In a world flooded with information, what makes a story trustworthy?
How can design act as a compass through the noise?

This course is a hands-on exploration of newspaper design as a collaborative newsroom laboratory — where students come together to craft a single, cohesive publication from scratch.

Beyond layout and page design, we’ll focus on mastering editorial systems, typographic control, and visual storytelling, treating the newspaper not as a nostalgic format, but as the beating heart of a broader, contemporary media brand.

Acting as an editorial team, students will define tone, structure, and identity — designing not only for print, but also for digital expressions, social media narratives, audio formats, and emerging channels.

This is not just about making pages. It’s about building meaning, clarity, and brand coherence across platforms — together.

This course aimed at designers who want to expand their typographic and layout skills, aspiring art directors, visual journalists, and communication designers. Students should be comfortable working with Adobe InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop and have a basic knowledge of typography, general layout principles, and visual hierarchy. 

Why this matters

Today, more than ever, media outlets must operate as brands: clear, distinctive, and capable of engaging diverse audiences. Learning to design a newspaper teaches you to:

• control rhythm and hierarchy through layout;
• manage complexity through systems thinking;
• create harmony between typography, images, and structure.

These are core skills for any designer working across editorial, digital, and brand design.

What you’ll learn

• How to design a contemporary newspaper as the core of a media ecosystem
• Advanced typesetting strategies and layout composition techniques
• How to create templates, brand systems, and editorial style guidelines
• How to design visual narratives that adapt to print, digital, and social
• Collaboration tools and newsroom-inspired workflows
• How to turn abstract content into clear, engaging, and reliable storytelling

Course format & expectations

This is a hands-on, collaborative studio class. You’ll be expected to actively participate in:

• One main collaborative design project (building a new media brand + print newspaper)
• Short exercises to practice typesetting, editorial thinking, and layout
• Group critiques, feedback sessions, and working in small “news teams”
• In-class demos and inspirational references from real-world editorial design
• Final project presentation

You’ll receive ongoing support, creative direction, and feedback tailored to your skill level.

This is not a course for complete beginners in graphic design, this is an intermediate-advanced level class. 

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

• Design and present a newspaper as a coherent editorial brand
• Apply editorial thinking to digital, print, and cross-platform storytelling
• Structure complex content into readable, engaging formats
• Build a portfolio piece that shows strategic thinking + design execution

Required Materials

• Laptop
• Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop installed
• Sketching tools: pencils, pens, paper
• Access to a printer (recommended for prototyping and mockups between sessions)

This class meets 3 times on consecutive Saturdays, November 1, 8 and 15.