After all the trouble I had to go through a while back when I designed my first newspaper, I thought to myself that it would be so much easier if someone shared some of their knowledge and experience with me. At that point I knew no one in newspaper design or layout, so I just grit my teeth and set to it. It took me a couple of months of solid work to build and refine the templates to the point where they were working the way I thought they should. The first 4 weeks were dedicated to development, and the next four weeks involved laying out the first issue and refining the templates at the same time. I was very happy with the results, and I’m my biggest critic! Needless to say, the client was more than impressed.

Sure, it might seem more impressive if I had designed a big name paper that you knew the name of, but that is not the industry you or I are in. We are in the small newspaper design industry. What made Murri Views exceptional was that it did not look like a community or regional newspaper. It’s design and layout was equal to that of the big players. I made sure of that!

You might find some people out there who know more about some finer technical details to do with the printing process or some other specific area of the design and production process – and I expect that. They have probably been a specialist in that area for many, many years. I believe that what sets me apart, and what landed me my current job is my ability to understand the whole process from start to finish. All of the techniques I developed are my own.

Nearly everything I know about newspaper design was not taught to me in a classroom. I learnt it from careful analysis of hundreds of newspapers. What I discovered was that there are patterns that make the good papers stand out. I made these into simple rules that anyone can follow – and that is what made my training so effective. The brilliant part about it was its simplicity! This meant that someone with very little experience could pick it up in a matter of hours!

In summary, I am a graphic designer of seven years. I have held the titles of Graphic Designer, Art Director, Magazine Production Co-ordinator, and Future State Advisor for Magazine Production and Layout Executive. I now live in Sydney, Australia, with my beautiful wife, and I work for one of the largest newspapers in the country.

Ultimately, my goal is to push development and utilisation of streamlined production workflow for magazines and newspapers. This will not only make everyone’s life much easier, but will significantly reduce error, paper wastage, production time, and overall running costs.

I want this to be available to everyone – not just the big companies. Small newspapers need to understand that with the improvements in software and systems these days, this is now a possibility that never existed before.

I look forward to working with you for all your future publishing endeavours.

Best wishes,

Noah Rush
Layout Executive