Beyond the Road Calendar

MY LATEST PROJECT: With the help of Alaska Newspapers' amazing photo editor I designed this 2011 calendar at work this fall. It features images from across Alaska inspired by the Beyond the Road photo feature from First Alaskans magazine. Above is the cover and below is the back with thumbnails of the spreads. It's my first calendar and I'm extremely happy with how it turned out. However, it's easy to design with such amazing photos.

Our web editor is working on getting online purchasing information up. I'll update with post with a link when it's ready.

Scapegoats

Oh the fun of working with a bunch of graphic designers. Our web guru Steve Keller (not pictured) is a bit of a Photoshop wizard. He created this propaganda-inspired poster of our production crew for the fun of it. The Russian text says scapegoats. Left to right: Dave, Germaine, Frank, myself and Nadya. The face lurking the the background is our boss, Tim.

92 pages of ink, sweat and tears

My latest and greatest: Alaska Visitors' Guide in which I was editor and designer. Follow the link for an interactive, readable PDF.

Fairbanks, Chena and North Pole, Alaska

I traveled to Fairbanks with a co-worker this week to report for the Alaska Visitors' Guide. It was unseasonably warm, with highs in the 50s and no signs of snow. Fairbanks is about 6.5 hours from Anchorage by car. Don't plan on stopping between Trapper Creek and Healy -- the businesses at Denali Park Entrance are pretty much boarded up for the winter.

I had a guided tour of Fairbanks' new pride, an auto museum. This is the Ford Model-T Snow Flyer.

This is "Wander Lake" a play on Wonder Lake in Denali National Park. The hotel owner who turned this land into a wildlife preserve saved his visitors' view from tuning into a landscape of Wal-Mart and various other big box stores by buying up more than 70 acres.

Musk ox chow down at University of Alaska Fairbanks Large Animal Research Center.

Hand painted signs adorn a shop in Pioneer Park home to Fun in the Midnight Sun summer festivities. Fairbanks has 24 hours of functional daylight around the Summer solstice. It drops to only 3.5 hours of daylight on its darkest day.

Entrance to Pioneer Park.

 

Pioneer Park reminded me of an Alaskan Disneyland minus the giant mouse.

 

Chena Hot Springs Resort is just more an an hour's drive northeast of Fairbanks. The waters are believed by some to have healing powers.

North Pole, Alaska is just 11 miles outside Fairbanks. This is the Santa Claus house on St. Nicholas Drive. Here, it's Christmas all year long.

Make it Monday media chat

I went to an Anchorage Chamber of Commerce "Make it Monday" forum yesterday to hear local media pros talk about the changing landscape of media, challenges they are facing and what they predict for the future. Aside of the fact I scored tickets to the Spanish Harlem Orchestra as a door prize (ironically donated by Anchorage Press) I also picked up a few clever quotes. Matthew Felling, CBS anchor here in Anchorage, is longtime media critic, former CBS "Public Eye" blogger from D.C. and self-proclaimed "media utilitarian."

A few gems from him on Twitter:
"You need to give what you have the moment you have it."
"Brand yourself as the person in the know."
"Twitter is turning everything into the world's largest cocktail party."
"Give people a well-balenced diet: A little fun, a little protein of hard news and a little bit of ruffage of hard-to-process information."

I think that last one can apply to all kind of media.

Showing off

September was a busy month for me at work. Here's a few links to interactive PDFs of my projects.

Alaska Pulse, a re-invention of the ADN's Healthy Living and Health and Fitness tabs.

Classified's employment team puts on a semi-annual Job Fair and I designed the promotional tab.

And the 2009 Best of Alaska voted by Anchorage Daily News readers.

More of what I do

We published a contracted special section for Social Security and Medicare on Sunday and I designed it. Here's a link to an interactive PDF.

A peek at what I do

The Anchorage Daily News published it's annual Back to School section Sunday. I assigned the stories, picked the wire content, edited, designed, wrote headlines etc. It can be viewed here.

Other projects I'm working on are: A new health and fitness magazine called Alaska Pulse, reader voted Best of Alaska Awards, a fall arts guide and more. I'll post links to sections as they publish.

Anticipation

Good timing turned the departure of a coworker into a step in the right direction for me. The ADN's special sections editor left the paper for a technical writing job and I happily accepted the job after several meetings with my boss and the executive editor.

