SNDSmag 2012|1 by SNDS Magazine

SNDSMagazine

2012|1

The world is in black and white, says the editor 4 You’re the best! Winners found 5-9 Sami in Shanghai 12-13 A never-ending newspaper: Berlingske iPad 14 Danish press photography for 100 years 15-17 Redesign: DN. Out of the gridlock 18-23 SND Global: Region 4 rocks – Central U.S. 24-26 Up, up – and away! 28-30 Terror from Utøya wins photo awards 31 Friends of news design: We need to talk! 31 Let’s celebrate!, says the President 32

Sweden

NORway

SNDS.ORG

President Anders Tapola Smålandsposten, S-351 70 Växjö, Sweden Tel.: +46 470 770 686 E-mail: anders.tapola@smp.se

Secretary Sissel Bigset Sunnmørsposten, Boks 123, sentrum, N-6001 Ålesund, Norway Tel.: +47 70 12 00 00 E-mail: sissel.bigset@smp.no

Web-editor Kartin Hansen Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten Grøndalsvej 3, DK-8260 Viby J, Denmark Tel.: +45 87 38 38 38 / 31 07 Fax: +45 87 38 31 99 E-mail: kartin.hansen@jp.dk

Seminars Lars Andersson Upsala Nya Tidning, Box 36, S-751 03 Upsala, Sweden Tel.: +46 18-478 16 79 E-mail: lars.andersson@unt.se FINLAND Communication Petri Salmén Helsingin Sanomat PB 71, FI-00089 Sanoma Helsinki, Finland Tel.: +358 91 22 24 02 Fax: +358 91 22 23 88 E-mail: petri.salmen@hs.fi

DeNMARK Vice -President/ Treasurer Frank Stjerne JP/Politikens Hus Rådhuspladsen 37, DK-1785 Copenhagen V, Denmark Tel.: +45 33 47 23 99 Fax: +45 33 14 72 17 E-mail: frank.stjerne@jppol.dk SNDS Secretariat Lone Jürgensen Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten Grøndalsvej 3, DK-8260 Viby J, Denmark Tel.: +45 87 38 38 38 / 31 08 Fax: +45 87 38 31 99 E-mail: lone.jurgensen@jp.dk

SNDS MAGAZINE

Best of Scandinavian News Design Chairman of the Competition Committee Flemming Hvidtfeldt Århus Stiftstidende Banegårdspladsen 11, DK-8000 Århus C, Denmark Tel.: +45 20 91 17 52 E-mail: flhv@stiften.dk Substitutes for the board Jørn Broch, JydskeVestkysten, Denmark Pieta Forssell-Nieminen, Keskisuomalainen, Finland Kristoffer Nilsen, Morgenbladet, Norway Petra Villani, Sydsvenskan, Sweden

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Editor, Art Director Lars Pryds Mob.: +45 30 53 87 14 E-mail: pryds@mac.com

Print: Svendborg Tryk www.svendborgtryk.dk

Co-editor, Journalist DJ Lisbeth Tolstrup Mob.: +45 51 32 89 62 E-mail: mamamanus@mac.com

Articles and ideas for SNDS Magazine and snds.org are most welcome. Please contact us if you have any tips or ideas.

SNDS Magazine editorial office Østerbrogade 158, 3. TH., DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark Tel.: +45 39 20 80 19

Typography: SNDS Magazine is set in Myriad Pro, Myriad Pro Condensed and Adobe Jenson Pro and designed in Adobe Indesign for Macintosh.

SNDS Magazine is published four times a year, in March, June, September and December. Deadlines: 15 February, 15 May, 15 August, and 15 November. Published by: Society for News Design Scandinavia E www.snds.org ISSN 1901-8088

The front page shows Brian Karmark and Olli Nurminen from the print jury of the Best of Scandinavian News Design evaluating a series of pages entered in this year’s competition. See more on pages 5-9. Photo: Lars Aarø.

E-mag: All recent issues of SNDS Magazine can be read online as e-magazines: E www.snds.org/magazine SNDS is on Facebook: E facebook.com/sndscandinavia

SNDS Magazine 2012|1 Editorial

The world is in black and white n Nah, of

course it isn’t – but sometimes it’s just so much easier to see what the world looks like if you remove disturbing factors, like colours. I guess that is why many award-winning photographs are not in colour like the ‘real’ world is, but in black and white. The opposite cliché that many newspapers live by: The world is in colour, therefore we will not print images in black and white – is as silly as it is simple. Each photograph is a manipulated extract of the real world – and we should not rule out specific kinds of manipulation by saying, for instance, “We will never print images that are in colour or in widescreen format or square, or images that show more than five persons, or have soft edges out of focus”. On munkytalk.com, Ole Munk puts it this way: “Whether the editing is made before or after the photo is taken, and whether it is done with a snoot, or with a scalpel and some retouching skills, or with Photoshop, is of little relevance if what you are searching for is ‘the truth’. ” This is the important difference: Every journalist, photographer and news designer should be searching for “the truth”, rather than just for a reproduction of “the world”. And the truth comes in different colours, shapes and sizes and should be reported accordingly. Sometimes, just as an example, it

really does help telling the story – the truth – by using those sentimental frames around the picture you swore back in design school that you would never use. It all depends on the situation – and how the image interacts with its surroundings, as Per Folkver says in a comment on his magnificent photo book (see page 16 in this magazine). For the next issue of SNDS Magazine, the June issue, we are planning a major theme on photography. So, if you have any ideas, or if you know about events or projects that include serious photography or image treatment – let us know. From the quick link to a relevant blog post or a website we never heard of, to a new strategy for using photos in your printed or online publication – we’d love to hear about it. We might even print it in the magazine – and you get to choose whether it will be in colour or black and white! In this issue We take a photographic jump start in this issue (on pages 15-17) by reviewing the book “Vidnerne. Historien” published as a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Danish Pressefoto grafforbundet – the world’s oldest organization for press photography. We have even been able to get the book’s photo editor, Per Folkver, to give us a few insights to the process of putting

together a sharp selection of photos from more than a hundred years – naturally not an easy job. We’re also happy to continue our journey through the SND regions in the SND Global series, this time ready to rock from the Central U.S. The regional director Michael Tribble is also the site chair for next October’s SND workshop in Cleveland, Ohio. See what he’s up to on pages 24-26. John Bark visits Dagens Nyheter and interviews Rickard Frank about the recent redesign process for the Swedish newspaper. DN is moving away from using rigid template based design on its most important pages – an interesting move in a time when many newspapers try to squeeze as much content as possible into templates in order to save time and manpower. “In worst case the templates were a restriction to both content, planning and editing,” says Frank. Read the full interview on pages 18-23. And there’s more: There’s Sami in Shanghai, there’s Berlingske on the iPad, there’s the UP logo that has a new look every month; and there’s a celebration of Scandinavian news design at its n best on the back page. Enjoy! Lisbeth Tolstrup & Lars Pryds Editors, SNDS Magazine

