Writing, research and design for each post add up fast, so the template had to take work off the table rather than add a new step.

Some layouts were built without text and some without images, because not every topic arrives with three paragraphs or with usable visuals. What is left is a small set that covers most cases: two key images, one half-size for landscape or low-resolution files, and two newspaper clipping layouts.

Aesthetically it fits a channel that talks about history and current affairs. Practically it does more than that.

Cutting an image roughly, collage style, is much faster than a clean mask. And a lot of the source images are low resolution even after upscaling, so the halftone effect covers the loss instead of exposing it.