The 2009 seminar in words and pictures 6–12
Opera up side down: Oslo 2010 4–5 SND Buenos Aires 2009 13–14 VisualJournalism revitalized 16–17 Magasinudvikling – en løbende proces 18–20 Nerdy Type Thursday in Copenhagen 22-23 The dead tree industry – är den verkligen så död? 24
2009|2
SNDSMagazine
Finnish focus
Sweden
NORway
SNDS.ORG
Chairman of the Board Anders Tapola SMÅLANDSPOSTEN, S-351 70 Växjö, Sverige Tel.: +46 470 770 686 E-mail: anders.tapola@smp.se
Secretary Sissel Bigset Leira Sunnmørsposten, Boks 123, sentrum, N-6001 Ålesund Tel.: +47 70 12 00 00 E-mail: sissel.leira@smp.no
Web-editor Kartin Hansen Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten Grøndalsvej 3, DK-8260 Viby J. 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, Sverige Tel.: +46 18-478 16 79 E-mail: lars.andersson@unt.se
FINLAND Communication Petri Salmén HELSINGIN SANOMAT PB 71, FI-00089 Sanoma Helsinki, Tel.: +358 91 22 24 02 Fax: +358 91 22 23 88 E-mail: petri.salmen@sanoma.fi
DeNMARK Vice -President/ Treasurer Frank Stjerne JP/POLITIKENS HUS Rådhuspladsen 37, DK-1785 København V 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. Tel.: +45 87 38 38 38 / 31 08 Fax: +45 87 38 31 99 E-mail: lone.jurgensen@jp.dk
Best of Scandinavian News Design Chairman of the Competition Committee Flemming Hvidtfeldt Midtjyske Medier St. Blichersvej 5, DK-6950 Ringkøbing Tel.: +45 20 91 17 52 E-mail: hvid@bergske.dk
Substitutes for the board
Elin Madsen, Bergensavisen, Norge Anna W. Thurfjell, Svenska Dagbladet, Sverige Jørn Broch, JydskeVestkysten, Danmark
SNDS MAGAZINE Responsible Editor Jørgen Høg Nordvestpassagen 19 DK-8200 Århus N Danmark Mob.: +45 61 20 92 33 E-mail: jhoeg@stofanet.dk
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Editing/Art Direction Graphic designer Lars Pryds Østerbrogade 158, 3. TH., DK-2100 København Ø,
Danmark Tel.: +45 39 20 80 19 Mob.: +45 30 53 87 14 E-mail: pryds@mac.com Web: www.pryds.com
Editorial group: Henrik Ulrichsen henrik.ulrichsen@tb.no Vegar Vatn vegar.vatn@tb.no Print: Svendborg Tryk www.svendborgtryk.dk Typography: SNDS Magazine is set in Myriad Pro, Myriad Pro Condensed and Adobe Jenson Pro and laid out Adobe Indesign for Macintosh. Articles and ideas for SNDS Magazine and snds.org are most welcome. Please contact the editors if you have something you want to have published.
The front page: “Absolut Finland” – dance performance by Minimi at the opening ceremony at Oulu City Theatre. Photo: Jukka-Pekka Moilanen, Kaleva www.kaleva.fi
SNDS Magazine is published four times a year, in March, June, September and December. Deadlines are on the 15th of February, May, August and November.
Published by: Society for News Design Scandinavia www.snds.org ISSN 0909-1459
SNDS Magazine 2009|2 The Editor
We need an explosive boost But why am I sitting here writing this column having my doubts as to whether the future of this annual seminar may not be for a long time yet. Was anything wrong in Oulu? Not at all. The Finnish hospitality is outstanding, no matter where you were, you found exquisite Finnish obligation. And I was very well entertained by The Finnish Screaming Men’s Choir, Mieskuoro Huutajat, 30 men dressed in black suits, white shirts, and rubber ties – a unique choir which performs its repertoire by shouting and screaming. The crazy ensemble actually was founded in Oulu in the region of Northern Ostrobothnia, in Finland. It is the largest and most important
city in Northern Finland and the sixth largest city in the country. But it seems to me like it’s getting harder and harder to make a challenging programme, that should hopefully develop year after year. No objections against any of the speakers. Not at all. Separately, they did a fine effort, but give the seminar an explosive boost, please. Good ideas are more than welcome. The brave Norwegians have a big challenge prior to next year’s seminar held in Oslo. May SNDS 2010 be remembered for the totally surprising workshop, so we all sit on the plane on our way home, filled with professional inspiration. For whatever one may think of the kind Finns, the good arrangement and the talented speakers, the annual seminar to me missed a real attraction in addition to the award ceremony, which many of course look forward to. Our main event needs also to be tigh-
tened up a bit, be a little more Oscarlike, so we can really look forward to something to applaud. (I even helped to organize the awards, so please send proposals directly to myself ). But it is important that future participants have a decent and surprisingly professional dividends rather than they have faced their old SNDS friends once again. We need new faces, new ideas, new challenges. Don’t we? Hopefully we will read to Book of Creativety so that we are ready to make SNDS 2010 news design conference an even bigger success than seen ever before. See you in Oslo.
