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How Multimedia
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THE WORLD OF PRINT MEDIA will never be the same. In fact, it's never the same for more than five consecutive minutes at any given time. The rate of evolution and "upgrading" as far as graphic design is concerned is seemingly endless. All thanks to three main factors: QuarkXPress, Illustrator and Photoshop. These computer programs have singlehandedly revolutionized the newspaper and magazine industry. Newspapers account for nearly one in four advertising dollars in Canada, which is even higher than television. That statistic is quite dramatic when compared to fancy websites and glossy magazines. With that in mind, newspapers had to eventually come to grips with the fact that design was becoming an increasingly important factor in keeping readership high. Newspaper redesign in Canadian cities has almost been in vogue due to design programs that have funneled down from multimedia studios and big magazines. Noticing how well art and design companies were capturing their target audiences through attractive advertisments, billboards and commercials, it should come as no surprise that newspapers would soon follow their success. Lucie Lacava, an award-winning newspaper designer from Montreal, has redesigned more than 20 major Canadian dailies in her career, and says that to stay on top, new ideas and a fresh perspective are fundamental in creating a good design. "Designing a paper definitely has its own challenges," she says. "You have to think of the people who are going to be working day in and day out with the look and style that you're giving it." "Often, the layout people are not designers. You have to make sure it's easy for those people to work with," Lacava says. "The challenge of a newspaper redesign is to make it more functional and contemporary, while never forgetting its roots," she says. "You have to think of the people who are going to be working day in and day out with the look and style that you're giving it." ó Lucie Lacava A common dilemma for graphic designers is the use of spot colour in their projects - do you use it or not? Lacava likens spot colour on an already busy page as "graphic parasites." In a lot of cases, I think she's right. Keeping a page attractive, yet simple with a strong use of carefully placed colour, gives the page a much more dramatic feel. Lacava praises design programs such as QuarkXPress and Photoshop for giving her more control over a paper's look and feel. Since those programs came out, they hit news rooms by storm. They provided their graphic designers with the ability to perform tasks that were once considered "insignificant" for a newspaper to carry out because of the short shelf life of papers. Now that Quark, Photoshop and Illustrator have become commonplace in the print media, graphic design will only continue to impress its readers with the new look they have come to expect. In a lot of ways, I feel that the fields of multimedia and graphic design do indeed go hand in hand. For example, targeting a particular audience for your projects is one of the first steps to think about when going about a design. Also, budget restraints and limitations have to be accounted for in order to have a successful project. Font usage and type style are as important as graphics and pictures, and really complete the overall design. All of these points have been aided by the use of design programs, and will do so as long as technology continues to bring Canadians their morning news.
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