THE BOOK n 80 pages, A4 format, colour images of all winning entries in the competition THE DVD n High resolution image files of the winning

pages / websites n Catalogues 2006-2011 (pdf) n SNDS Magazines 2006-2011 (pdf) n SNDS logos for print and web n Competition rules

PRICE: n Book+DVD: 30 € / 240 NOK / 225 DKK n Book only: 25 € / 200 NOK / 185 DKK n DVD only: 20 € / 160 NOK / 150 DKK To order your copy: Contact SNDS Secretariat, Lone Jürgensen by e-mail: lone.jurgensen@jp.dk

Remember: The books from previous years are still available

SNDSMagazine 2012|1

Best of Scandinavian News Design 2011 book & dvd

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Photo: Lars Aarø

Well, at least if you made it through the final judging rounds of the four-day-long session in Billund in February. The print and online juries for the Best of Scandinavian News Design have found the best pages published in 2011.

n In the print categories 724 entries

from Norway, on the other hand, is quite unique – it has a style of its own Also, great news and reportage photos were few and far between – there was too much staged photography,” he says.

were submitted by 65 different media companies, in the online categories 74 entries by 23 media houses. The total number of entries – 798 – is a whopping 183 higher than last year! It remains to be seen, however, if the result will match last year’s result, which boasted five gold and 13 silver awards. “My impression is that especially in Denmark and Norway, ressources have been cut in the art departments, so less time is devoted to presenting the news visually. In Sweden and Finland, the big newspapers still perform well,” says Flemming Hvidtfeldt, chairman of the competition committee. Bjarne Tormodsgard, editor-in-chief at the Norwegian newspaper Halling dølen, was one of the new jury members this year. He saw both good and not-so-good stuff during the jury work: “I was very impressed by seeing especially the Finnish newspapers. They are very good at making the best of the different elements – photos, headlines, body copy – and use them in a creative way. This was a pleasant surprise,” says Bjarne Tormodsgard. “What disappointed me a bit was to see the way many newspapers do things in a ‘uniform’ way – for instance, there seems to be a trend at the moment to use a thin sans serif for the subhead and place it above the headline – and this makes many papers look alike. VG

Online and onwards For Lisbeth From Birkholm, chief web designer at JP Medier (DK), this was her third time as a jury member in the online competition. “I think that the level is higher than previous years. There is more focus on details, which makes the design more complete and consistent – cleaner designs with higher priority of the elements. This is a positive trend. For the first time ever the online jury will announce a gold award winner – and it is definitely well-deserved. Another trend is that things are moving in the same direction. The expressions are similar – the elements and features we create are the same. Fewer sites stand out from the majority with a unique look and feel. This actually makes me feel a little sad ...” In total, 95 award winners were found this year, including 37 awards of Excellence and 58 in either bronze, silver or gold – or AHA Prize. The “Scandinavia’s Best Designed” awards (one for print, one for online) will also be given – for the first time this year. The lucky winners will be revealed on 27 September 2012 at the SPACE_2012 SNDS seminar in Copenhagen. So put a mark in your calendar NOW and plan your trip to Copenhagen. See you n in September!

Lars Pryds pryds@mac.com

Online jury Jon Hammerfjeld, Dagbladet, Norge Marita Granroth, Hufvudstadsbladet, Finland Ulf Högberg, Sveriges Television, Sverige Rikke Tange, TV2, Danmark Lisbeth Birkholm, Jyllands-Posten, Danmark Print jury Bjarne Tormodsgard, Hallingdølen, Norge Per Heilmann, Berlingske, Danmark Olli Nurminen, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland Benjamin Peetre, Sydsvenska Dagbladet, Sverige Henrik Ulrichsen, Tønsbergs Blad, Norge Anders Enström, Barometern/ Oskarshamns-Tidningen, Sverige Stefani Urmas, Aamulehti, Finland Brian Karmark, Jyllands-Posten, Danmark

Caught in the act In the photos above, on the following pages, and on the front page you can see glimpses from the juries’ working sessions in Billund, 6-9 February 2012. Photos: Lars Aarø and Lars Pryds. E

Competition committee Flemming Hvidtfeldt, Berlingske Media, Danmark (chairman) Kim Pedersen, Ekstra Bladet Nye Medier, Danmark Søren Stidsholt Nielsen, Fynske Medier, Danmark Lone Jürgensen, Jyllands-Posten, Danmark Lars Pryds, Berlingske, Danmark The Best of Scandinavian News Design competition is organized by Society for News Design Scandinavia in cooperation with: SNDSMagazine 2012|1

You’re simply the best!

February 2011

Lisbeth From Birkholm

Stefani Urmas

Flemming Hvidtfeldt

Jon Hammerfjeld, Marita Granroth, Ulf Hรถgberg

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Benjamin Peetre, Anders Enstrรถm, Per Heilmann, Bjarne Tormodsgard

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Olli Nurminen

Henrik Ulrichsen, Bjarne Tormodsgard

Per Heilmann, Brian Karmark

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Rikke Tange

Søren Stidsholt Nielsen, Lone Jürgensen, Lars Pryds

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Jon Hammerfjeld, Marita Granroth

Henrik Ulrichsen, Olli Nurminen, Stefani Urmas, Benjamin Peetre, Brian Karmark

The annual

facebook.com/sndscandinavia

seminar and workshop

www.snds.org/space2012

Sami in Shan Finnish design director at Helsingin Sanomat, Sami Valtere, has moved to China with his family for a year. In this article he shares some of the impressions from living and working in the inspiring, pulsating city of Shanghai, far away from the quiet streets of Helsinki. Sami Valtere sami.valtere@hs.fi

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get exhausted. I’m rushing to cross my homestreet with hundred or thousand other street crossers like me. Among us rolls a green garbage truck. On top of it a green loudspeaker shouts something in chinese again and again. I have no idea what and why, but it always makes me laugh. I will stay here in Shanghai for one year. During this time I will design Helsingin Sanomat’s visual identity. I like working here. This city inspires. Every day I get to see something new. Ugly or beatiful, but always new. I like the noise. I like the buzz and the hassle. I like the shouting green garbage trucks and the fact that in this city I’m one out of twenty million. The one single thing I do not like is of visual kind. Visual explosions All around me I see an exhausting amount of visual signals that compete for my attention. Every little shop has a

bigger, more colourful, more glittering or more blinking nameplate than the next shop. Or at least a few more. I don’t recognize any urban planning or building control. Buildings of different shapes and sizes pop up here and there with an amazing speed. My homestreet just got a new cafeteria in two days. And since we moved here the same street has got a shiny new block of tall office buildings. The buildings are all in conflict with each other. Each building has to be higher, more decorated or just more weird than the building next to it. I get the same expression when looking at ads, design, logos or magazines. Newspapers without design It is impossible to say anything conclusive about Chinese magazines or newspapers designwise. There are thousands of them. A few are of high quality and the rest are of lower quality. I can say this however – all the newspapers I have flipped through here are visually far behind our Scandinavian level. Visual journalism is non-existent. One reason for this could be the

position of the press in China. It is only a part of communist party’s propaganda system. The way newsrooms work seem to come from this function – not from journalism. And of course this doesn’t encourage one to evolve visually, or any other other way for that matter. Magazines, on the other hand, look pretty good. One reason for this could be found in their more commercial nature. Magazines here have clearly realized that high quality design is essential to their success. Their design is often imitated from western magazines. Western lifestyle is widely admired here in Shanghai. It represents both social and economical status. I read the Chinese Vogue! I’m modern! The West is imitated in numerous ways. That often leads to funny situations. For instance I see a lot of wealthy young people of this tea drinking nation like to pose around sipping their rediculously expensive and already cold cup of Starbuck’s coffee, while it is obvious that it does not taste that good to them. Imitating the West In my opinion the general view on imi-

