As one of the only new designers, I was also afraid to ask for help. In hindsight, I adapted quickly within a few cycles, but I wanted to alleviate the concerns of the incoming designers. During the first week I presented a design bootcamp that entailed the general process of each cycle. A new resource I created was this one-stop shop list of design resources where the new staffers could find everything they needed.
TRELLO -> PLAKY!
At the end of last year, Trello, the platform we used to organize and track design progress, imposed a 10-collaborator limit on all free workspaces. Needing a replacement, I researched and mocked up several potential alternatives before settling on Plaky, which allows us to work with unlimited users. Each cycle, designers upload inspiration images and versions of their designs prior to each critique circle.
NEW COLOR PALETTE RULE
After receiving feedback from judges about disjointed color choices, we decided to implement a new rule: each page must now incorporate at least one color from the issue's chosen palette that aligns with the cycle's overall theme. This change has brought greater unity and cohesion to each issue.
