SNDSmag 2015|1 by SNDS Magazine

SNDSMagazine 2015|1

At your service 3 World Press Photo of the Year 4 The good news in Sweden 4 Hot Type in a Cold Setting 6–9 SNDS15 – save big on Early Bird offer 10–12 Charlie Hebdo: Why not use a drawing? 13 Finans: Building a new business brand 14–17 Scandinavian winners found 18–21 The visual language of the future 22–24 Going solo 25 Me-Mo: Images of a cruel world 26–27 Maps4news: No need for panic calls 28–29 The journal of a profession 30–31 In My Humble Opinion: Awards and Awards 32

SNDS BOARD

SNDS SECRETARIAT

SNDS MAGAZINE SNDSMagazine 2015|1

President & Chairman of the Competition Committee Flemming Hvidtfeldt Stentoften 72, DK-9520 Skørping, Denmark +45 20 91 17 52 fhvidtfeldt@yahoo.dk

Vice President Anne Laitinen, Turun Sanomat Länsikaari 15, FIN-20240 Turku, Finland anne.laitinen@ts.fi

Business Manager, Treasurer Frank Stjerne, JP/Politikens Hus, Rådhuspladsen 37, DK-1785 Copenhagen V, Denmark +45 33 47 23 99 frank.stjerne@jppol.dk

Elisabeth Svendby, Amedia Hieronymus H. gate 1, N-0160 Oslo, Norway +47 40 23 76 25 elisabeth.svendby@amedia.no

Secretary for the board Lone Jürgensen Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten, Grøndalsvej 3, DK-8260 Viby J, Denmark +45 87 38 38 38 / 31 08 lone.jurgensen@jp.dk

Editor, Art Director MD Lars Pryds +45 30 53 87 14 pryds@mac.com

WWW.SNDS.ORG

Co-editor, Journalist DJ Lisbeth Tolstrup +45 51 32 89 62 tolstrup@pryds.com

Thank you to our contributors in this issue:

SNDS Magazine editorial office Østerbrogade 158, 3. TH., DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark

John Bark Bark Design AB barkdesign.se

ISSN 1901-8088

Lisbeth From Birkholm Jyllands-Posten jp.dk

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

SUBSTITUTES FOR THE BOARD Ingrid Meisingset, Adresseavisen, Norway Olli Nurminen, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland Søren Nyeland, Politiken, Denmark Petra Villani, Sydsvenskan, Sweden

SNDS on Facebook: facebook.com/sndscandinavia

SNDS on twitter: @sndstwit Anders Tapola, Smålandsposten, Linnégatan 2, S-351 70 Växjö, Sweden +46 470 770 686 anders.tapola@smp.se

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Print: GraphicCo, graphicco.dk SNDS Magazine is set in Real Text and Museo Slab and designed in Adobe Indesign CC.

Read SNDS Magazine as e-magazine: www.snds.org/magazine

SNDS Magazine is published quarterly in March, June, September and December. Editorial and advertising deadlines: February 15, May 15, August 15, and November 15. Published by Society for News Design Scandinavia www.snds.org

On the cover: John Bark and Charli Kasselbäck’s project “Hot Type in a Cold Setting” at the Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden. Photo by John Bark. See more p. 6–9

Kartin Hansen Jyllands-Posten jp.dk Björn Heselius KSF Media ksfmedia.fi Maija Hurme KSF Media ksfmedia.fi Ole Munk Ribergaard & Munk Communication Design ribmunk.dk Gert K. Nielsen Emotion emotion.dk

SNDSMagazine 2015|1 editorial

At your service When you have two coffee shops right next to each other, and each sells the exact same coffee at the exact same price, service design is what makes you walk into one and not the other.”

HO TO

BY L

ARØ

– 31 Volts Service Design, 2008*

A few years ago, when I started working for a large Danish daily, the directors changed perception of the users of the company’s products. No more “readers” – “customers” was the term used to describe the people who read the printed paper, searched the website and subscribed to the publication’s social media updates. Reactions were strong, and some seasoned journalists were having difficulty with the concept of not just being the conveyor of news but also producers of a commercial service with a defined group of consumers in focus. Today it is much more accepted to produce content with the user in mind. The philosophy seems to be that users not only want to be informed, they also want to be entertained. Key to success is to give users a great experience – or at least a hassle-free way to get to the product they’re trying to enjoy. At SNDS Magazine, we would like to give you a great experience and inspiration – our raison d’être is to be at your service.