Sami Valtere is design director at Helsingin Sanomat. He studied architecture at Helsinki University of Technology 1995-1998. Before he joined HS, he worked in an advertising agency and in TV-Shop's warehouse for years. He likes longboarding and typography.

anghai

In the photo below, Sami is captured in good company – with a Green pig from Angry Birds. "Angry Birds merchandize and stuff is all around the place. And all fake. This pig in the picture was promoting some clothing store or something. Next day the same pig was promoting the shop next door", says Sami from Shanghai.

Impressions The Shanghai streets are filled with colourful visual signals (including a newsstand with a bookshaped roof) – and thousands of people. The Chinese newspapers, however, are not nearly as colourful. Both – the streets and the newspapers – are inspirations for the next generation of Helsingin Sanomat design. Photos: Sami Valtere.

Hard working, not so creative The Chinese are crazy when it comes to working or studying. Nearly no free time or vacations, and no one talks about burn out. But when it comes to being creative they fall behind us by miles. This was confirmed by a researcher I met in Tongji Univeristy’s Aalto Design Factory. He had been performing a simple test in order to study the differences between the creativiy of chinese and western students. Here is the test: Design the worst

possible bicycle. What kind of qualities does it have? Western students tend to give answers like square-shaped wheels, glass frame, card board pedals and no seat. Chinese answers in the other hand were the same in every case: Flat tire and broken breaks. Lack of creativity is said to have to do with Chinese school system’s tendency to encourage memorizing rather than to give ability to use the information creatively. Who knows? One thing is clear to me anyway. Creativity and the ability to innovate is the only area where we are ahead of China. For now. The Chinese will not want to become a copy of the West. They will do anything to be number one culturally as well as in everything else. Visual noise encourages silent design In December I visited my home town Helsinki briefly. It was like arriving in to desert. A couple of grey people roaming the grey streets. I felt my blood pressure dropping and I begun to catch my breath again after six months. When I left for Shanghai six

months ago I wondered how this change would effect my work. I knew it would, I just didn’t know how. But now back here in Helsinki I finally realize it. The overwhelming, exhausting visual noise had forced me to design something quite the opposite. I am designing Helsingin Sanomat to look like Helsinki. Silent, organized and yes – a bit grey too. I have convinced myself here in Shanghai that this visual silence is an important aspect. More and more visual signals are being thrown into our eyes no matter where we live. In this visual noise the newspaper could offer a quiet and distant place where the reader may feel calm and safe. And take a deep breath. n E www.hs.fi Helsingin Sanomat will go from broadsheet to tabloid in the beginning of 2013, when the newspaper launch the new design. See press release from Sanoma, 28 February 2012: Ewww.kortlink.dk/an5k

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tating (or copying if you like) is more healthy here than in the West. Chinese copy every possible thing they can and make the best out of it. In the West designers try to hide the influences they have. It is a shame if you get caught using someone else’s ideas. Even if the result would be better for the reader. This selfish and unprofessional designer type (I’m a good example of that) does not exist here. Here the designers try to make the best possible product for the end user. Who can blame that?

A never-ending newspaper 25 January 2012, the Danish newspaper Berlingske launched a new iPad app, accompanied by a lot of marketing buzzwords. ”The only serious challenger to the printed newspaper” and ”and ambitious app which ties together all of Berlingske in one playful and innovative universe” … those were some of the words with which the publisher presented the new app. Ole Munk ole@ribmunk.dk is indeed a fitting description. ”Berlingske for iPad” was developed with far more than the circ 100,000 Copenhagen newspaper in mind; the plan is to use it as a prototype for tablet apps within the entire Mecom corporation. And it was not conceived to be just the electronic version of your printed paper – it combines print and web. Throughout the day, the app is updated with news from the Berlingske website, and around midnight, the contents of the morning paper will be added to the publication. Appealing as it may sound, this concept has a built-in conflict. The linear structure of the app, with a frontpage (actually you’ll get five different frontpages) and a number of sections, suggests that it should be read from the beginning to the end – following the ever more prevalent tablet reading pattern: Swipe down to finish the story, swipe right to carry on to the next one. However, as stories are being swapped all the time, you will never really feel that you are ”done”. Moreover, you

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n Ambitious

Your looks The personalization options (above) could be the strongest reason for choosing to read Berlingske on the iPad. You don’t get much help, however, as to which of the front page promos are more important, or what kind of story they lead to (right).

might lose track of which stories you have read and which ones you haven’t. The design does not really help. The app presents itself as one long series of only subtly prioritized refers, consisting of a short headline plus (in most cases) a small photograph half-hidden by the headline and its shaded background. This means you’ll often have to guess what the story is about. There are no subheads to help you, no information of whether this is a news article, a column, an analysis, or whatever; nothing to signal if it is a short or a long text; and the type size of topic & date is so small only very sharp-sighted people will have a chance to read it. Your personalized beta version In many ways, the new app feels like a beta version. News transferral from the website is pretty clunky: Lots of stories come with only a headline and a picture, or a headline and an intro. Only one line of text is allocated for captions, and as they are often longer, readers will have to imagine the last part. Bylines are blue which makes them look like links, which they are not. There is no place for comments, no social functions, and no search field.

Berlingske for iPad does have a number of interesting personalization options which could be the strongest reason for choosing this way to enter the Berlingske universe. First of all, the user gets five frontpage alternatives to choose from, such as ”News overview”, ”My frontpage”, etc. Besides that, tags can be ”plussed” if you wish to see how your favourite stories develop or if there is any news on your chosen topics (unfortunately, here’s one more feature which appears to be very beta; to make it genuinely useful, tagging will have to be done much more consistently). Finally, you can influence the page hierarchy and, to some extent, decide which topics get top priority. To operate this, you push buttons that vibrate just like iPad icons – but which look more like the plastic buttons on a toy phone and can be dragged to the strangest places, even out of the screen. Here, as well as in the page architecture (with navigation elements distributed across the screen in a slightly disorganized way), I miss the ”neatness” which we have learned to expect from the iPad format. On the other hand, the app is clearly a member of the Berlingske ”family”, with typography and colour quite similar to the web and print editions. To Berlingske subscribers, access is free. New users will have to pay 299 DKK (40 euro) a month after a 30-day trial period. As the vast majority of the contents of this app comes from Berlingske’s website, the price policy might be a forewarning of a B.dk paywall in n the not-so-distant future. From the Munkytalk blog – where you can see more screenshots from the Berling ske iPad app. You can also read a Danish version at journalisten.dk

E www.munkytalk.com E www.b.dk/ipad

go for a swim In this photo, dated 1910 by Danish press photography’s ’grand old man’ Holger Damgaard, girls of all ages have gathered in the ladies’ section of the public baths of Helgoland. In 1908 Holger Damgaard became Politiken’s first full-time employed photographer. Photo: Holger Damgaard.

