By J. Ford Huffman
Richard in the world
Within the world of news design Richard was famous because of USA TODAY. But you’d never know it, because he never sought the spotlight. He could have been on the guru circuit, speaking about graphics at conferences around the world. Instead, he remained the approachable North Carolinian in a plaid, button-collar shirt, the guy who always had invigorating classical music on the speaker in the background in his office.
I think the 2000 (introduced April 4) redesign was his opportunity to perfect, to correct, what he helped create 18 years earlier. The choice to go with consistent typography throughout the ‘new’ USA TODAY was Richard’s, and he persuaded internationally known typographer Gerard Under to modify his Gulliver font especially for USA TODAY.
Using only USA TODAY Gulliver was one way to refine the voice of the newspaper. No more Helvetica Extra Bold Condensed here and Century Bold there. Everything (except the nameplate’s logo) was in Gulliver, and USA TODAY looked sophisticated, speaking yet no longer screaming. Colors were subdued but still maintained a USA TODAY palette. Columns were wider and the format was more flexible, which allowed design editors to exercise creativity within a pliable structure. Richard knew there were talented designers on the staff, and he gave them a template that permitted creativity.
I think the 2000 redesign allowed USA TODAY to come of age, just as Richard had matured in his design thinking. The “new” USA TODAY still looked different from other newspapers. Now, ironically, the print USA TODAY uses the same fonts as every other newspaper produced at a Gannett hub.
Richard in the newsroom
I don’t recall when Richard and I met, but I recall his mailing – via a stamped envelope in 1978 – information to me about a journalism organization that was forming and would be called the Society for Newspaper Design (SND).
(Later, as platforms changed, the name became Society for News Design.)
He had attended an American Press Institute seminar about design in newsrooms and newspapers, and the API participants decided to create a professional group – SND – that recognized the value of design in presenting news. I joined immediately. We kept in touch after that.
A couple years later I was asked to direct the design of the mockups and first prototypes of USA TODAY, which was being produced at the Gannett News Service (GNS) office on K Street in downtown Washington. Richard had worked for prototype editor Ron Martin in Baltimore, and in 1982 he was asked to direct the design of the soon-to-be-published, actual paper. Pages kept evolving, and after I saw Richard’s distinctive, seven-column format idea I sent Ron a note: “If I were a reader, I’d read that.”
I did. At the startup, Richard and I finally had an opportunity to be in the same newsroom. I was a content editor in the Life section, and he was running graphics and photography. I left after the new paper was running smoothly and returned to Rochester.
Nearly two decades later I was ready to leave my job at Gannett News Service and try for work that would allow for more creativity. I sent feelers to a handful of friends, asking them to alert me if something came along. Richard was a recipient of one of my notes, and within 30 minutes after he got my note he came to my office — on a different floor in the USA TODAY tower – and asked me if I’d consider returning to USA TODAY. He mentioned that a redesign being considered, which enticed me. (I understood the need for the original USA TODAY format, but I had found the necessary rigidity restrictive.)
I returned, with Richard as my boss. My first assignment was to work with the Page One staff, and soon Richard as working quietly on the redesign of his original USA TODAY design. We had fun bouncing redesign ideas around. Richard always made me feel like he valued my input.
He was that kind of boss. He respected his coworkers, even when they were wrong or were not performing as well as he hoped they might. “Nobody wants to do a bad job,” he told me.He allowed staffers to take risks. He was not a micro manager, although he showed interest in details such as cutlines and headlines and “chatter” in graphics. Words mattered to him. He knew that good content was a key to successful design.