Jørgen Høg jhoeg@stofanet.dk The Editor
Best of Scandinavian News Design 2009 THE BOOK n 72 pages, colour images of all winning entries in the competition. Format: 21x29,7 cm ISBN: 978-87-992510-1-8 · ISSN: 1902-6293
PRICE: n BOOK+DVD: 30 € / 220 DKK n Book only: 20 € / 150 DKK n DVD only: 15 € / 100 DK
ON THE DVD n 182 high resolution image files of all the winning pages n Official SNDS and OULU24 logos for print and web n The book in low resolution PDF-file n Reportage photos from the judging of the competition n Rules for the competition n Quicktime slideshow with all winning pages
To buy your copy, please contact: SNDS Secretariat, Lone Jürgensen, c/o Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten, Grøndalsvej 3, DK-8260 Viby J, Denmark. Email: lone.jurgensen@jp.dk
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Ever since it was announced, that Finnish city Oulu was to be the host for this year’s SNDS seminar, I looked forward to visiting the place, far north than Reykjavik in Iceland. To me the thought of visiting the sixth largest city in Finland seemed to be rather exotic and I was not disappointed. Not at all. n
Opera up side The City
t 0TMP is a vibrant capital with outstanding museums, restaurants and nightlife. t It has more than 1000 different bars, restaurants and nightclubs. t The city was originally founded in 1049 by King Harald Hardråde (Harald Hard-Ruler). t The population is around 575 000, while the metropolitan area of Oslo is home to around 1.4 million. t Oslo is the fastest-growing Scandinavian capital. t In 2002, Oslo was nominated the most expensive city in the world, but in 2009 Oslo has fallen to fifth place, below Paris and Copenhagen.
The Conductor
t Aftenposten is Norway’s largest subscription news-paper (by circulation), wholly owned by Schibsted. t Founded in May 14, 1860 – 150 years next year. t It is based Postgirobygget (often referred to as «the ugliest building in town») in Central Oslo, right behind The Opera House. t Two daily editions. The morning edition has a circulation of 247,000. The evening edition has a circulation of 124,800. t Aftenposten.no is our internet newspaper. The site was awarded Site of the Year 2009, and has over 1 million daily users. t The newspaper has approximately 830 employees. t Editor-in-chief is Hans Erik Matre
The Scene
t 5IPO )PUFM 0QFSB was opened in 2001, after much debate because of its location near the waterfront and Oslo Opera House. t Is located in the heart of Oslo, close to the Airport Express Train Terminal at Oslo Central Station. t Some of Oslos main landmarks, like the Akershus Fort, the Opera House and the Royal Palace is in walking distance of the hotel. t The location is also a nice base for shopping, restaurant visits and nightlife. t A big terrace offers views of the Oslo Fjord and the Oslo Opera House. t Thon Hotel Opera is a nine storey building, with 434 rooms in various sizes.
The Play They all gather in Oslo in April 2010 – composers, musicians, librettists, singers, dancers, divas and stage workers of the newsroom. They all have a strong desire to create new stories, new sceneries and new costumes for the upcoming premiere. While the audience still is mingling in the foyer and the conductor puts on his black suit well prepared for the great entrance, the drama begins.
The star of this evening’s performance is missing, and suddenly you realize: You are left alone on the stage in the great opera house and have to sing all the leading roles by yourself. A nightmare or a dream created by the phantom (e.g. the editor in chief ) of the newsroom? Since the end of 15th century we have seen masterpieces and tragedies. A common trend throughout the 20th century is the use of smaller orchestras as a cost-cutting measure.
down
The grand Romantic era with huge string sections, multiple horns and exotic percussion instruments were challenged by smaller companies with a more fragile existence. This is all about opera – and the newsroom in which you are working. Come to Oslo in April 2010 to experience the drama! Footnote: The word opera means «work» in Italian (plural of Latin «opus» meaning «work» or «labour») suggesting that it combines the arts in a staged spectacle.
PQFSB SNDS workShop 2010
oSlo 22. - 24. april
Jukka-Pekka Moilanen
LOUD Finns Opening artists of the Oulu conference were, the world famous Mieskuoro Huutajat – The Screeming Men’s Choir – who gave us a few fabulous examples of their art. We want more!!
Oulu around the clock Jørgen Høg jhoeg@stofanet.dk
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n The Swedish newspaper Dagens Ny-
heter recieved the only gold medal for good news design at the annual Scandinavia News design conference hosted by Society of News Design Scandinavia. On 65.01° Northern altitude, 25.28° Eastern longitude it means sunny hours close to midnight, even in the middle of May. More than 160 guest and speakers from all over the world arrived at the sunny Finnish spot Thursday afternoon and were welcomed at the City Hall and among other things very well entertained by the Finnish Men’s Choir Thursday night before the professional news design focus the next day.
24 speakers on a long Friday made up the professional content for the annual news design conference, which took place in SAS Radisson Hotel and Conference Centre in Oulu, the sixth largest population amongst Finnish towns. In January 2009 the city had 137,061 inhabitants. 71 media houses from all of the Nordic countries were represented in the contest. Apart from the gold medal 16 silver diplomas, 17 bronze diplomas and 36 awards of excellence were handed out at the conference. Overall Denmark received 9 diplomas in the competition, Finland got 19, Sweden 19 and Norway received 23. n
DESIGN IMPORTANCE Javier Errea, Head of Errea Communication, had some strong statements to make as one of the keynote speakers. Do you complain all the time??