The world’s oldest association for press photographers – Dansk Pressefotografforbund – turns 100 and celebrates with a book and outdoor exhibitions in three cities in Denmark.

Lars Pryds pryds@mac.com n Dansk Pressefotografforbund cele

brates its 100th anniversary with style by publishing a brick of a book – 3,1 kilo. The book is an amazing achievement and an absolute must-have if you are even only remotely engaged in news coverage – as a photographer, of course, but also if you’re a journalist, editor or graphic designer. Every picture tells a story, is a common saying – but even if, as the book’s editor Irene Greve says in the preface, each image is only a very small, subjective extract of reality, the best press photos make us stop and think. They make us explore meanings we did not know existed. The photographer’s role as a professional eye-witness is still important today, because history is a printout of reality – and photographs are what we remember things by.

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Danish press photography in war and – mostly – peace for 100 years

15 E

world’s best In the late 1990ies Danish photographers made their entrance on the international scene with photos very different from what Danish readers were used to. One of the important photographers of ’The Danish Wave’ was Claus Bjørn Larsen, who won the prestigious title ’World Press Photo of the Year 1999’ for this photo of Albanian refugees. Photo: Claus Bjørn Larsen.

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Press photography, however, could not exist without the written word, and the book documents this. Not only by showing examples of newspaper pages with great photography in context, but also by the articles and essays that are written specifically for this book. Five photographers give their very personal stories of working in the field, and 19 invited authors and journalists have written essays on selected themes. So the tradition of the writer-photo grapher duality is maintained – making the book not merely a celebration of the photographers’ magnificent photos, but a celebration of news reporting as such. Reporting the news in Denmark is not dominated by warfare or natural disasters, so despite local dramas the book has a quiet tone of voice. News in the country of “the happiest people in the world” also means the good news as well as the daily life of the population. Of course, Danish photographers go to the hotspots of the world, so there are dramatic images of war and bloodshed. Some of these have even won international awards – like Claus Bjørn Larsen’s photo shown above.

The book covers the years back to 1889 when the first photo was printed in a Danish newspaper, but the main focus is on the latest 100 years. The book’s photo editor Per Folkver, photographer and three time jury member of World Press Photo, has made a tremendous effort in finding the right selection of photos to document the 100 years of the Danish press. Together with research assistant Anne Cornelius he worked for a year, looking through thousands of photos to find the right way to choose what to print and what not to. “I wanted to present both the many icons of Danish photography, but also show how press photography is rapidly and creatively developing – so I wanted to find a good mix between past and present,” Per Folkver says. So the most difficult part was not to eliminate photos, but to decide upon the overall approach to selecting the photos: “In the long process, the photo sections of the book have changed several times. When we in the group of editors saw that my proposals for a selection

did not quite work, I went home to start over again. So actually, we have had four almost finished books on the table along the way.” “Naturally most of the many pictures we have looked at did not make it into the book. Not because they were not great photos, but when you decide upon a graphic shape and size for the book you’re bound to a specific way of thinking – and it guides your way of choosing what to include. We screened out some very good photos because there was simply no room for them in the flow we created in the book. A publication like this is not better just because the number of photos is bigger – rather, the quality and the essence of each single picture and the way it interacts with the images that surrounds it, that is what counts,” says Per Folkver. The book – and the photos that made it into it – is indeed a great selection. And a great way to remind us that great photography is here, all the time, in newspapers and on the internet, to show us what life looks like to people near us or far away. So we can rememn ber – even in another 100 years.

Vidnerne. Historien Dansk pressefotografi i 100 år Editor: Irene Greve Photo editor: Per Folkver Forlaget Ajour, 2012 www.forlagetajour.dk 420 pages, 30 x 30 cm DKK 398,-

Danish Press Photography for 100 years Exhibition opens at Nytorv, Copenhagen, 15 May 2012. The exhibition will later travel to Odense and Aarhus. Copenhagen Photo Festival Exhibitions at Carlsberg, Copenhagen, 7-17 June 2012. More info: www.pressefotografforbundet.dk

war zones Vagn Hansen was one of the first Danish photographers to report from the world’s war zones. Here the ”Winter War”, the Soviet-Finnish war, which began on 30 November 1939, when Stalin’s troops attacked Finland. Photo: Vagn Hansen.

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Election 89 year-old former social democratic Prime Minister Anker Jørgensen on a train station beside a poster showing his party’s candidate for the 2011 election, Helle Thorning-Schmidt. She won the election and became Denmark’s first female Prime Minster. Photo: Martin Lehmann.

acting Berlingske Tidende’s Søren Bidstrup has captured actress Sonja Richter literally climbing the walls after receiving a prestigious award. This photo helped Søren Bidstrup win an award himself – it was part of the portfolio that made him Danish Press Photographer of the Year 2007. Photo: Søren Bidstrup.

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DN. Out of the gridlock In late September 2011 Dagens Nyheter hit the streets in a new design. We asked John Bark, with experience from previous DN redesign projects, to interview Rickard Frank, formally the editor-in-chief at Trelleborgs Allehanda. Rickard joined the DN process half-way through and helped the inhouse design group to bring the paper all the way to its new design. John Bark jbarkdesign@gmail.com n ”We

have listened to you. And worked for a year. Here is your new DN!” This was how Gunilla Herlitz, editor-in-chief and publisher, presented the newspaper when it launched in a new design on September 19, 2011. Detailed preparations paved the way for the redesign – preceded by a turbulent period with reorganization and downsizing of staff. “A very, very difficult time” as one staff member put it, “but probably necessary for the newspaper’s renewal”. Some years ago Rickard Frank was

employed in the graphic department of DN. So he knows many of the staff members, which facilitated the work with the new design. In the redesign task force 10-15 people worked with Rickard Frank. The Spanish design consultant Javier Errea served as an inspiration and interlocutor in limited parts of the process. Rickard Frank, can you describe how the group saw the job at hand? “Today, you cannot reshape a news paper by using rigid templates. Content and material is in more control now. It is much more important to define how you approach the visual presentation, than focus on a fixed graphic and typographic result.

