Ecology is the science of the relationships between living things and their environment, and the reality that every living thing depends upon certain other living and nonliving things.

Designer Ati Peterson found a nice parallel to design when researching ecology for her redesign of the Washington State Department of Ecology Solid Waste and Financial Assistance Program’s newsletter, The Closed-Loop Scoop.

The department’s newsletter design requires a more polished look to get local governments, businesses, and interest groups to help the department achieve its mission to protect, preserve, and enhance Washington’s environment, and promote the wise management of air, land, and water. The newsletter needs all of its elements to work together to appeal to its target audience.

A must for ecology, the newsletter has to be printed on tree-free, recycled paper using only black ink. Peterson chose Neenah Papers’ 24 lb. “Desert Storm” from its Environment series. The paper is 100-percent recycled, with 30-percent post-consumer fiber—no new trees are used. “It’s more fun than plain white, but not too dark,” she says.

The headline type Peterson chose, Poster Bodoni, is a classic newspaper title font. “I chose to let the nameplate run across the middle of the page like a band on a bound pile of used or recycled paper,” explains the designer. The nameplate font is very clean in contrast to the rugged Hartin2 typeface Peterson selected for the article titles, so it is easy for readers to distinguish between them. The subtitles are in Myriad Tilt and text is Minion Condensed.

In keeping with a sense for recycling, Peterson suggests using dotted lines to save ink and omitting the marble background of the original table of contents. She also recommends modern clip art, closer crops for art and photos, shorter headlines, and varying the title positions to keep the layout interesting. With all the design elements now working together, The Closed-Loop Scoop can get its audience collaborating to heal and prevent future injuries to the environment.

1. Original newsletter The Closed-Loop Scoop’s design is “Boring!” exclaims community outreach specialist Michelle Payne. She’d like it to be polished and more easily recognizable.
2. Fonts Designer Ati Peterson chose Poster Bodoni for the nameplate, Myriad Tilt for subtitles, and Hartin2 for story titles. For text, Minion Condensed is easy on the eye in spite of its small size.
3. Clip art The designer selected more contemporary clip art, with a stylistic coherence among all pieces, and employed this theme throughout the newsletter. She recommends closer crops for art and photos. These particular pieces came from font families with alternative characters. 4. New nameplate Resembling a band found on a bound pile of used or recycled paper, the new title spans the middle of the page. 6. Subtitles/Contents The designer employed wide kerning to differentiate subtitles and the “Contents” title from the rest of the text.
5. Story titles As with everything in this recycling-inspired redesign, Peterson keeps it simple. She recommends shorter titles and Hartin2 initial caps to break up the paragraphs. 7. White space “Squares seem so strict. That’s why I broke up the columns a bit. They are just ‘particles’ of lines, little micro-organisms,” says Peterson.

SIDEBAR: Eco-Friendly Papers

Look for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) emblem. This independent, not-forprofi t, nongovernmental organization helps set and maintain standards for responsible forestry practices.

Learn how to distinguish when chlorine-based bleaching is used in making paper at www.chlorinefreeproducts.org.

A detailed chart of recycled and/or tree-free papers at www.conservatree.org shows percentage of recycled fiber, post-consumer fiber, type of tree-free fiber, any certificates, acidity, the number of colors, finishes, weights, and more.

For continued insight on ecofriendly papers and options, refer to “Printing Green: 12 Things You Need to Know,” by Cassie Hart, April/May 2005 [V10N2], pp. 50–57. Ultimately, you should always speak to your printer about available options for eco-friendly paper and printing.