OTHER GREAT STUFF

And there’s more: Get behind the scenes with Jyllands-Posten’s Finans project – a new digital business brand launched in late 2014; get a glimpse of the work of the two juries in this year’s Best of Scandinavian News Design competition; find out which trends to look for in infographics in the future; learn how you can create maps quickly and with ease; enjoy beautiful but grim photography – and see how much you can save by registering early for the next SNDS conference. On October 1–2, 2015 the Scandic Copenhagen Hotel will be the venue for great speakers – we present eight of them on p. 10–12. Find out more and register now for SNDS15 on our brand new website conference.snds.org A REDESIGNED SNDS MAGAZINE

JE SUIS DANEMARK

In issue 4/2014, we reviewed the book about Erik Spiekerman and so fell in love with the font used in the book that we simply wanted to redesign the SNDS Magazine using it – and as the mag had looked the same since 2006 it was time for a change anyway. Spiekerman’s Real Text only comes in Regular, so we included the Museo Slab from exljbris to go with it, mainly in the heavy weights ‘900’ and ‘1000’. Dave Gandy’s FontAwesome is the symbol font used for arrows and other graphic elements. We also changed the grid a bit and are now using a narrow four-column structure and a very minimalistic colour palette – with three colours only, basically: black, the dark orange (CMYK values 0,30,100,20) and Pantone Warm Grey 8. We hope you like it – and that the simple design will make the content stand out more clearly. Enjoy!

It was terrifying to see a fanatic 22-year-old running loose in Copenhagen with a machine gun, killing two innocent people on the night of

Lars Pryds Editor, SNDS Magazine

HOT TYPE IN ICE

One of the services we bring to you in this issue is a special report from John Bark and Charli Kasselbäck’s ambitious project “Hot Type in a Cold Setting” – the installation of typography in the extraordinary Icehotel in the north of Sweden. John gives us his very personal story of how the project was planned and executed.

*Quoted from Stickdorn/ Schneider (2013): This is Service Design Thinking. BIS Publishers

February 14 – not least because one of the killings took place only 600 metres from our home and office. But the attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris the month before was a much more determined act of terrorism, with the tragic deaths of twelve members of the magazine’s editorial staff as a consequence. Charlie Hebdo survived the attack and is today perhaps stronger than ever, at least now convinced that the pen is mightier than the machine guns. Front page editors could learn from this; see more on p. 25.

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PHOTO: MADS NISSEN, SCANPIX/PANOS PICTURES

World Press Photo of the Year The jury of the 58th annual World Press Photo Contest has selected an image by Danish photographer Mads Nissen as the World Press Photo of the Year 2014. Mads Nissen is a staff photographer for the Danish daily newspaper Politiken and is represented by Scanpix and Panos Pictures. The picture shows Jon and Alex, a gay couple, during an

intimate moment in St Petersburg, Russia. “We were looking for an image that would matter tomorrow, not just today. The winning image demonstrates what a professional photographer can do in a daily life situation, setting a professional standard for story-telling in life,” one of the jury members Pamela Chen commented.

The good news in Sweden Tired of reading news about war, disaster, human misery and crime? There’s hope. Aftenposten in Sweden has launched a news site that will only bring you good news. The idea behind the site godanyheter.aftonbladet.se is to present more positive stories to the readers. “Studies show that headlines that includes words

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like ‘good’ and ‘happy’ are read more and shared more on social media,” says Nils Franchell, head of print at Aftonbladet. The stories will typically be about “ordinary people who do extraordinary things for their fellow human beings and thus contribute to making life a little easier to live”, he says. –lito

In an interview with SNDS Magazine in 2010 Mads Nissen said that photographing the mood or atmosphere rather than just an object or a situation is what he aims for. And to make the personal story interesting on a universal level – with its built-in dilemmas: “I explore, then show what I find, and let others draw conclusions or pass judgments.

