In fall 2012, I was reluctant to take a course in newspaper design. Much to my surprise, it ended up being my favorite course of the semester, and the one that taught me skills that I’ve carried into everything I’ve done since.

I learned how to create infoboxes. I learned about news judgment as I fought to get front-page play for articles that I thought deserved it, such as an article about a bakery being opened by a Korean woman — a member of a community that didn’t often see coverage in our newspaper.

Most importantly, during that semester, when I first had to really communicate with reporters, editors, designers, photographers, and managers to bring all the moving parts together and get the paper out by deadline, I learned that one of the best ways to get better at your job is to do someone else’s, and to learn where you all fit in. I learned that if you know not only how to do your own job but also the basics of those around you, you can solve problems independently when needed and interrupt others’ workflow as little as possible.

Below are some of the pages I designed for the Columbia Missourian throughout that fall semester and during subsequent semesters as a teaching assistant on the editing and design desk. Click on each thumbnail to see a larger version of the page. You can also click to download a printable file with pdfs of some of my best pages.

Inside design

Oct. 14, 2012

Feb. 28, 2014

April 11, 2014

May 9, 2014

May 9, 2014

Front page design

Aug. 28, 2012

Sept. 4, 2012

Sept. 11, 2012

Sept. 18, 2012

Sept. 25, 2012

Sept. 30, 2012 — Sports

Oct. 2, 2012

Oct. 16, 2012

Oct. 23, 2012

Nov. 13, 2012

Nov. 27, 2012

I also had the chance to create an e-book, converting the Missourian’s special football section, “Tiger Kickoff,” to a downloadable electronic form, which involved adjusting the existing layouts to fit into a smaller space, inserting and designing new jump pages where necessary and creating hyperlinks between pages. Click to download and view the e-book.