“I’m pretty sure, with my 20 years of professional practice, that digital journalism will rely more and more on visual communication”. Fabio de Paula, Cásper Líbero’s Design teacher, also went to architecture school, always thinking about doing a better work with journalism. And it’s true: even if you don’t like it, you should know that it’s really common this kind of knowledge to be a prerequisite to select candidates. That’s because, in the internet age, people are always bombarded by information, and it’s easier to consume what is most appealing to look at. Not just online: magazines, newspapers, the message increasingly needs to be transmitted also by the image, to seduce the reader.
Among the possibilities of professional growth, being a vehicle editor is the dream of many trainees. But to get there, only good text is not enough. “Being an editor is the most complex journalistic work. The editor knows about texts and about art, so he or she can command these two teams. Then it’s fundamental to understand in depth each one” says Fabio, who worked in web journalism area for over 15 years. Although there is hierarchy within the publications, this artistic vision goes beyond just framing the text and can be useful in your job.
Credits: Pexels
There are a lot of courses for those ones who wants to learn to use the tools. You can choose to do a parallel university, a shorter course of digital art or even specific workshops of Photoshop or Illustrator, for example. If the problem is the lack of time, there are several websites that provide paid or even free design courses, entirely online. The most important thing is to try to be inside: according to Fabio, despite it’s a “complementary discipline”, every journalist must also be a designer.
Thinking about this, he gave us some tips to get along: “Purchase repertoire. Look at printed and web publications. Develop a critical sense. Go deep in the history of art, which is a key tool for you to be a good designer. Don’t believe that good journalism is only done with beautiful text”.