[…] I want to show the built-in dilemmas and leave open the questions of right or wrong,” Nissen said. This year’s winning photo certainly is a quiet but strong comment to an important discussion and a universal dilemma. Congratulations, Mads. –pryds www.worldpressphoto.org

where strategy meets technology Let our world class publishing solutions accelerate your business strategy.

ccieurope.com

escenic.com

1. The heavy ice blocks were ordered, cut to size in the work shop and brought in by a truck before we could start to chisel. We had to carve out 26 letters in three days in order to keep up with the tight schedule. We were inside those days but the indoor temperature was -7 C for the ice not to melt.

“Hot Type in a Cold Setting” A celebration of typography: Designers John Bark and Charli Kasselbäck creates the Art Suite ”Hot Type in a Cold Setting” for the 25th anniversary of ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden.

Text by John Bark jbarkdesign@gmail.com DECEMBER 2014

The ice block weighs over 350 kg and the margins are small. The pallet lift exceeds its maximum load and complains and whines in the biting cold when Charli reels in the last few centimeters of wire. Hands and shoulders against the slippery ice: PUSH! The lump of frozen Torne River Water balance for a moment at its center of gravity. If it tilts now we have nothing to give. Some loud cries, one more push and the block glides nice-

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ly over the traverse and hits the wall of ”snice” behind with a muffled “clunk” – the rear end toward the snow. Another letter in place. A little splash of water as glue in the cold and everything is fixed and soon solid. Now it’s just the top row left. We relax for a moment. It’s December 2014 and my colleague and I are designing and building an “Art Suite” in ice and snow at the ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjärvi. The concept of the frozen hotel turns 25 and we are invited together with artists, architects and designers from around the world to celebrate the anniversary.

Our room is a commemoration to the art of printmaking and consists of huge ice letters, lead type, protruding from one of the short walls with an imprint on the opposite. We call the creation “Hot Type in a Cold Setting.” The fonts we have chosen are Baskerville from my days as an Art Director at Esquire Magazine in New York, Bodoni and Akzidenz from the Dagens Nyheter redesign in 2002. The Futura is a tribute to my dad, packaging designer who passed away a year ago. Two weeks of intensive ice hacking, chiseling, snow block

lifting, and chain sawing in ice and hard packed snow above the Arctic Circle is a welcome end to a year that brought many changes. A year filled of both sorrow and new possibilities. JANUARY 2014

The year starts with me and my sister emptying my parent’s design studio. Two lives’ work will be stored away. The result of long careers will be sorted, saved, filed or recycled. Then my Mother-in-law in New York passes away and just three weeks later my dad dies of a heart attack in my 

2. We had great support from a.o. Mats Nilsson from the Icehotel Support Team. Especially when it came to things we were not allowed to do, like driving trucks and tractors. 3. We had our sponsors too, Houdini for some of the clothes and Ilkopia who supported us with huge copies of the letters which we brought with us up to JukkasjĂ¤rvi. No free hand rendring, even ice type is precision work. Here Charli cuts out cap T. 4. After working three days in the freezer in production we moved down to the Icehotel by the Torne River. It was a beautiful environment to work in although we were indoors most of the time. 5. Learning by doing was our motto. At the end, the ice wall plus all the letters weighed over 6 tons (!). Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a lot of ice. 6. After a while we got the hang of it. We mounted the blocks row by row and glued them with water that froze in an instant. Here Charli is working on the wall. 7. Not that we needed more snow, we needed wet and fine, clean snow for mending. This was produced by snow canons. 6.

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10.

11.

8. Finally the spotlights were mounted and fixed behind the wall to illuminate the letters from behind. We were getting close to deadline after two intense weeks. 9. We alternated between building the wall and carving out the imprinted letters in the opposite wall made of the snow material that goes by the name ”Snice” here. The final result should look like white marble. Here me and Charli proudly pose between the shifts. 10+11. Finally, five minutes before deadline (what else is new?) we were done. Reindeer skin was placed on the bed and all the lights were lit. Now the guests can arrive! Photos by Paulina Holmgren and Cliff Karlsson

parents home. My mom calls us at twelve o’clock at night, confused and bewildered, she can’t wake him up. We live close and are there within fifteen minutes. 112 and resuscitation while we’re waiting for the ambulance. The police are the first to arrive with a defibrillator. Then comes the rescue teams – a supposed death brings in all units – and suddenly the house is full of rustling overalls and crackling comradios. Heavy boots thud to the floor and the cold night air reaches all the way into my parent’s bedroom. But my father is dead. One by one the life rescuers leaves the house. We are left alone, comforting my mother. The

rest of the family has arrived. Then a doctor comes by to legally confirm my father’s death. Finally the mortuary staff enters the house. They place my father’s corps on a portable gurney and I open the door to let them out. ”Hej då”, they say. The gravel crunch under their feet when they disappear into the darkness, carrying my dad between them. ”Hej då”, I say. ”Hej då”. What else could I say? SPRING 2015

