Elane Chan Chan served as the 2001-2002 Design
director. Â
I work at the Daily Bruin.” “Oh, are you a
writer?” “Umm … no.” Three cheers for never
having that conversation again. This will be the first and last
thing I ever write for The Bruin. Welcome to the world of newspaper
design. We are slaves to points and picas, begging editors to add
and subtract inches, photos and, in the direst of situations,
stories. We are the information architecture department, here to
construct for you, on paper, something that makes sense to read and
possibly looks nice, too. It is our job to make you pick up the
paper, even if initially you don’t want to because it is now
too wide to fit in your cramped Dykstra triple. The past year has
been a colorful one for the design department. We’ve
gradually discovered that the world is not so black and white,
worlds converge at a hairline, and sometimes headlines just get
ugly, or even grotesque. Television went color in the ’50s.
It only makes sense that now, half a century later, our newspapers
should appear in color as well. It is another symptom of an
ever-changing world. Is the art of newspaper design quickly
becoming extinct? I hope not. Not only because it is the one
marketable skill I have obtained in college, but also because there
is something awfully primal about holding a newspaper in your
hands, flipping each page with ink-smudged fingertips and ripping
out the crossword puzzle. It’s passionate and raw in a
sparagmos (tearing limb-from-limb) kind of way. Yet, to me, the
“paper” paper is also a symbol of tranquility and the
quiet moments I have to myself. Arriving early to lecture, I peruse
each page. As my eyes wander across the newsprint columns, nobody
asks me to punch the monkey and no windows intrude on the
experience, tempting me to purchase miniature spy cameras. Finally,
it is a reminder to me of the Daily Bruin staff ““ a motley
crew of truth-seekers and people who used to have too much time on
their hands, my favorite photojournalists, and of course, my
beloved designers. Long live Quark Xpress!