Better Headlines
Posted on Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at 1:13 PM
Nine new essentials.
By Jan V. White
Headlines
(titles or heds) and decks have separate functions. See how the headline
above identifies the topic ("headlines") and telegraphs importance
("better")? See how the deck defines why you, dear reader, should care?
("Nine new essentials" to help you make them better).
Those time-tested functions make as much sense as ever, but we must go
beyond them. Here are some pointers to better heads that affect and are,
in turn, affected by the way they appear on the page. (Next issue we'll
tackle decks.)
1) Curiosity is what pulls the casual reader into
your story. The display is your best persuasion tool to get them to want
to find out more. (The key words here are "to want to"). It often takes
several words to define a complex topic and describe what you need to
say so it is the honey that draws the bee. Therefore, make heads as long
as they need to be to fascinate. Shorter isn't better, no matter what
you have taken for journalistic gospel, or what the designer may
maintain. Heads aren't just journalism, they are salesmanship.
2)
Each head in a publication refers to its own story, but it is also a
segment of a package. Since it is purposely noticeable, the way it looks
helps create (or disintegrate) the personality of the product. To
compete successfully, it is the product-as-a-whole that matters in the
marketplace more than any of its component. Consistency is what keeps it
looking unified. The temptation has always been to vary the typeface of
headlines "to keep the reader interested." The pub is in serious trouble
if it depends on such superficial tinkering to be interesting. Heads
are recognition signals, so make them look the same.
3) The
display should be what people are led to by the design. Heads and decks
must pop out by contrast to what surrounds them. Type size defines the
headlines visually but is usually limited by the available space into
which the words must fit. Blackness is the other identifier. How can you
make the headline blacker? Obviously by using a bolder version of the
type. Less obviously, by taking advantage of type's malleability and
squeezing out the air within and adding it to the surrounding frame. Set
the characters closer together (by using tighter "tracking") and set the
lines closer together (by using "minus-leading"). Tightening achieves
darkness. Heads must stand out by looking loud and aggressive.
4)
Tradition demanded heads and decks centered above the text below. That's
what you learned in junior high as "correct." So it was, given the
childish context of "reports." Also, it was standard practice when print
was in its youth. Now it is essential to break out of the prison of
formal form and handle our words-in-type as speech-made-visible. Talking
stops, starts, has gaps, emphasizes, mumbles. Thoughts are sentences
composed of phrases. Advance beyond tombstone inscriptions: open your
eyes and listen to the sound of your type. Heads should be set flush
left, lines broken by sense-making phrase.
5) An Even More
Insidious Bad Habit Than Centering the Display Is the Up-and-Down Style
That Has Haunted American Publishing Since the Mid-1800s. It decrees
that a headline isn't a proper headline unless every important word's
initial letter is capitalized. Nowhere in the world do people do this,
unless they are attempting to ape an "American" style. There is
absolutely no functional reason for it and most U.S. newspapers have
switched to all-lowercase. It is counter-productive, because it makes
reading slower and more laborious (just where it should be fast and
smooth). It camouflages proper names (which are vital interest-hooks in
headlines). It robs you of the capacity to emphasize (where you might
want to use such caps). Starting with a cap initial like any normal
sentence, heads should slip off the page smoothly in all-lowercase.
6)
Headlines are believed to be the most useful elements to bring the
reader into the story. (I believe that cutlines are even more vital,
because people look at pictures first, then look for an irresistible
explanation, but be that as it may.) Is it not logical, then, to make
the type as inviting and beguiling as your carefully wrought words? Yet
we relegate them to standardized ugliness by using "condensed" type
squeezed to shoehorn those words in. The invited reader is disinvited by
what you present them. They skip it. Your precious piece remains unread.
Think of a whole publication's-worth of such waste. Instead of using
hard-to-read condensed, devote the same amount of space and fit the
headline in using regular type but at a smaller size.
7)
HEADLINES USED TO BE SET IN ALL-CAPS. That was intended to make the type
look bigger when it was made of metal and was limited in size by its
vulnerability on press. We don't have technical size problems any more,
but the desire for the Dignity and Implied importance of all-caps
remains with us. In the old days, the amount of printed matter was
limited and thus more precious, so people enjoyed reading slowly,
carefully. Now we race through it. Tests prove that all-caps are more
laborious to decipher than lowercase. If you want your headlines to
be read, set only a few words in all-caps.
8) Immediacy ...
speed of communication ... first impression ... are key words today.
Parallel with the ease of reading comes ease of understanding: how the
words are written to expose the point of the story. If that nub has
content that is apt for the reader (i.e., "The What's In It For Me") it
is folly not to signal it for first glance attention. This admits that
our journalistic content is less literary than it is more functional.
Self-interest -- promised benefit -- is the bait that catches that
elusive unconvinced reader. It is in our interest to show off that vital
point at first glance. In headlines, run a word or two in extrabold,
in color, in bigger size, anything to make it pop out.
9)
Reading some of the words in the following examples may well convince
you of my personal prejudices. Not prejudices, but preferences.
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
Example 5
Example 6
These are recommendations based on observation, study, and empirical
experience. Decisions should never only be about what something looks
like, but on how it works within given circumstances. All editing and
designing and headline-setting is interpretive choice-making.
Jan
V. White is a communication design consultant and author of Editing
by Design (3rd Ed.), Allsworth Press, 2003. He may be reached at
janvw2 [at] aol [dot] com.
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