Washington Square News:
Special Issues
Release2009-2013
Circulation
Print: 60k around NYC
Web: 87k monthly average
Web: 87k monthly average
Roles
Special Issues Editor
Creative Director
Special Issues Editor
Creative Director
New York University’s student newspaper takes a deeper dive with special monthly print issues and online magazine Brownstone. Over four years, I oversaw the production of 25+ issues.
Project As Creative Director in charge of the daily production of the Washington Square News, I noticed the everyday grind didn’t provide the space or time to go deep — we were inundated with the “what happened” rather than “why.” To address this gap, I created the Special Issues Editor role to run a monthly “magazine.” Some editions coincided with national events — the election, fashion issues FRINGE for New York Fashion Week, a 10-year tribute to 9/11. Some were driven by student interest — Housing Guide for university housing lottery or Adventures issue for Fall Break.
As editor, I led the editorial direction, choosing the mix of stories for each issue. I worked with different editors to hone the overall voice of the written pieces. On occasion, I would contribute my pieces.
To contrast our daily text-heavy “newspaper” look, I designed bold, text-light covers. White space and full-page spreads for ideas to breathe. I created infographics and commissioned artists to create illustrations and photo essays to vary our storytelling approach.
Since the WSN is a student-run publication, our budgets were extremely modest — we often had to find workarounds. For our Influential Students shoots, in place of a studio, we unscrewed all of the office tables to create a solid base then spent $20 on white construction paper to drape from the ceiling. For our fashion issues, FRINGE, we would partner with local design houses to loan clothes and accessories.
Project As Creative Director in charge of the daily production of the Washington Square News, I noticed the everyday grind didn’t provide the space or time to go deep — we were inundated with the “what happened” rather than “why.” To address this gap, I created the Special Issues Editor role to run a monthly “magazine.” Some editions coincided with national events — the election, fashion issues FRINGE for New York Fashion Week, a 10-year tribute to 9/11. Some were driven by student interest — Housing Guide for university housing lottery or Adventures issue for Fall Break.
As editor, I led the editorial direction, choosing the mix of stories for each issue. I worked with different editors to hone the overall voice of the written pieces. On occasion, I would contribute my pieces.
To contrast our daily text-heavy “newspaper” look, I designed bold, text-light covers. White space and full-page spreads for ideas to breathe. I created infographics and commissioned artists to create illustrations and photo essays to vary our storytelling approach.
Since the WSN is a student-run publication, our budgets were extremely modest — we often had to find workarounds. For our Influential Students shoots, in place of a studio, we unscrewed all of the office tables to create a solid base then spent $20 on white construction paper to drape from the ceiling. For our fashion issues, FRINGE, we would partner with local design houses to loan clothes and accessories.