PULL QUOTES
A pull quote (also known as a pull-out, lift-out or a call-out) is a quotation or an excerpt that is ‘pulled’ from the article in order to give more emphasis or highlight a core point. This emphasis is achieved through a bolder font, a different font, a coloured font, italics, underlining, larger fonts or a mix of these.
They work much like the lead-in, attracting readers into the article they are taken from. They are also used to stop someone flicking through the publication. This is why it's important to make the pull-quote easy to read and easily digestible. When pull-quotes work well, the viewer reads them without intending to. If the writing is good enough, or the topic interesting enough, the reader may go back and start the article from the beginning.
How the pull quote is used is up to the ‘house style’ and before we get into this maybe we should talk about house styles and what they are.
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HOUSE STYLES
A house style (also known as style guide or style manual) is a set of rules for design or writing within specific publications. All newspapers, books, magazines will have one unique to themselves; the Telegraph has a different house style to the Herald, as it would be different to all the other newspapers in the world. Styles allow large transient teams to produce visually and grammatically consistent work.
House styles are split into two different areas; design and editorial. Design house styles concern elements used, how pull quotes sit amongst articles, which fonts, which colours, layouts and order. Editorial house styles deal with grammar and language.
House styles can sometimes be grammatically incorrect to the pedantic writer but may be used to give the publication a certain flair. Some publications prefer to use first names or lower-case to make them look friendlier. For instance, Hello looks formal and uninviting as opposed to hello. Some publications do the opposite to retain a certain distance or tradition within the the article: Mr Harrison rather than Neville or Neville Harrison. Sometime a mix of these is used once the person has been introduced.
More examples are:
Periods. Does it enter the bracket or sit outside?
...said Peter (while looking at Sally.) Martin could tell something...
...said Peter (while looking at Sally). Martin could tell something...
Both are grammatically correct but you should stick to one throughout.
Quotation marks, do you continue sentences as they were said or do you create a pause between?
“I don't know what you mean,” blushed Peter, “you must be mistaken.”
“I don't know what you mean,” blushed Peter, “You must be mistaken.”
True right quotation mark ( ” ): Shift + Option + [
True left quotation mark ( “ ): Option + [
True apostrophe ( ’ ): Shift + Option + ]
True reverse apostrophe ( ‘ ): Option + ]
Lets not have any of these " or '
Lists. Do you number them or bullet point them?
Hyphens when they get mixed with the dash or the en-rule:
Hyphen (-)
Dash (—): Option + Shift + -
En-rule (–) : Option + -
A hyphen joins words and gives the a common association. A dash works like a comma or a parenthesis and an en-rule (also known as an en-dash) stands in for till or to (Sydney to Hobart / Sydney – Hobart)
There is a bunch of others that I'm not going to get into too deeply, the important thing is that they remain consistent. It is the designers job to look over the editorial area as it is the editors job to look over the design. In a perfect world we wouldn't have to but sometimes people miss things. Some publications have a house style editor, whose only job is too keep the consistency.
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PULL QUOTES POSITIONING + STYLE
Below I've selected a number of magazines so we can see at how they use their pull-quotes. Some magazines tend to always use the same style, some change from article to article. It's normally considered best to stick to one style per article just so as to have the article feel consistent and to avoid confusion between different articles.
Fast Company use all caps and contrasting colours. Caps tend to be hard to read if presented in large volumes.
They also use this style occasionally to break things up a little. Knocked out type over a picture. A good way of directly linking the pull-quote and the image.
Sydney Morning Herald, different colours with multiple positioning. Notice that one has an author attributed to it and the others don't – why do you think this is?
Step magazine has a variety of types, but the centre aligned larger font is quite common. This brings a lot of attention to the quote because of the white space – make sure it's a good quote then, not like the one below.
Juxtapoz, goes bold, all caps and normally uses lines to separate the quote even more and bring more attention to it.
Dumbo Feather (originally designed by Saatchi Design when Kevin Finn ran it) uses a technique of not pulling the quote but leaving it in amongst the article in order. This is a lovely idea as it serves both the function of attracting the eye and not causing the reader to re-read a point. It very much aligns to Dumbo Feathers themes of flow and conversation.
The Big Issue (designed by Andrew Hoyne) sits across the page in bold.
Wired Magazine mixes it up depending on the story and the title font.
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WHEN PULL-QUOTES GET TOO BIG
Is this a pull-quote? From Juxtapoz.
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PULL OUT ARTICLES
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INSPIRATION & EXTRAS
Each week I throw up things I find that relate to what we've been discussing or working on that week. Sometimes it might be things that relate to your major assessment and sometimes just stuff I thought was worth seeing. If you find something you think we should be showing or something we just have to see let us know in class or throw an email over to me at matt@billyblue.com.au and I'll get it up here or on the Bluni inspiration site.
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THE UNDERLINE PROJECT (Stolen from Ashfield Council website)
ASHFIELD Council and RailCorp launched an innovative public art gallery in a significant, accessible pedestrian walkway near Ashfield Railway Station on Thursday 12 March 2009. The walk-through public art gallery is known as The Underline Project and features 114 artistic and colourful panels exploring the theme "Community: Past, Present and Future". The artworks were created by local students and community members, and the installation showcases a mix of contemporary artworks and historical photographs.
Ashfield Mayor, Councillor Ted Cassidy PSM, said the launch of The Underline Project was the culmination of a year long partnership between Ashfield Council, RailCorp, local residents and schools. "Previously, there was a lot of graffiti and tagging activity in the tunnel and many people were avoiding using it as a quick and easy means to get from one side of the railway to the other," he said. "The Underline Project was initiated when Ashfield Council received letters from students at St Vincent's Primary School asking if we would improve the tunnel and remove all of the ‘bad words'. They also expressed that they found the tunnel ‘scary'."
In response, Ashfield Council commissioned community artist Bronwyn Tuohy, who guided more than 400 local people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds in the creation of artworks for the tunnel. Ms Tuohy said playgroups, pre-schools, schools, community groups, disability groups, community members and individual emerging and practicing artists had contributed to the project.
"This project provided the community with an opportunity to contribute positively to their immediate environment," she said. "By working together on The Underline Project, participants also experienced a sense of community. There were a lot of opportunities for community participation with public Saturday Art Sessions at Thirning Villa as well as in the Ashfield Mall. In some instances, panels were painted on-site at schools, organisations, services and community groups. This exercise focused on inclusion and community building as well as beautification," said Ms Tuohy.
RailCorp Customer Service General Manager George Stojkovski said the project would not only help in the beautification of Ashfield Station but would give local artists and students a strong sense of ownership of their area. "The mural installation promises to provide great life and colour to the area and go towards preventing graffiti vandalism," Mr Stojkovski said. "It's fantastic to see the local community supporting this project."
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