Hmm. More on newspaper design with Al-Ayam newspaper from Yemen. This is from the what-were-you-thinking design section.
Fonts: The choice of typefaces , especially the headlines, makes this newspapers issue look like it was printed in the 70’s and that is not a complement. The thick horisontal baseline makes for a very solid base in which letters drown and suffocate.
Layout: The criss crossing columns make the page look very busy and cluttered. The pink highlight behind the titles is not helping either. Sometimes, you can’t really tell which text belongs to which headline.
Masthead: This is the cherry on top of the cake, or actually in the middle of the cake in this example. Why would you want to put the masthead in the middle of all the clutter? Using Ruqaa for a logo is not optimal in this case. Ruqaa was developed for text sizes where it works really well. It’s not interesting to look at in large sizes.
Overall impression: Simply no. A redesign is recommendable! I heard from a friend that Yemen is a very beautiful country, with amazing scenery and landscape. I would not read this paper but I would love to visit the country!
i totally agree with you that this newspaper should be redesigned
Left by Ali Al-Sumayin on March 9th, 2007