USA Today

 

USA Today logo - copied from the Media News International website, 16/12/09.

In their book Remediation and elsewhere, Boltor and Grusin (2002) have used the USA Today as an example of graphical conventions moving across various different media, in this case some of the visual presentation of content in television migrating to print and to web and then back again! Other critics on graphic design, Lupton and Millar, have also suggested that the USA Today broadsheet resembles aspects of television news. It also paved the way for ways of incorporating content onto their website. A comparison between their website and the paper versions of same day news stories can be very instructive when thinking through some of the key graphical conventions that survive the transformation from print to screen. If we are to build a vocabulary of graphic design suitable for both contexts (print /screen) then USA Today makes for a good initial case study. In addition, the critical writing on the evolution of this paper, especially its design and layout, gives it further significance.

Introduced in the mid eighties, along with many other papers incorporating full colour into newsprint, exploiting this potential in their graphics, the visual design of the paper was considered to innovative in terms of its design. But in more conservative design circles, as well as amongst journalists, they saw this as a further "dumbing down" of the press, not least with the apparent overuse of information graphics.

These issues as well as a detailed analysis of the logo, a key part of their branding, forms the first case study for the Imaging and Design students in their lecture on "Type, Identity and Branding" next semester.