This way, it is okay to miss a bold intro once in a while or choose the wrong size of a headline. It is not the main focus.” What would you say is the really big change? “We used to have a very uniform presentation with the obvious limitations imposed upon us by the form. Especially in the news and business sections. Headline at the top, fixed text lengths, three column photographs in the middle of the page surrounded by text. In worst case the templates were a restriction to both content, planning and editing. What we’re trying to do now is to create visual conditions for a more

Another group worked with implementing the new editorial system Newspilot. At launch time one year later the change has consequences for practically all 400 employees, and more than 20,000 readers had the possibility to speak up in both web surveys and interviews. A few months after the launch of the new DN, the paper’s website DN.se was also redesigned with typography and colours matching that of the printed version. Design by Doberman. See also SNDS Magazine issue 4, 2011.

More choices The aim of the new front page is to make room for variation. More than 20 different models are available, but no fixed templates.

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All stones turned The project began in the fall 2010 as an internal process of going through the needs of the entire newspaper – content as well as commercial, visual, and technical aspects. The redesign task force worked to modernize everything while at the same time testing different variations of a new paper – how many sections to have and how to make the best flow of both advertising and editorial content.

Variation before templates The new design strategy has a built-in flexibility and the main news spread may look very different from day to day as the presentation is decided upon by assessing the content, and which way to tell the story is the best for that particular subject.

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flexible kind of newspaper where the number of lines of text is decided upon from journalistic evaluations rather than by graphic rules. We created possibilities and several levels of the editorial toolbox. At the same time, on some pages we pack the content tighter to make room for freehand solutions that take more time and planning to produce. At the basic level there will be strict design rules and templates. Here we have fixed solutions that will not need much manual work. If you spend too much time doing the simple things there will not be time enough to create the complicated and difficalt pages.” So much freedom of choice must be very demanding of the editors and layout people in daily production? “Sure, the demands are higher now, for both the planning staff and the page editors. If you do something wrong you’re held responsible – and you can no longer blame a rigid graphic template for stopping you in your work. Solutions for page layout and pack-

aging is everybody’s responsibility when the design is based on a strategy for presentation and guidelines rather than a fixed basic shape. It takes early planning and evaluations and preliminary sketches on a whiteboard or on paper before sitting down at the computer. A new important function has also been established – that of a page editor, who will have the overall responsibility for the pages of his or her section of the newspaper.” So, it’s back to the drawing board, paper and pen? “All those who have been here for some time know the sketching routine from earlier periods. The difference is that today the pen, paper and whiteboaard stops you from getting stuck with a solution too soon in the process – like it often will when you start working with the content directly on the computer. How do you work with planning? How far ahead of time are you? “It is important very early to have an idea about how the presentation of the

Four ways to better presentation 1. Finished layout: Short time needed for editing – used on standard pages with editorials or articles with fixed lengths and proportions for text, photos and graphics. 2. Boxed layout: Editor, page editor, reporter, photographer and infographic artist discuss and sketch proposed layout and agree on text lengths. A graphic designer is attached to the articles; size of boxes (text, photo etc.) are changed as work progresses. 3. Verbal boxed layout: An article with a ”given” solution on the page – e.g. a sidestory in one column or bottom of the page. Editor, page editor/sub-editor agree on size and where to place the story in the paper. 4. Free editing: The best of the best – content and presentation that no one else can compete with. Some material needs different approaches to find the best presentation.

content should be. Discussion is important – as well as sketching ideas. Deciding on a solution too soon will impede the development of ideas for the really good way to tell the story visually. This is the responsibillity of the page editor – but as I mentioned, all involved must take active part in the planning. We have also created and defined new functions for the daily planning work. For instance, we operate within

what we call ‘four ways to better presentation’ (see fact box on page 20). DN has been in tabloid format for about ten years now – did you keep any elements from the previous redesigns? “The new DN is in a way a retro-flirt. We were very inspired by the broadsheet format DN as it looked 15 years ago, when the paper was really sharp. Much of what we have done here has

its foundation in the redesign made in 1996. Even Javier Errea went into our archives and came out enthusiastic with pages from that time. Among other things, we have re-introduced the long texts from the time of the broadsheet – the idea being that things must be as big as the content demands for it to be great. This goes for text as well as photography and graphics.

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supplements The different supplements and sections each have their own tone of voice – DN. KULTUR, for instance, has a clean look and on the cover usually just a large photo or illustration. The new Stockholm section – DN.STHLM – has local emphasis and speaks more directly to its readers. The large Sunday section showcases interesting personalities in close up photos on the cover and the stories inside tell their story.

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Creating the new Dn: Mattias Hermansson, editorial development; Lotta Ek, design; Johan Andersson, graphics; Lotta Härdelin, project manager; Javier Errea, design; Rickard Frank, design. Photo: Nicklas Thegerström.

Why do you think that DN did not really succeed in the early tabloid form? “In recent years, DN has been trying to communicate too much like the evening newspapers, but also like free tabloids like Metro and Stockholm City. This is not the kind of newspaper DN should be. DN tells its stories on its own terms based on other ways of communicating.

In a way, we’re trying to recreate what is specific for DN – the things that have always been the strength and the foundation of the paper.” Did you have other role models? Like international newspaper, for instance? “In the process we looked inwards rather that out. We have really tried

to make a set of tools to combine content and presentation based on the actual need. At the same time, inspiration from the outside world is of course important. Gunilla (Herlitz, editor-in-chief, ed.) wanted to make an international newspaper. The hanging headlines are an example of this. Flirting with retro is part of this

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sports: Longer stories on the sports pages is an unusual sight in most newspapers, but not in the new Dagens Nyheter.

1.0 1.2

Rubriker Guardian

Guardian Sans Thin Guardian Sans Black

1.0 1.1

Would you say that you succeeded in creating a modern Dagens Nyheter? “DN has only just begun that trip, there is still some way to go. We now have an acceptable lowest level for the daily presentation. But we raise that level more often now than in the beginning. Most employees understand the need for planning if we are to reach the top we’re aiming at. At the moment, I’m concentrating on developing infographics, but we also focus on following up and evaluating the work in each department. We have a lot of development to do in the future – as you know, the real hard work starts now that the new form and the new tools have been introduced. Input is essential, too. In order to work efficiently and creatively you must listen to the impressions you get from the outside. The Monday breakfast meetings in the Stockholm supplement is an example of that. It does sound very simple when Rickard Frank describes the relationship between form and content, but

that necessary natural balance between those two elements can be the hardest nut to crack – which only a few newspapers have succeded in doing. The new DN is in many respects the result of a newspaper born on the other side of the gridlocked template era. The renewed paper has landed in a modern combination of prioritization of content and journalistic assessments – with the aid of form. And not as a pretty ground rule but as an actual way of working with a very real end result. This is what makes the changes a small revolution – and turns DN into on of the world’s most n modern newspapers. John Bark has been part of four redesigns at Dagens Nyheter, of which he favours the one conducted in 1996, under the management of Joachim Berner. Translation: Lars Pryds You can also read the Swedish version of this article on snds.org/magazine Additional images and info: E www.snds.org/magazine E www.dn.se