Søren Stidsholt Nielsen
my oulu Ingrid Meisingset ingrid.meisingset@adresseavisen.no Når man reiser hjem fra SNDS-konferanse skal man være inspirert – og det var jeg! Foredragene jeg deltok på holdt god standard, jeg har også inntrykk av at det var en god mix mellom papir og nett. På denne konferansen prioriterte jeg papir. Særlig inspirerende var Javier Errera’s innslag om New Narrative Techniques og magasinpreg på hverdagsavisen. Anna Thurfjells erfaringer gjennom arbeidet med Svenska Dagbladet var også matnyttig lærdom. Martin Gee og Lars Pryds med sitt visuelle påfyll ga inspirasjon til å jobbe mer med illustrasjoner både på nett og papir. Skal man være kritisk, kunne noe av programmet vært lagt til torsdag kveld. Det ble rett og slett for mange programposter å velge mellom på fredag, men dette er jo et luksusproblem! Jeg skulle gjerne ha brukt mer tid på Editoriel Tool box, men da måtte jeg ha valgt bort altfor mange andre … Det hadde vært flott om foredragsholderene kunne lagt ut linker og informasjon på SNDS’s hjemmesider. Men uansett, det var god konferanse med spesiell og god underholdning på torsdag kveld. n
Funny FINNS In times when everything becomes mobile and portable, the Finnish suana obviously has gone the same way. This almost surreal model might be experienced as the two gusto Finnish entertainers Minimi (inside sauna) magnificently introduced SNDS-guests of what Finland is responsible for the day. The show was given at the opening night at Oulu’s theatre.
Ingrid Meisingset er designansvarlig i Adresseavisen, Norge, og tidligere styremedlem i SNDS. Jukka-Pekka Moilanen
NETWORKING Design consultant Ally Palmer from Palmer Watson, Scotland, in conversation with Ingrid Meisingset, head of design at Adresseavisen, Trondheim, Norway.
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Lars Pryds
my oulu
Søren stidsholt nielsen
Trine Vu mail@trinevu.com Først var der råbekoret. Fuldstændig fandenivoldsk. 24 mænd med og uden skæg, men alle med især attitude og stemmebånd i orden, råbte for eksempel ”Højt på en gren en krage”. På dansk. Foruroligende flot velkomst til Oulu. Så var der lyset. Fantastisk flippet. Klokken 22 skinnede solen stadig fra en skyfri himmel. Værs’go: Breddegrad 65’s berømte hvide nætter lige dér. Forunderligt. Og næste morgen, da vi alle sad klar til første punkt på programmet, var der pludselig … luftguitar for fuld udblæsning. Ikke 30 sekunders halvhjertet event. Næ, guitaristen gav den hele armen. Bogstavelig talt. Frygtløst. Filosofisk. Og åbenbart også ret finsk. For mig blev Oulu en vitaminindsprøjtning af inspiration. Jeg lærte for eksempel begrebet ”digital natives” og noterede mig, at det kinesiske ord for krise betyder både krise og mulighed. Jeg tog på stedet Martin Gee’s vidunderlige ”Suckitude meter” til mig og glemmer heller ikke foreløbig hverken Ari Kinnaris tankevækkende legoslides af avisforsider eller et motto fra Lars Pryds’ oplæg: Don’t blurry – be happy! Og så skrev jeg med store typer på min notesblok, at ifølge Javier Errea kan kun passion sikre avisernes overlevelse. Prikken over Oulu var, da en lille flok cheerleader-piger under gallamiddagen gik på scenen og uden at fortrække en mine gav et nummer på andenæb. Fantastisk. Finsk.
Søren stidsholt nielsen
n
Trine Vu is a freelance journalist and graphic designer. She has been a judge in the Best of Scandinavian News Design 2007, 08 and 09. lisbeth tolstrup
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funny font Lars Pryds shows one of his font designs. Is it a slogan, or is it the name of a font? Both, actually!
gentleman of the press »Do you have a rotary printing press here?« Flemming Hvidtfeldt asked the visit host of Kaleva, Juha Tolonen. And after a moment the curious chairman of the Best of Scandinavian News Design competition committee found himself in the rotary print hall next to the machine that has printed many pages of SNDS competitions. According to Juha Tolonen the press machine is 20 years old, and at Kaleva they are discussing whether to keep it or build a new printing hall away from the newspaper office. As Juha Tolonen said, »How long do we need big machines to print on paper…?« Jukka-Pekka Moilanen
name of the game Toni Manninen, CEO and games designer at LudoCraft, was the first speaker Friday morning. Will the future for news be in computer games? It’s a possibility.
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www.atex.com
Jukka-Pekka Moilanen
my oulu Jukka-Pekka Moilanen
Hands up! John Bark waiting for the speakers – and showing his new aquisistion: A pair of Oulu-green gloves. John Bark john@barkdesign.se I like the Fins. And I like to be up north. So the seminar in Oulu was a good combo for me. Despite times and threats to media – or maybe because of those – it felt necessary to meet with colleagues and old SND/S-friends. My only critique (same as every year) is that I would like to see and hear more from – and about – the winners. Also more Oscar award feeling when prizes are handed out, more thanks to mothers and mentors. I wish for more emotions! More tears and crying! More drama! But also more context – and explanations why a certain winner is a winner. That, to me, is one of the corner stones in this organization. As long as there is a D in SND/S. Many other aspects are very important today, yes, but let’s not forget why this organization differs from others. The mix of speakers was good and inspiring, and that is always hard to create. As a web doctor we unfortunately missed some of the lecturers. And speaking of web illness – the clinic is still open for checkups. Weekdays between 08.00 and 17.00. By appointment or mail. But last and foremost: A big Thank You to Pirjo, Juha, Jussi and others for a over all great seminar in tough times!
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n
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John Bark is a design consultant, writer, lecturer and teacher in news design. Together with Anna Yo Lee he also runs Barking Dog Publishing.
Look up! Carrie Hoover, designer and air guitarist, with boyfriend, speaker Martin Gee, AD at Oregon Business Magazine.