Since NewsPageDesigner.com shut down, my digital portfolio is limited to my CollegeFrontPage.com account. Luckily the Evergreeners have such smart, innovative friends as Joe and Brian to invent a Web site that helps us share ideas and showcase our work. I have you both to thank.

Until they fill my current position I've got one hand on the mouse and the other on the drawing board. I'm looking forward to writing, designing and editing once again. Writing, I'll be composing something more than cover letters and blog posts for the first time in a long time. Editing, designing and planning the sections is a chance to do all my favorite things in the same job. I've got lots of ideas and a bit of a learning curve to get my arms around our 107 yearly special sections but I can hardly wait to begin.

So here's to anticipation.

The balancing act

In my new job as layout coordinator, I figure out how many pages should be in the newspaper. This means making sure there are new requirements are met without stretching the ads so thin the newspaper costs more than it brings in.

So it's a fine balancing act and quite a bit of elementary math to determine percentages, factor house ads and make sure there are enough color spots for all the full process ads.

In the various newsrooms I have worked, we talked a lot about solving the profit riddle. In my new position I feel like I'm weighing the odds on a daily basis.

I'm anxiously waiting to hear how individual papers, mine included, decide how to conform with McClatchy's latest announcement to restructure.

SIDE NOTE: The Iditarod teams ran right by my apartment complex last weekend. They literally shut down the only entrance to parking lot for it. I'll have pictures posted soon. They and my camera are attending a work conference with Joshua in Nashville.

My first day

I had an excellent first day at the ADN. I think I'm going to learn a lot and really enjoy this position. The woman I'm replacing retires Friday, so I get to train with her all week. I feel very lucky to learn from someone who is so patient, kind and completly on top of things -- including detailed, step-by-step instuctions on, well, everything in case I forget anything after she leaves.

It's strange being on the other side of the wall from the news world, but all the same I feel connected to making something I believe in.

Woot: There's an expresso bar in the building's main lobby. (A building that looks strangely similiar to the Tri-City Herald as Brian Everstine pointed out a while back.)

back to the daily grind

I was welcomed back into the McClatchy family today. I accepted a job as layout coordinator for the Anchorage Daily News. In short, I will be doing ad check-off and dummying the paper -- setting up ad stacks and calculating news hole. If you don't work at a newspaper, I apologize because I'm sure that description meant nothing. I'm very excited to start my new pursuit Monday.

Quick Mount ReDoubt update: Still on watch and still on orange aviation alert levels.

A political Halloween circus

Yesterday work was a circus. Halloween is a big deal at the Statesman. All the departments compete to have the best Halloween theme. Employees bring their kids though to trick or treat. Last year Advertising won as Harry Potter.

This year the Newsroom won with the theme political circus in honor of the upcoming election. The theme beat out Advertising's "Chronicles of Narnia," Circulation's "It's a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and even IT's technology graveyard.

We had politically charged carnival games, a cotton candy machine, multiple bearded ladies and our newsroom manager wore her snake like a scarf most the day.

Here's a few pictures to document the tradition.

For a moment, a room full of journalists was silent

Yesterday was a somber day at the Statesman. McClatchy announced a company restructuring and 10 percent reduction in workforce. The Statesman cut 15 jobs -- six in the newsroom.

Editor Vicki Gowler's voice shook as she said the newsroom could not afford to lose a single one of those six reporters and editors.

My heart goes out to my friend in sports, Tom Fox, who I worked with at two separate newspapers; Lisa Corsi, a fellow copy editor on the news desk; Jeanne Huff a colorful, inquisitive, cheery features writer; and three other fine journalists, Wendy Nielson, Dave Kennard and Anne Wallace Allen. The Statesman will not be the same without them.

After the announcement Vicki asked for questions. Before the first question, for a moment, a room full of journalists was silent.

I can't imagine what it must feel like for those in newsrooms laying off people in the triple-digits. I am devastated for my colleagues and for the state of the industry.

More McClatchy news

McClatchy is entering a wage-freeze. Someone at work said, "Maybe they'll they'll give us double raises next year."

I think that might defeat the purpose of a cost-cutting measure.

A $15 'something new'

Today at Vanity -- my part-time job as a fashion consultant, if you will -- a girl came in and asked if we had any pure white dresses. We had two different summery cotton ones. Nothing fancy.

"Do you think this one would be prettier on me?" she asked.

I asked her what the occasion was.

"I'm getting married ... like right now," said the girl who looked no older than 19.

