Quill Awards 2008 Best Page Layout
David Neilson - Mr Marvellous
20/03/09David Neilson, Sunday Herald Sun

David Neilson was awarded Best Page Layout this year at the Melbourne Press Club Quill awards. David won for a spread that featured in the Focus section. It is now 2 years running that this section of the Sunday Herald Sun has been recognised in this category and the second Quill for the paper under the leadership of renowned editorial designer Jon Zabiegala.

The challenge in this page layout was to capture the essence of Stan Lee, the creative genius behind Marvel Comics, across two pages. I decided to create a strong visual graphic element that would draw the reader to Stan’s work and then introduce them to his story. The disadvantage in not having a single page spread was overcome by using a black background across the two pages to link the illustrations.

Research was undertaken in the way Marvel Comic characters were presented in their cells (pictured). The characters are tightly cropped to create an action-packed feel and are visually striking. As a result I decided to display Stan’s work in a similar way, cropping the images tightly while retaining the integrity of the illustrations by boldly displaying them heavily across two pages. The images were placed in irregular shapes with sharp angles to enhance the explosive nature of the characters, such as Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk etc

Despite the temptation to use a comic style font, the Frutiger family was used throughout the spread to keep it clean and in style with the Focus section.

Judges comments:
'The entry was a fine marriage of words and graphics. It was a true double page spread which caught the eye and was easy to read. the layout drew the reader in to read the words.'

View the spread here (PDF 2MB)