Jukka-Pekka Moilanen
Listen up! Annelise Ploug Møller-Christensen, Morten Grantzau and Lars Andersson – concentration in the audience. Jukka-Pekka Moilanen
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early birds A small group of people showed up on Friday morning for an early run through Oulu – left to right: Piotr Grzybowski, Annelise Ploug Møller-Christensen; Janne Nyyssönen and Jørgen Høg.
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my oulu
Søren stidsholt nielsen
Piotr Grzybowski pgrzybowski@fakt.pl I came to Oulu in the conviction that the press market was dying and that it was time to pack up one’s goods and chattels. In a way, this is the case and you could feel it over there – a gala like that on Titanic, prizes in wholesale quantities, bravos, all friends here, as in a good old club with old, fusty armchairs. Only that nobody “screamed out loud” to draw attention to what every publisher can see looking at sales results – for how long are we going to deceive ourselves that this press model is still functioning! It really doesn’t work now; the only thing that works is the flywheel named the force of habit, although its rotations are increasingly slow. But switching to the Internet cannot be the only solution to rescue the daily press market! I think that people will always reach for something material in the physical sense, or for paper, but we are also facing new needs and expectations; newsness probably is no longer the prime goal, we should therefore revalue the entire model of a daily newspaper. The 20th century press model, with all its elements, departments and supplements no longer works and there, in Oulu, that was obvious to me, and I think that any attempts to rescue this model are doomed to failure. We can of course try a new redesign, introduce new colours, etc. But doing this we would again come full circle. What I missed over there was a real attempt to develop a new model of daily press that could compete with electronic media, that is, one that would live up to the challenges of the 21st century. I think that someone must make this first, bold step. If not, well, we can meet again, but probably only to jog together.
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Anders tapola
n
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Piotr Grzybowski is Creative Director at Fakt, Axel Springer Polska, Poland.
play it again The guitar is missing, but the volume, the facial features and acrobatic abilities were greatly at present when Friday’s seminar courses got off to a flying start by the local air guitarist - chosen as World Champion from 2001. Oulu is also host to the Air Guitar World Championships – see www.airguitarworldchampionships.com. Jukka-Pekka Moilanen
Gold Big smile. Designer Lotta Ek from Dagens Nyheter received the finest award of the year – the only gold medal. The Stockholm newspaper received the prize for the supplement entitled På Stan in the new mini format. To the right chairman of the competition committee Flemming Hvidtfeldt.
©2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Adobe Creative Suite, Flash, and InDesign are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.
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Jukka-Pekka Moilanen
chinese newspaper design. We don’t see much of it in this part of the world, but thanks to Lilu Lu, in Oulu we got a interesting overview of Chinese news design. Lili Lu is currently chairman of SND Chinese and also has a background in American newspapers. »The crisis is not a limitation, it is an option,« she said. lars pryds
silver Winner Flemming Hvidtfeldt announces the silver award for Pore, in the category Feature pages, a beautifully illustrated article about breast cancer.
Jukka-Pekka Moilanen
mixed feelings Jukka Lehojärvi, Päivi Karjalainen and Tiina Ojutkangas, who all worked with the now closed down Pore magazine, in deep concentration at the speaker sessions on the first seminar day in Oulu.
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Silver award winner, but discontinued
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One of the 2009 awards winners, the Finnish Pore magazine, is no longer published. So naturally, it was with mixed feelings the winners received their diplomas in Oulu. Lars Pryds pryds@mac.com n »Pore
weekly magazine that I was working for is not published any more for economical reasons, the last issue was made on December 2008. So the
trip to Oulu was kind of important to all of us, we were so happy to get silver and bronze although we were also feel ing a bit sad,« says Päivi Karjalainen, who worked for Pore as a photographer and illustrator. »Of course I would have liked to continue to work for Pore! It was just a good start and we were having so many ideas but then suddenly didn’t have the possibility to make any more issues. But now we are over it.« Saku Heinänen and Jesper Vuori from Helsinki were design consultants from the start of Pore magazine, concentrating on layouts and typography. The visual team in Kokkola was very small: Jukka Lehojärvi, who is a photo
grapher and head of visual department in Keskipohjanmaa newspaper, Päivi Karjalainen and Pentti Heikkilä, a technical producer. »We worked very well together, a real teamwork. I lost my dream job but have been doing some photography and illustrations as freelance,« says Päivi Karjalainen. Managing editor of Pore was Tiina Ojutkangas, who is also managing editor for Keskipohjanmaa newspaper. Pore won a bronze award in the prestigious Design category, and a silver award in the category Feature pages. The magazine was published from 21 September 2007 to 14 December 2008, and had a circulation of 28.000. n
SND ANNUAL WORKSHOP & exHibitiON september 24-26 cc borges, buenos aires, argentina
www.sndbue09.com
Good news for graphics Infographics, visual journalism, 3D modelling. If you’re a professional in these areas, you are in for a treat: Gert K. Nielsen, one of Denmark’s most experienced infographics designers, has relaunched visualjournalism.com as the valuable resource and community for – visual journalism.
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Lars Pryds pryds@mac.com
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What is visualjournalism.com ? The website is right now a project dedicated to deliver inspiration, investigation and interaction if you work with visual journalism. The site is foremost targeted to the working professionals and to a lesser degree everyone else who would like to become a visual journalist or with an interest in the field. Whenever I see something I think could be of interest to explore for myself or other graphic artists, I tend to make a note about it, – hopefully I’ll be able to use these notes to write some articles worth the time. I would love to see the site evolve over the years to a resource you can use in the middle of a project. The idea
would be, that even if we’re all competitors, it will make sense to use our individual ‘golden nuggets’ to create better work for all. If someone has access to information, references or a 3D-model we all need, why not share it, so we can take our collective work a step further? Why is visualjournalism.com important to journalists, infographic artists and news designers all over the world? You might not have a colleague around anymore, when you need one. These days graphic departments are decimated around the world, so knowing where to find people with the same passion for visual journalism is going to be ever more important. And visualjournalism.com is going to be one such place.