Publico Banner Light Publico Banner Regular Publico Banner Medium Publico Banner Bold Publico Banner Black Typographic change The main headline type Bodoni and its Side kick, custom designed Akzidens Grotesk is replaced by the serif Publico and the sans serif face Guardian Sans – both by Christian Schwartz and Paul Barnes from Commercial Type. For body copy, Publico Text replaces ITC Charter. ”The choice of typefaces was less dramatic this time,” says Lotta Ek. ”Instead, we focused more on developing the structure and the tools to make the newspaper.” Another new element is the ’hanging headlines’. When critique arose of the sometimes unnatural white space below the headlines, Javier Errea laconically answered: ”Either you do it like this – or you don’t”. The ten commandments The design work focused on these areas: 1. Headlines; 2. Vignettes; 3. Colour; 4. Columns – vertical dividers; 5. Modules – horisontal dividers; 6. Alternative storytelling; 7. Front pages; 8. Graphics; 9. Photo journalism; 10. Visual planning. The most important tools An important part of the new design is a collection of alternative storytelling tools, with a large number of examples. The extensive toolbox of graphic elements is crucial as a basic setup for building the pages.

The redesign task force: Johan Andersson, infographics Per Boström, design (initially) Nicolaus Daun, templates development Lotta Ek, design Javier Errea, design consultant Rickard Frank, design Mattias Hermansson, content development Maria Huldt, template development Lotta Härdelin, project management Annelie Johansson, template development Anders Nordlund, technical setup and tools Claes Sjödin, template development Rolf Stohr, template development Ulrika Sturén, template development.

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somewhat introvert working process. But everything is new and much of it never tried before, at DN. It is a major change on several levels of the organization – not just to do with the presentation.

Rubriker Publico

Indianapolis: In preparation for hosting this year’s Super Bowl, The Star introduced their readers to the fans who would be cheering their teams, the New York Giants and the New England Patriots.

Cleveland: The Plain Dealer used Andrea Levy’s illustration for the special section cover of the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Wisconsin: Sports in Region 4 is huge and Wisconsin Badger football is no exception, this page is from the Wisconsin State Journal’s coverage of the 2012 Rose Bowl.

Region 4 rocks From playing host to the largest, most talked-about sporting event in North America to covering a freakish snowstorm that brought one of our largest cities to its knees, the past year has been huge for news design in the six U.S. states that make up Society for News Design’s Region 4.

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Michael Tribble mtribble@plaind.com

n And to top it off, the region — which includes Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin — will host one of SND’s most talked-about gatherings, the annual Workshop and Exhibition, Oct. 11-13, 2012, in Cleveland, Ohio. The nearly 180 members that make up Region 4 come from news organizations that cover 341,779-square miles of

the Great Lakes region of the U.S. The region also is home to several members of the organization’s current leadership team: SND President Jonathon Berlin is the graphics director of the Chicago Tribune in Illinois; Secretary/ Treasurer David Kordalski is assistant managing editor/visuals for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland; and Immediate Past President Steve Dorsey is vice president for research + development at the Detroit Media Partnership in Detroit, Mich. I’ve been a member of Region 4

since 2005, when I was originally hired as design and graphics director for The Plain Dealer, and have been its regional director the last two years. During my time here, I’ve been amazed by our membership’s dedication to the craft of visual storytelling and by the willingness of our members to volunteer for the principles championed by SND — whether it be mentoring students at the numerous colleges of journalism in the region or facilitating each February at the annual World’s Best judging in Syracuse, N.Y.

michigan: The Detroit News did this spread on the pairing of rap superstars Kanye West and Jay Z for their album “Watch the Throne” before their appearance in Detroit.

Lexington: The Herald-Leader celebrated the national championships won by the University of Kentucky’s men’s basketball team with banners from each of their titles. indianapolis A poster front featuring Giants quarterback Eli Manning led The Star’s 20-page special section that wrapped the paper the day after the city hosted Super Bowl XLVI.

Region 4 is right in the thick of change, with last year’s reboot of the SND Best of Digital Design competition, which had more than 500 entries in a slew of new categories including overall design, photo and video projects, news apps and mobile design. Judging for the competition takes place at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. And speaking of universities, our region includes some of the most active journalism schools in SND. Ball State is home to professors Ryan Sparrow, the director of the Best of Digital Design competition and Jennifer GeorgePalilonis, SND education chair. We’re also home to active student-lead E

SND

GLOBAL n All SND members belong to

geographic regions, each represented by a regional director on the SND board. Some directors report directly to SND HQ, some are Presidents of an affiliate organization, like for example SND Scandinavia. In a series of articles, we give you a glimpse of what is going on in the rest of the world. Our SND network really is a global one.

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Quick courses and journalism schools The region also has occasional gatherings that focus on specific topics that align with SND’s overall design principles. One example was a Quick Course on video editing and motion graphics held last winter in Cleveland that featured videographer and artist Zach Wise of the New York Times. Our region boasts several large publications, including four of the top 25 U.S. newspapers by daily circulation: the Chicago Tribune (9), Chicago Sun-Times (12), The Plain Dealer (19) and the Detroit Free Press (23). Our members remain primarily printcentric visual journalists, but in the past several years SND has made a big push to move into the digital sphere.

Michael Tribble is assistant managing editor | digital and online at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland. A native Texan, he has spent nearly 20 years coming to terms with his addition to newspapering. He has been a reporter, photographer, designer, art director, editor, agate clerk and coffee brewer for publications big and small including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the San Jose Mercury News. He is also currently Region 4 director for SND and site chair for the 2012 workshop in Cleveland. E Email: mtribble@plaind.com E Website: www.sndcle.com

Tips for exploring Region 4: Planning a trip to SNDCLE? Here are my favorite places to see in Region 4. chicago: The Tribune explored the nine eras of Oprah Winfrey in this double-truck graphic that breaks down her most frequent celebrity guests, her book club selections and her show’s ratings.

