Bronzed in Germany

By Nicholas Damiani

The Police Journal finished off 2022 with the second of two major international awards it won in Europe and the United States

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A bronze award at the International Creative Media Awards (ICMA) in Germany was the prize for the February cover and cover story The other pandemic

Announced in December, the award recognizes the best in contemporary graphic design – and competition is always strong

Publishers submit their design work to the ICMA from both eastern and western European countries and Great Britain

Participants also come from Singapore, India, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA and Russia.

News of the Police Journal bronze award came out of Germany on December 2, after a panel of international judges had made its decision

Police Journal editor Brett Williams spoke of his pleasure in adding the award to 13 other international prizes the magazine has won since 2014

“We’ve won an international award in either Europe or the US for eight consecutive years now,” he said “I’m still taken aback every time it happens I just never get used to it

“But for this latest ICMA design award, the credit really belongs to our graphic designer, Sam Kleidon, and photographer Steve McCawley

“Both have produced years’ worth of high-quality work for the journal and for other Police Association projects. ”

Thrilled about the award, Mr McCawley explained that he had aimed to produce a cover image which would “support such an important story”

“Capturing the right expressions and feel was critical to us in helping readers lean into the story before they’d even turned a page,” he said Ms Kleidon, who has undertaken design work for the Police Association for almost two decades, described The other pandemic as “one of my favourite pieces”

“The purposeful combination of the simple, strong images and ‘meaty’ quotes made for a powerful result,” she said.

“It’s nice to think that others felt the design did justice to the quality of the material as well. ”

The Police Journal was also a big winner at the Tabbie Awards in the United States earlier in 2022 It won gold in the Focus/Profile Article category for the seven-page cover story The Crows’ own detective by Brett Williams

The journal has now won a gold Tabbie award for its journalism in each of the last three years In total, it has won seven Tabbies – gold, silver and bronze –for journalism since 2015

Police Association president Mark Carroll said the international awards served to “highlight our magazine’s standing on the world stage”.

“The ICMA award is the third the Police Journal has won in Germany,” he said. “And awards like these are difficult to win.

“But we produce the leading and most awarded police magazine in Australia That’s clear from the now 14 international awards our journal has won

“We’ve clearly got our publishing operation right, but we never stop striving to make it even better

“And that wouldn’t happen were it not for the competent, professional team we have running the journal and, of course, the outstanding participation of our members ”

The other pandemic came close to another award earlier in 2022 . It was a finalist in the Single Article of the Year category at the Mumbrella Publish Awards in Sydney.

The Weekend Australian Magazine story Last Ditch ultimately won the award PJ