Every professional who wants to survive in the newsroom will also have to constantly learn new skills and do better work tomorrow than today. Hopefully VisualJournalism can be a part of that process too. That – and the good feeling of belonging to a community, where we’re looking forward in good spirit, will be the main reason to check out the site. I don’t think everyone from the groups mentioned will find the topics important, but I’m sure someone from all visual and journalistic branches will enjoy it. Why did you decide to relaunch VisualJournalism? Is the site still needed? When I was a Graphics Editor a couple of years ago, I had a lot of issues with
Who will post articles – you, of course, but can anyone post entries? I do have a system ready, where everyone will be able to post articles to the frontpage with their own profile. But I haven’t worked with the system before, and as I have to understand and implement all the coding myself, I haven’t activated it yet. In the meantime I’ll be happy to manually publish any article for everyone interested in writing about graphics. I’m easy to reach with mail or on the phone. This offer goes for older – but still interesting – articles too. What does that pay-off line on the site really mean: “- up to 80% of The News In Graphics” ? I started out with the newspaper-like ‘All the News in Graphics’ – but soon remembered, that unrealistic claims are a thing of the past. A lot of newspapers hold on to their big slogans although they sound very hollow today with news flowing in so many different ways. I would like VisualJournalism to be more sincere and more humorous at the
visualjournalism.com is closely linked to Facebook. If you’re not on Facebook, can you join visualjournalism.com? To make it easy for everyone to join the community, I have set the system up so Facebook handles the sign-up. This has the advantage that you don’t have to remember another login and password – you simply click ‘connect with facebook’, and you’re in. You will need a facebook-profile of course. When Facebook handles the login, we’re automatically blessed with real names to the comments – and it’s not possible for anonymous spammers or robots to post anything. Robots and spammers are a real problem for a lot of community-sites, so I think the advantages outweighs the problem that you can’t participate, unless you’re willing to do it with your facebook-profile. Also, I don’t believe an onlinecommunity can evolve or even exist in the future, if it insists on being a small and isolated island with proprietary signups, and I’m looking into establishing a link with openID-technology too. When I got the chance to redesign VisualJournalism from the bottom, I decided to go with the idea of sharing and showing the true self, rather than hiding. And that is what I invite you to take part in.
Gert K Nielsen n Work
2009: Start up of company (GrafikGert) doing infographics and 3D-visualizations. 2007–2009: Webeditor at 24timer 2006–2007: Wizard of Visuals at 24timer 1995–2006: Graphics Editor at Ekstra Bladet 1992–1995: Page Designer at Ekstra Bladet n Judging:
2004: Judge in Malofiej Infographic Summit 12 2002: Judge in SND Best of Newspaper Design 24th edition. E www.visualjournalism.com E www.grafikgert.dk
books new book s Lars Pryds pryds@mac.com
A damn good read n Judging
from the title of this book, you might expect a lot of reproductions of bad graphics, misprinted experiments and the like. At least, that’s what I did. Fortunately, what you get instead is a collection of essays from top designers and design thinkers, who tell their very personal tales of embarrassing career moves, discarded inventions, colossal accidents, or public mistakes. The 26 writers each have their own approach to the given theme of the book, served with a warm sense of humor and the energy that comes from having survived professional or personal disaster. I smiled my way through this book! The subjects range from specific design projects gone wrong to more profound thought about why the creative process needs both the ups and downs, and why we should not fear disasters. What lies underneath most of the essays is the love and passion for the craft of design – often using slow, old and tried techniques – and in this respect, the book turns out to be a tribute to the creative process, and to the necessity of not giving up, but keep on trying. ‘Many times what a designer thinks is perfect and so releases to the public is a flop. With luck, even this will provide a lesson for what not to do the next time or the time after that,’ as Steven Heller writes in the introduction. Don’t buy this book to see disastrous work, buy it to read great essays from writers who learned a lesson – maybe you can learn from their mistakes. n Steven Heller (ed.): ’Design Desasters: Great Designers, Fabulous Failures & Lessons Learned’ Allworth Press, New York, December 2008 ISBN-13: 978-1-58115-508-2 · ISBN-10: 1-58115-652-9 218 pages, 25 illustrations. Paperback, 15 x 23 cm. $19.95 www.allworth.com
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What do you expect from the people who sign up as members of the site? If you want to be a ‘perfect’ member of VisualJournalism, then you should read the articles and if something inspires you to make a comment, then don’t be shy. Just write your thoughts, so we can get the good discussions started. If you feel really dedicated then by all means invite your friends to participate too. Spread the word. With that said, I’m happy whenever someone decides to become a member just to read and be part of the community too.
same time, so instead I decided to play on the fact that all graphic artists are so used to working with percentages. But it can be read literally too – as an ambitious goal to cover a lot more of the news in graphics, than I do today.
yds Lars Pr
the way we all produced and used the graphics. I took a break from graphics, and had hoped to find the scene in better shape now, than when I left. Unfortunately this hasn’t happened. No graphic revolution for the good has taken place. So what we need is some courage in asking the necessary questions before we’re able to move forward. And questioning the establishment is probably a specialty of mine – I absolutely love to learn through provocation and doing the opposite of what is expected. Exploring visual journalism is still needed, and doing it online in a sharing community makes perfect sense – today more than ever.