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groups at Michigan State University’s MSU/SND in Lansing, Mich. and NWU/SND at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. Living in interesting times Like numerous news organizations around the globe, our region faces the tremendous challenges of shrinking space in our print publications, the downsizing of editorial staffs, the necessary retraining of our staff members for the digital media landscape and the draining of talent when some of our best minds leave visual journalism. But in contrast to those challenges is the fact that we’re living in the most exciting time in history to be a visual journalist. Never before have we had this much opportunity to make a difference. The tools in the digital sphere allow us a reach we never could have imagined. And that technology seems to change daily. Decades ago designers, graphic artists, photographers and others were asked to lead a bold and

energizing change. Today, we have been given another charge: help move our organizations from traditional lines of print into the digital delivery of our content. SNDCLE That’s why I’m excited to invite each and every one of you to Cleveland — the birthplace of Rock ‘n’ Roll — this October to experience what we’re calling the “Ideas and Inspiration” Workshop. For two days visual journalists from around the globe will immerse themselves in the art of design and interactivity. And our opening night will be at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where attendees will get a special, all-access pass to see exhibits including memorabilia from acts that shaped rock ‘n’ roll, including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Elvis, ABBA and more. So please, join us in Cleveland this October. We promise quite the rock show. n

Chicago (less than 6 hours driving) The Art Institute of Chicago is a worldrenowned art museum housing the thirdlargest permanent collection in the U.S. E explorechicago.org/city/en.html Cleveland The West Side Market celebrates its 100th anniversary this year and is home to over 100 vendors of great ethnic diversity. It is a city landmark noted for its 137-foot clock tower. E positivelycleveland.com/play/ Detroit (less than 3 hours driving) The Motown Historical Museum, formerly the headquarters of Motown Records, where Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes and others recorded their hits. E visitdetroit.com/ Indianapolis (less than 6 hours driving) In 1909, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosted its first 500-mile race. Today, the Hall of Fame Museum houses one of the largest collections of racecars. E visitindy.com

T Kd

TPG TolleOne – a hand written font now in five styles: Light, Regular, Medium, Bold, Black

TPG Katalog – a stencil font in three styles: Light, Regular, Bold

TPG DontBlurry – a soft font now in five styles: Light, Regular, Bold, Bold Wide, Black

All fonts: OpenType OTF Windows/Mac TTF

Display fonts from Tolstrup Pryds Graphics

pryds.com/type All fonts available from Myfonts: bit.ly/wno4j6

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TPG FaceFont – a picture font with mostly faces. Two styles: Left and Right (Left and Right)

Up, up – and away! Changing the logo for every issue? Not many publications dare loose their identity this way. Portuguese inflight magazine ‘UP’ does exactly that; and its designers create a new logo every month when the old one disappears in thin air – just like the airplanes where the magazine is read. We asked Vasco Colombo from +2designers to explain how and why.

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Vasco Colombo – in short, what is UP magazine? UP magazine is the Portuguese airlines company (TAP) in-flight magazine. It is monthly and the estimate circulation (not print run!) is around one million readers.

How do you come up with the ideas for the UP covers? From the very beginning we took advantage of the fact that this magazine doesn't have to fight for attention in the newsstands. On the other hand, this kind of freedom gives us no excuses and therefore raises the responsibility for having to create something great every month. For commercial reasons, the ‘big idea’ covers that were a trademark of a

certain era (think of George Lois), simply faded. At UP we decided that this should always be our way. The creation of iconic images became a monthly ambition for us. Every issue of UP is dedicated to one city, country or region where TAP flies to. The main goal of every cover is to somehow summarize the feel of the place in one single image. Not an easy task! UP hasn't got a very precise target. It is made for airplane passengers which means, everyone! From illiterate to erudite, from wealthy to less so, from old to young. So everyone should be able to identify immediately what we're talking about in the cover without needing a strong cultural background. The starting point for each cover

is usually something recognizable or even obvious, something that anyone can relate to the place. Then we start to have some fun playing around with ideas. And here the idea of fun is crucial. The brainstorms in our studio or with the editorial staff or even with some invited guests always welcome all kind of ideas without any restriction. Sometimes very silly ones (well, that's what a brainstorm is about, right?), but very often having already the seed for something interesting. This selection is crucial and already involves some decisions concerning the kind of models we'll use, the styling, the props or even the kind of light. The choice of models is sometimes a headache. Finding the right model to

‘be’ the Scandinavian, Brazilian, French, Austrian or New Yorker is harder than it might look. At the same time we need them to have some acting skills as most of the covers demand it. A slight touch of humor is very important so the covers don't take themselves too seriously or became weird, given the surreal approach in some of them. Normally, publications and companies maintain a consistent identity, with a logo that is identical wherever it is used – you change it on every single cover. What is the philosophy behind this approach? We think that the consistent identity is very important for every reason we can think of, wether it is a company or a magazine. On the other hand identity is not synonymous of logo. A logo is just a part of an identity. What makes a magazine immediately recognizable can be lots of different things. In the case of UP, the very distinctive approach is the ideas, the kind of picture used, the iconic feel we try to convey each month, these are items that make

it distinctive. We know that after seeing three covers of UP, anyone will recognize it even without the aid of the logo. Also, the fact that we are changing the logo every issue is in itself an issue that becomes recognizable. It must be said that during the first year we used the regular logo with just small variations. Which one is your own personal favourite UP cover? – and why? It is not easy to choose a favorite one. Some of them work better aesthetically, others are more effectively describing the place – and others have a brighter idea. I would choose these four covers: Berlin: A good example of how many ideas can be expressed with very few elements: Berlin as a city that is rebirthing, the contrast between the past and the future, the wall and graffiti culture along with the gothic type in the captions. New York: For people like us who love typography, this homage to Paula Scher and her iconic Public Theatre posters was very fun to make. Also, the choice of the model was a very nice one,

and a good example of the approach we have when it comes to find the perfect look: we wanted to show a girl that could give the feel of New York's melting pot. The chosen one – the German Caro Duong – had the right features for the matter, not easy to find its origins. Pantanal: Pantanal is a swamp region in Brazil the size of France, very well known for its huge animal diversity. The exotic birds are its strongest trademark. The evocation in the models hair and the Peter Beard inspired handwriting fr the captions created one of the most vibrant covers. Estrada Real: This cover is about Estrada Real, Portuguese for Royal Road, a path used by the 16th century explorers in Brazil when they headed to the gold and precious stones mines, during the period when the portuguese royal family was living there. This road became very important to the birth of several cite in Brazil. We used the evocation of a 16th century outfit and the captions were inspired by the way the roads were represented on the old maps.

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Photo/design: +2designers

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+2 designers

Small design studio, placed in the centre of Lisbon, working mainly in editorial projects. Raquel Porto and Vasco Colombo had been working together as freelancers for quite a while and opened the +2 designers studio in 2006.

The story of the Copenhagen cover From the very beginning we thought that Lego, as a wellknown Danish brand, could be the recognizable element we needed for this cover. We also wanted to give a very clean and designlike feel to this cover as a way to meet the average expectations of what Copenhagen might look like. So we ended up with the idea if a girl building a big UP logo with Lego bricks. Once model, the styling and props were chosen we made the shooting and the final layout, and we were happy with the result. For several reasons we were a little late in the deadlines. The printer kept calling us saying that he needed the cover files, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to have the magazine on time. So when we e-mailed the PDF we felt the relief every designer feel when finally the pressure is over. Then we got a phone call: apparently there was a misunderstanding about the Lego permission to use the bricks as the UP logo. Lego wouldn’t allow it! After some moments of panic and negotiations with the printer we got two extra hours to send them another cover. Otherwise, no magazine on time!

