Above the Fold—a Meeting with Andreas Jones, Metro Graphic Designer

by Meredith Florian

Andreas at work on The Metro. Photo by Andreas Jones.

I suspect most Metro readers take for granted the design and layout of the paper, not aware of the complex skills and artistic talent required to produce such a professional-looking community paper. But after meeting with Andreas Jones, I'll be looking at newsprint with an enlightened eye. Born in Antwerp, Belgium, Andreas came to the United States at age five, studied Fine Arts at UC Berkeley, fell in love with the area and settled here permanently.

As Andreas explained to me, there's "a gestalt" to graphic design. "A lot of what distinguishes good publication design from bad is how you work with photos." The designer must not only choose the right photos, but also know how to adjust them to maximize how they reproduce. It's critical to create a system, a template for organization. "A lot of publications just sort of throw ads kind of hodge podge, so things are very asymmetrical and unbalanced." For example, Andreas explains he would never put together two ads that have heavy black design. "They will just fight each other and look like one ad, and you want everything to stand out from everything else." He is always working with constraints, trying to get everything to fit, while at the same time, creating a balance so that the reader's eyes will not stay in one area but move around the page. He consistently designs the front page placing one story above "the fold" and another below it. This format ensures that photos will not be folded in half and thereby lose their impact.

Working with an all-volunteer paper creates specific challenges for Andreas. At his main job, with the East Bay Monthly, Andreas assigns photographers for stories and receives the copy weeks before the paper comes out. At the Metro, he gets 20 to 25 articles and photos in all sorts of formats. So he's always in a mad dash to read the copy, assess which photos best represent the story, and get the first proof to the editors. "I try to block out a weekend—usually a minimum of fifteen hours." One of the biggest challenges "is when there is too much stuff to fit in one issue." He can squeeze type by compressing the "kerning" (a method that allows for more type in a fewer number of lines). But when it becomes too difficult to fit the puzzle together, he may have to bump a story. While he often has free rein to make layout decisions, he periodically consults with the editor about what copy should be be cut. Fortunately, computers have eliminated much of the "clumsy and inefficient ways" and make his job easier than when he first started in the field.

Though Andreas has a background in sketching, lithography, and printed art books, his frenetic work life leaves him little time for fine art. "I find that graphic design takes the same kind of energy from me. So when I have down time, I would rather go for a walk in Tilden Park than to start my own art work." As he continues to grapple with how to put fine art back into his life, he is doing some of his own design work and creating a special photo book. But he would never give up his work with the Metro. "For me there is something special about the Metro. I think it is the best community organizing paper in the East Bay."