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Hvilken slags magasin kunne du tænke dig? Kunne du tænke dig at komme i kontakt med dine medlemmer på glittet papir? Eller via et onlinemagasin? Hos det danske firma Datagraf A/S holder en håndfuld magasinredaktører mediegryden i kog hos adskillige virksomheder.
Magasinudvikling – Jørgen Høg jhoeg@stofanet.dk
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n Julie
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Bondo Gravesen har trådt sine journalistiske barnesko på Politiken, og senest har hun været redaktør på avisens nu nedlagte søndagsflagskib Magasinet. Hun ved godt, hvordan man vender og drejer et magasin, og hun har sin journalistiske værktøjskasse i orden. I hendes nye job sammen med en flok journalister med fælles baggrund i den danske uge- og dagbladsverden hedder
dagens ret Individuel procesrådgivning. Kontorlandskabet på Gammeltorv midt i København kalder man ikke for en redaktion, Client Publishing er det gode danske navn for en afdeling i rimelig mediemedvind. Individuel procesrådgivning, lyder det så ikke lidt for konsulentagtigt? »Jo, men på den gode måde. Det handler om én-til-én-rådgivningsforløb, der kombinerer kreativ medieudvikling (hvordan skal det nye magasins indhold
og design være?) med procesforståelse (hvordan kommer jeg derfra og dertil?) og rolleforståelse (hvordan træder jeg i karakter i mit job og opnår legitimitet?),« forklarer Julie Bondo Gravesen og fortsætter: »I modsætning til et traditionelt coachingforløb er der et klart formuleret mål med procesrådgivningen, og procesrådgivningen tager altid udgangspunkt i en konkret, kreativ udfordring.« Julie Bondo Gravesen er sammen med de øvrige redaktører og Client
design og indhold Datagrafs designere og redaktører står bag udvikliingen af en lang række magasiner for danske erhvervsvirksomheder og organisationer. Grafisk designer Rene Hart stod bag redesignet af personalebladet P3A, der via workshop blev til Vores magasin – et langt mere målrettet personaleblad med fokus på de personlige historier. Foto: Kristian Larsen
Datagraf A/S n Datagraf udvikler, designer og producerer individuelle kommunikationsløsninger af høj kvalitet til publicering på papir eller internettet. n Datagraf varetager kommunikation, design og produktion for nogle af Danmarks førende private og offentlige virksomheder samt organisationer. n Hovedkontoret ligger i Auning på Djursland med afdeling i København. n Datagraf er grundlagt i 1986 og beskæftiger i dag 310 medarbejdere i Danmark, Norge og Sverige. n I 2008 købte Datagraf SAS Media, som bl.a. producerer luftfartsselskabets flight magazines. I dag hedder afdelingen DG Communication og ligger midt i Stockholm. n www.datagraf.dk
– en løbende proces Uanset kundernes størrelse og beskaffenhed tager et redaktionelt procesrådgivningsforløb altid udgangspunkt i den enkelte kundes behov, og Client Publishing-chefen sætter sit rådgivningshold derefter. Hvordan foregår det? Kunden og Datagrafs rådgiver formulerer et mål og en tidsramme, foruden eventuelle delmål. Et endeligt mål kan typisk være, at der på en given dag skal udkomme en
relanceret udgave af organisationens magasin. Delmålet kan være af strategisk karakter: En skæringsdato for, hvornår ledergruppen skal have sagt go til det nye koncept. Fokusområder Kreativt: Magasin/medieudvikling foregår det konkrete niveau – ofte i samarbejde med Datagrafs øvrige stab af designere og kommunikationskonsulenter. Hvad er formålet med magasinet? Hvem er målgruppen? Analyser af
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Publishing-chef Claus Krogh med til at udvikle Datagrafs procesforløb, og kunderne befinder sig bredt i landskabet. »Vi kan så at sige hjælpe alle, der har ansvar for et eller flere medier og står i en udviklingsfase. Nye medier, relanceringer, kampagner, organisatoriske forandringer mv. Det kan være redaktører, kommunikationschefer, direktører mv. Det kan også være bladfolk, der står i almindelig drift, men har problemer med at skabe forståelse for magasinets betydning,« forklarer Claus Krogh.
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Magasinspørgsmål:
1. Hvem er magasinets konkurrenter, og hvordan skiller dit magasin sig ud fra dem? 2. Hvem læser magasinet, og hvordan læses/bruges det? 3. Hvilke redaktionelle kriterier ligger til grund for magasinet? 4. Hvad er magasinets vinkel på verden/ indholdet? 5. Hvorfra ser magasinet verden? 6. Hvordan er den redaktionelle profil, stil og tone? 7. Hvad kommunikerer layoutet til målgruppen? 8. Hvordan er sammenhængen mellem indhold og layout? 9. Er forsiden en integreret helhed af tekst og billeder? Siger den: Læs mig!? 10. Hvordan er atmosfæren i magasinet? 11. Hvad får magasinet læseren til at tænke/føle/ gøre? 12. Hvor går grænsen? Lav en liste over de historier, der skal med og ikke med.