Quick brainstorm, lots of ideas and in ten minutes we decided to use another icon of Danish design: Verner Panton! The design chair was going to take place as the logo. We played around with the chair until we got a beautiful UP logo out of this great piece of design! We got permissions to use the Panton Chair on the cover but still had a problem to solve: in the original picture the model’s hand was holding a Lego brick. In the new version we had no use for that position of the hand. While the clock kept running fast, we photographed the hand of our secretary, called the post production wizard to put the hand in the right place. And so he did. With only a few minutes left of our extra time, we e-mailed the new cover to the printer. In the end we were very happy that Lego said no, as the Panton chair cover ended up looking better than the first one! n Copenhagen is the only Scandinavian destination that has been on the cover of UP so far. However, chances are good we’ll see a Norwegian issue this year. –pryds

Vasco Colombo

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”From the start we've been working both for big and small clients,” says Vasco Colombo. ”For the last few years, along with some jobs in identity, books, catalogues, we've designed and redesigned magazines and newspapers. More than just creating their visual identity, we are also interested in helping to define the editorial feel to the publications. In some cases, we've been hired to create the editorial project and team as well as the graphic project.” ”We strongly believe that the future of magazines and newspapers will be defined by a strong design thinking. The publishing industry needs to reinvent itself and the renewal needed will be the result of an accurate analysis from the perspective of the designers. And, by design here, we mean much more than layouts or choice of typefaces.” ”New platforms like the iPad and tablets in general, will grow in importance in this area if the right steps are made. Until now we've been seeing the birth of several iPad publications, many of them with amazing layouts but, in our opinion, still far from the path that will help the industry as a whole. We hope to give a small contribution to this discussion with an iPad publication — a selfinitiated project — we've been developing recently and hopefully will be at the app store in March.”

Raquel Porto E www.mais2designers.com

Photo: +2 designers

Terror from Utøya wins photo awards n Not

surprisingly, the tragic events on the Norwegian island Utøya on 22 July 2011 were very visible in the many prestigious press photo of the year competitions that announced their winners in the beginning of the year. World Press Photo awarded freelance photo grapher Niclas Hammarström 2nd Prize in the category Spot News Stories for a series of 12 photos showing the tragic events seen from a distance – including images with recognizable dead people in them. The announcement of this winner caused heavy debate in Norway and elsewhere – should the media publish pictures of dead people or not? At a more safe distance, away from the actual location of the island but in a very emotional close-up, Mads Nissen’s portrait of Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg expresses the heavy grief of not only one man but that of a whole nation, captured a few days after the tragic events. The photo – the result of a three minute photo opportunity – was awarded Por trait of the Year in the Danish competition. Norway’s Picture of the Year also shows a grieving Stoltenberg in Tommy Ellingsen’s photo for Stavanger Aftenblad. Other Scandinavian countries had not yet found their winners at the time this magazine went to print, but we will catch up on that in the June issue of SNDS Magazine, which will have photography as a main theme. –pryds n

world press photo Spot News Stories, 2nd Prize: Photos showing things left behind, people in terror as well as some of those already killed by Anders Breivik on Utøya. Photo: Niclas Hammarström, Sweden, for Aftonbladet.

denmark Portrait of the Year: Jens Stoltenberg photographed by Mads Nissen, who also won the title Press Photographer of the Year and three other awards. Photo: Mads Nissen, Berlingske.

Norway Picture of the Year: Jens Stoltenberg and Knut Storberget visit the Sundvolden hotel where relatives and survivors from Utøya stay after the events. In the winning photo Stoltenberg gives a hug to the AUF leader Eskil Pedersen. Photo: Tommy Ellingsen, Stavanger Aftenblad.

n On

January 1, SND launched its Year-Long Conversation, a 365-day experiment about all things news design. “The Conversation headquarters is on snd.org where we’ll post essays, discussions, images, files to share and news of other ways the conversation will date place on social media and at events and meet-ups,” SND President Jonathon Berlin said at launch time. He describes the overall goals as pretty simple: One conversation topic per week, wrapped up in a blog post, web presentation and/or meet-up. This should result in 52 conversations when

the year is over. The topics of the conversations will be diverse in subject and geography, so contributions will come from all parts of the world – including Scandinavia. Among the posts made so far you can find Matt Mansfield’s “An expansive

definition of design” including three tips for thinking differently about your design approach; Larry Buchanan’s Q&A “Mandy Brown talks design, news and, ahem, reading” with thoughts about web advertising and many other issues; and T.K. Sajeev Kumar’s “Report from India: Inspiring great design, in print and online” – and many more. A very useful and inspiring dialogue across continents has started here – join in the conversation! –pryds n E www.snd.org/conversation

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Friends of news design: We need to talk!

SNDS Magazine 2012|1 The President

Let’s celebrate! SNDS President Anders Tapola anders.tapola@smp.se n Politiken made

it again! Winning SND’s World’s Best Designed. Last time was 2006. Svenska Dagbladet was awarded Best in Show (this creative prize has only been rewarded 17 times before – and last time was ten years ago) and also a Gold Medal for its breaking news coverage of the 2011 extremist’s attacks in Oslo and Utøya. And Dagens Nyheter got 18 awards, Bergens Tidende 8. Scandinava got over 50 prizes. Conclusion: Scandinavian news design belongs to the best in the world. * Besides Politiken four other newspapers were awarded World’s Best Designed: Excelsior, Mexico City, Mexico, National Post and The Grid, both from Toronto, Canada and Frankfurter

Photo: Lena Gunnarsson

Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The last decade very few newspapers from USA has got this award. Last time was New York Times in 2009 and before that Hartford Courant in 2004. Conclusion: It seems that the most exciting news design comes from outside USA. * The News Designers Day (Redigerarens Dag) was celebrated for the first time this year: January 17. The initiative came from Anna Valentinsson and some of her colleagues at Norrköpings Tidningar. They started a Facebook group just a week before, and almost 350 people attended the celebration. And not just from Swedish newspapers. Tønsbergs Blad in Norway and Vasabladet in Finland also wanted to join. There has rarely been so many

articles in so little time in Swedish newspapers about this profession. A great initiative! * SNDScandinavias Facebook group, by the way, recently reached over 1000 “likes”. It’s also worth to be celebrated. If you haven’t already joined the group, do so at: Efacebook.com/sndscandinavia * And finally: The Best of Scandinavian News Design has had its annual jury meeting in Billund, Denmark. Those who have won prizes have hopefully been told that now. What kind of prize will be revealed in Copenhagen on 27-28 September when it’s time for Space_2012. Hopefully, many more have reasons to celebrate then. Welcome! n

celebrating Tønsbergs Blad celebrates Redigerarens Dag (The News Designers Day) with letter cakes (left). Below: Party at Norrköpings Tidningar, where the initiative to The News Designers Day was taken.

Photo: Mikael Strand/Norrköpings Tidningar.

Photo: Henrik Ulrichsen

the best Svenska Dagbladet (far left) won the ”Best in Show” and a Gold Medal in the SND33 Best of News Design competition for their Utøya coverage, and Politiken (shown here is the special redesign launch front page from 2011) was once again among the newspapers named ”World’s Best Designed”.