One last bin Laden page

Continuing my belated postings, here's a page from early May that put a bow on our bin Laden coverage, appearing on A1 on the Sunday after his death. The story tried to get a measure of the cycle of average American life since 9/11.

Illustration by Andrea Levy, design by news design director Emmet Smith and design and graphics director Michael Tribble. Headline by M.E. Thom Fladung.

It's worth noting that using illustration on Page One can be a tricky thing: Every detail needs to be sweated with sophisticated, conceptual imagery. Thankfully, The Plain Dealer has had a decades-worth of upper leadership that doesn't insist on the obvious (read: cliche) to illustrate complicated topics. But putting that philosophy in motion does put added weight on choosing the big words with care, so that the headline amplifies the message of the illustration rather than misdirect it. It's imperative that it act as a bridge between the illo and the story. Thom's headline really did just that with this package.

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