kunderne Datagraf arbejder med udvikling af redaktionelt indhold og design for bl.a. Copenhagen Business School, Amnesty International, Max Havelaar og SAS. Det danske firma købte i 2008 SAS Media, der nu drives under navnet DG Communications i Stockholm. Den mest kendte udgivelse er flight-magasinet Scanorama, der ligger gratis til alle SAS-passagerer. Fotos: Jørgen Høg
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afsender og målgruppe støber fundamentet, og designer og magasinredaktør former indhold og design, typisk på baggrund af en workshop og i et efterfølgende skitseforløb sammen med kunden. Strategisk: Rådgivning i forhold til beslutningsprocesser: Hvilke møder skal man holde med hvem og hvornår? Hvem skal orienteres om hvad og hvornår? Hvilken form skal møderne have? Hvordan skal man styre dem? Operationelt: Udvikling af processer/ procedurer i det daglige arbejde, hvilke
møder skal man holde, hvem er bedst til hvad på redaktionen, justering af produktionsplan osv. Succeskriterier »For kunderne handler det naturligvis om stigende omsætning og om større synlighed. Men for os som rådgivere og udviklere handler det også om få at skabt en positiv oplevelse hos kunden af, at vi har ydet relevant hjælp og givet en forståelse for, at magasinudvikling netop er en proces, der ikke blot handler om det konkrete blad, men kan involvere hele organisationen,« siger Claus Krogh. n
Summary n The Danish company Datagraf develops, designs and produces individual communications solutions of high quality for publishing on paper or Internet. n Datagraf is performing communications, design and production of some of Denmark’s leading private and public enterprises and organizations. n The head office is located in Auning on Djursland with a larger department in Copenhagen. Datagraf was founded in 1986 and employs today 310 employees in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. n In 2008 Datagraf bought SAS Media, which produces airline flight magazines. Today known as DG Communications with domicile in the centre of Stockholm. n The Client Publishing department employs a handful of journalists who work as process consultants and magazine editors. The work includes teaching editors in the editorial process associated with the publication of a magazine.
the Premier service Management event February 8 –12, 2009 | MGM Grand Hotel | Las Vegas, Nevada
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IBM.COM/SOFTWARE/TIVOLI/PULSE © Copyright IBM Corporation 2008. All Rights Reserved. IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, Tivoli and the Tivoli logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. If these and other IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (® or ™), these symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information was published. Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at “Copyright and trademark information” at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml. Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. References to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates.
Nerdy Thursday in Copenhagen Does “Display Exotica”, “Optically Scaled Fonts”, “Graphic Types and Ligatures” and “Type for the Dutch Government” sound a little too much like niche business to you? Then you were probably not among the typography afficionadas who attended CPH:TYPO*09 on a Thursday in April. Lars Pryds pryds@mac.com 60-70 people had taken the day off from work or studies to listen to type experts talk about their work. For the fifth time, Henrik Birkvig, Head of Department, Graphic Design at Mediehøjskolen, had invited a competent, international line-up. He bid us all welcome, holding up the latest FontFont catalogue, saying it was good to see more and more Danish type designers in it – several even present in the audience, ready to take commissions!
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The history of ‘History’ First speaker Peter Bil’ak’s main concern was ‘serious display type’ – or more precisely: the presentation of his font system ‘History’, a project that has been in the pipeline since the 1990s. Peter Bil’ak was a little uneasy about only speaking about one typeface (type is never alone), but ‘History’ is actually much more than just a typeface. Based on a skeleton of Roman inscriptional capitals, the font includes 21 independant typefaces, which share widths and other metric information so they can be recombined. Not a font you may want to use as body copy in a newspaper,
British Designer Rian Hughes’ work – Kaliphz poster for London Records and ’Friends together’ – a point-of-sale design created for Clark’s Shoes. See lots of more examples at www.devicefonts.co.uk but Peter Bil’aks’s work does present a lot of possibilities. As he describes it, “’History’ has the potential to generate thousands of different unique styles through the superimposing of layers”. If it sounds a little complicated, it’s because it is! So when you buy this OpenType font, you get a specialized application – ‘History Remixer’ – thrown in, to manage the 21 layers of styles, by activating, arranging, setting colour and luminosity of the different styles. Quite amazing – and the examples shown visualized the variety of results the font package can give you, from clean, rational type usage to illustrative extremities. Bil’ak also showed a few examples of his experimental work with modern dance performances – where he makes type be an important or even major part of the show. As he said, ‘Designers must do something else than design type – some play music, I make dance choreography’. Check out his fascinating type choreography on the website: www.typotheque.com/studio-work The Old Dane and the women designers Art director Lucas Brusquini told us about his project turning the Danish
cph:typo*o9 Peter Bil’ak E www.typoteque.com Lucas Brusquini E www.givakt.se E vwww.fountaintype.com Susanne Dechant E www.dechant.at Johan Adam Linneballe E www.scandinavianbranding.dk Peter Verheul E http://farhill.dl or www.ourtype.be Tim Ahrens E www.justanothertypefoundry.com Rian Hughes E www.devicefonts.co.uk
Mediehøjskolen – Danmarks Medie- og Journalisthøjskole E www.dmjx.dk astronomer Tycho Brahe’s leaden type from the 1500-years into digital form. Picking up the style and design of an old typeface certainly is not an easy task, but involves trips back in history, with lots of surprises. The last speaker in “Session 1: Type is cultural history” was Susanne Dechant, and her topic ‘Type Persons Who Happened to be Female’. A popular cliché, Dechant said, is that type designers are male, but calligraphers are female. Based
History Examples of how Peter Bil’ak’s font system ’History’ has been used in real life – as advanced and elaborate decorative type, as well as in stylish elegant simplicity.