I told her the one she was holding was better. She purchased it immediately and rushed out.

The strangest part is the other girl working with me today said that was the third time it has happened in the past week. Apparently we've cornered the market on shotgun-wedding wear.

hat's off to Larry the paginator

Yesterday was our summer newsroom party. It was odd to be having a party just days after our parent company announced layoffs of 10 percent of the workforce.

In case you're wondering what the story is with my paper, here's what's out there:

• Layoffs include 14 people. None of them were from the newsroom.
• In January we will begin printing at the Idaho Press Tribune's site in Nampa, ID. The IPT is owned by Pioneer Newspapers. The Bellingham Herald is doing something similar with another Pioneer newspaper.
• When that change occurs about 20 jobs will be cut in the production department, but some will be hired at the Nampa press.
• We closed three more vacant positions in the newsroom.

Although the people losing jobs here don't work in the newsroom, I work with a couple of them on a daily basis. They will be sorely missed. Especially Larry, the paginator who never fails to answer the phone with a cheery "heeeey, buddy!" Even when we are passed deadline and sending him a billion pages to paginate at once. He and the others will work their last day Friday.

mothers

I went home for Mother's Day. My parents were out gardening when I arrived after four and a half hours (I made extraordinary time) in the car. We cooked, shopped, watched movies and visited. My mom even took the day off work Monday to spend with me.
I gave her these paintings for Christmas. They are my third completed piece of art since I began painting again last summer. I hadn't picked up a paintbrush for a couple years until mid-July when I went on a impuse to a craft store and bough an eisle, some new brushes and a bunch of canvases.

While I was home we bought the frames and I painted those too. They hang on the wall in the "guest room." (My former bedroom.) My Mom cleaned out, painted and redecorated last fall. Everything is lavender and white.

ON ANOTHER NOTE:This is Gabrielle in the Statesman meeting room. She cleans the newsroom about the same hours the copy desk works. Us night editors threw her a surprise baby shower Tuesday. She was surprised and pleased. Her son Alvin is due early June.

walking for kate

I walked 5k for Kate Brussé on Saturday. I had never met her before, but she's a reporter at my newspaper.

When I started work she was out on doctor-ordered bedrest, pregnant with triplets hoping her babies would be born healthy. During her pregnancy she found out she had breast cancer about 24 weeks into her pregnancy. She and her children survived and she has a pretty incredible story, which the Statesman wrote about.

Saturday was Race for the Cure. The Statesman formed a team and we ran/walked the 5k for her.
Above, Kate Brussé (in pink shirt) holds a coffee cup standing in front of double-stroller with two of her kids at the Statesman team's gathering point before Race for the Cure on Saturday. Left is Mia Parrish, Statesman publisher, and managing editor Bill Manny (in navy) looks at the babies. In the foreground Kate's husband Chad Brussé holds the third baby, kneeling to the others. Executive editor Vicki Gowler and reporter Katie Kreller try to fit a baby bag under the stroller.

Evergreeners take Idaho

Back in January the head designer at the Statesman asked all the other designers to pick out some of their best stuff from 2007 to enter into the Idaho Press Club contest. They said they'd pick the best and enter them.

About a month ago a list with names of winners circulated the office. It just listed who won awards, but no specifics. "That's how they get you to show up," our editor said. My name was on the list. Maybe I got an honerable mention ...

Last night was the Idaho Press Club's annual banquet. When it came to announce the page design winners they announced in reverse order:

• 3rd Krysten Bullock - Idaho Press-Tribune - "Dreams do come true; Idaho highway crisis; Cold case"
• 2nd Joilene Topete - Idaho Statesman - "Will eco-city be enough; Men's room arrest reopens questions about Craig; Public Transportation" (Joi is the other page one designer.)

At this point I thought, "well maybe I won something in another category." Then they announced:

1st Annette Ticknor - Idaho Statesman - "Meth: a women's drug; I am proud of my record; Should campaign donations pay for his defense?"

I was very surprised. I am so honored.

These are two of the three pages I won for:
I don't have digital copy of the other.Also, noteworthy:

• One of the old reporters, Jon Meyer, from the Evergreen won 2nd for Rookie journalist of the year for his work at the Idaho Press Tribune in Nampa.
  
• Dan Thompson, another former Evergreener who now works at the Idaho State Journal in Pocatello won 1st place in sports feature stories.
• The Idaho Statesman won newspaper of the year and also took home the most awards from the banquet.