Companies and governments ‘Session 2: Type is Branding’ opened with the Danish architect and design Johan Adam Linneballe, who has created thousands of logotypes through the last 30 years as CEO, founder and owner of Scandinavian Branding. Rather than designing typefaces, Linneballe creates one letter at a time – or the five or six or twelve letters that make up the nameplate/logo of a company or organization. It may result in something that looks like an alphabet, but initially, they are just well defined ’letters in context’. Peter Verheul was commissioned to design a new typeface for the Dutch government, or actually two – as three design companies competed for the new identity, and two of them independantly asked Verheul to design the typeface to be used. One of the agencies got the
job, and Verheul’s font ‘Reijksoverhead’ was born – and had to be finished in a hurry! The smallest detail – and comics The third session, ‘Type is Optics and Form’, brought two very different approaches to type design. Tim Ahrens had made thorough studies of old lead type to see if the old masters actually used optically sized fonts – making the letters slightly different for each point size version. His research can be studied in depth in his book, ‘Size-specific Adjustments to Type Designs: An Investigation of the Principles Guiding the Design of Optical Sizes’. Last speaker was Rian Hughes, AKA ‘Wing Commander Hughes’, showing some of his inspirations and his own work, in which hand drawn lettering is always an integrated part. With his offspring in early Letraset rub-on letters and comic strip design, Hughes has become a famous illustrator in Britain. One day, a potentional client called him on the phone saying, “Can you do a Rian Hughes for me?”. But when Hughes answered, “I am Rian Hughes”, the phone went dead. Alas, the price of fame. Or …? n
Typo speakers 2005-09 The list of speakers who have entered the stage in Copenhagen since the first CPH:TYPO event in 2005 is quite impressive. The organizer Henrik Birkvig is already thinking about next year’s speakers – maybe Vincent Connare, the creator of Comic Sans? – or one of the others on Henrik’s long list of possibilities. See who will make it into the final programme at www.dmjx.dk Tim Ahrens Patrick Andresén Donald Beekman Kai Bernau Henrik Birkvig Peter Bilak Erik van Blokland Peter Bruhn Lucas Brusquini Susanne Dechant Verena Gerlach Lucas de Groot Rian Hughes Lars Koefoed Henning Krause Alessio Leonardi Jeremy Leslie Sebastian Lester
Johan Adam Linneballe Bo Linnemann Jan Maack Bruno Maag Ole Munk Vitor Quelhas Trine Rask Dino dos Santos Judith Schalansky Christian Schwartz Fred Smeijers Jason Smith Erik Spiekermann Jeremy Tankard Niklaus Troxler Peter Verheul Lars Wallentin
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on statistics, women are a minority – on Myfonts.com, 330 out of 2500 type designers are female, on FontFont the number is 15 out of 115. But female type designers have been there all the time, from early pioneers like Beatrice L. Warde (1900-69) who used a male pen name to be accepted, to the heroine of all female type designers, Suzana Licko.
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The dead tree industry – är den verkligen så död? SNDS ordförande Anders Tapola anders.tapola@smp.se När medieindustrin inte längre är angelägen för den stora publiken, vad gör man då? Hoppas på att webben skall generera pengar i framtiden? Hoppas på att mobiltelefonerna skall göra detsamma? Hoppas på att tv-reklam skall vara lösningen? Helt enkelt hoppas på att all satsning på så kallade nya medier skall lösa framtidens lönsamhet? Ja, det ser ut som den strategi som de flesta mediehus tror på just nu. Att fortsatt satsa på kärnverksamheten, som försörjt branschen i så många år, verkar vara oändligt mycket svårare just nu. Att tro att utvecklingen skall vända om man bara hänger på allt som händer inom internet, sociala medier, bloggar, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, RSS, AC/DC... you name it, är förstås mest just önsketänkande. Jag vet inte alls vilken strategi som är den rätta. Det finns ärligt talat ingen som vet idag. Men många tror – och hoppas så innerligt – på att lösningen finns någonstans därute i cyber-rymden. Men är det så att den traditionella mediendustrin inte är angelägen längre? Pappersavisen kallas till exempel för dead tree industry i USA. Gammelmedia är termen i Sverige. Just när jag skriver denna krönika får jag nämligen ett nyhetsbrev från medievarlden.se. Det är WAN (World Association of Newspaper) som har konferens i Barcelona. Rubriken är ”Tidningsbranschen står sig fortfarande stark”. Ordförande i WAN, Gavin O’Reilly, n
säger att den som tror att det bara är nätet som gäller och att dagstidningen snart är död har fel. Några fakta ur artikeln: • Räckvidden för papperstidningarna fortsätter globalt att öka • Den senaste femårsperioden har upplagorna ökat med 8,8 procent • Trots en allt djupare kris ökade den globala dagstidningsupplagan med 1,3 procent i fjol. • Dagstidningarna når idag 41 procent fler vuxna än vad internet gör Nu är i och för sig de ökande marknaderna Afrika, Asien och Latinamerika. I Europa, och framför allt i USA, minskar tidningsläsandet. Men ändå: Läsningen av papperstidningen ökar totalt sett i världen! World Editors Forum, som är WAN: s redaktörers förening, har för övrigt kommit ut med sin årliga rapport som innehåller trender i nyhetsvärlden: Trends in Newsrooms. Undertecknad har i år varit utsedd, att tillsammans med fyra kollegor från olika delar av världen, utse de mest spännande dagstidningarna, både i pappersform och i digital form. Mer om rapporten går att läsa på: www.trends-innewsrooms.org Nästa års SNDS-seminarium äger rum den 22-24 april. Platsen är Oslo. Värdavis är Aftenposten och temat är Opera. Var och besökte arrangörerna förra sommaren, och vi åt lunch i det fantastiskt vackra Operahuset. Endast ett stenkast från hotell Opera där seminariet äger rum. Vi ses i Oslo i april 2010! n
Anders Tapola in OULU. Photo: LARS PRYDS