This spring the ICEHOTEL melts down and returns to the natural cycle of life. Our room with the giant ice letters, the 350 kilo blocks, the snow walls with the painstakingly carved out fonts and letter shapes

turns into water again. The result of two weeks working around the clock literally runs out in the Torne River. But the water will freeze again and the ICEHOTEL will once more resurrect in time for the next the winter season. There is something reassuring about that process. The “Hot Type in a Cold Setting” was selected by the jury in the TDC Communication Design Competition to receive a “Certificate of Typographic Excellence”. TDC – The Type Directors Club is the leading international organization whose purpose is to support excellence in typography, both in print and on screen. More info: www.tdc.org

The Hot Type blog: hottype25.wordpress.com Charli Kasselbäck was trained in Sweden (Nackademin) and Australia (University of South Australia, South Australian School of Art). He is co-founder of the Stockholm-based digital agency One Day Interact. More info: onedayinteract.se John Bark was educated in Sweden and New York and has worked with WBMG Inc., Milton Glaser, Walter Bernard and as AD at Esquire Magazine in New York. He founded Bark Design AB in 1988 and is currently working as an editorial designer and publisher with clients throughout the Nordic region. More info: barkdesign.se

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Save big on Early Bird offer for the SNDS15 conference The SNDS15 design conference will be held at Scandic Copenhagen Hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark on Thursday–Friday, October 1–2, 2015. Save the dates – and save big by registering early: The price changes every two months starting May 1. See the prices below – and stay tuned for more info and updated speaker list on the conference website: conference.snds.org EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION FEE IS:

Until April 30: € 495 / DKK 3.685 – You save: € 300 / DKK 2.240 May 1 – June 30: € 595 / DKK 4.435 – You save: € 200 / DKK 1.490 July 1 – August 31: € 695 / DKK 5.175 – You save: € 100 / DKK 740 From September 1: € 795 / DKK 5.925 Sales Tax (25%) will be added to all prices

Fee includes: Attendance at all sessions, final programme, lunches, coffee/tea breaks during conference days, welcome reception October 1 and gala dinner and award show October 2.

Master classes before the conference For those who arrive early on Thursday and want extra knowledge, we offer two exclusive master classes that will teach you skills in both printed newsdesign, the latest technologies and best practices in digital cross-platform design. More info and sign up for a master class at conference.snds.org

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DATA VISUALISING FOR BEGINNERS

BRANDING OF CONCEPTUAL CONTENT

Charts and maps are quickly becoming essential ingredients for digital storytelling. Join this master class to get useful hands-on experience visualising data and crafting maps ready to be published online. In this master class we look at the basic chart types and learn how to draw and style them using a custom data set. We’ll also look at different mapping tools, and how to use them to design maps. We will discuss common pitfalls, best practices, and potential when using data to tell stories. Masters: Anders Bergmann and Rune Madsen Location: Hotel Kong Frederik Date and time: October 1, 2015, at 10am–1pm

How hard can it be? Create value for your users. Smart services with cleverly bundled content are popular, but why has no media yet developed products and services that are tailored to the users’ behavior? During this master class you will learn different models that guide the user from awareness of the product to becoming loyal customers. You learn to create a brand, to design interface, content and presentation according to your users – and to deliver relevant products and services enhancing the user experience. Master: Rickard Frank Location: Hotel Kong Frederik Date and time: October 1, 2015, at 10am–1pm

SNDS15 speakers

AC K

DAL Y

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BY J

HO TO

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BY M

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JON HILL

TED IRVINE

EMILY GOLIGOSKI

RASMUS KYLLÖNEN

Jon Hill joined The Telegraph as Creative Director in May 2014. Prior to that Hill worked seven years as Design Editor at The Times. In his early career he was mentored by legendary Simon Esterson, one of the most famous editorial designers in the UK, working six years for him at the Esterson Associates. Hill redesigned The Times with Neville Brody, one of the world’s leading graphic designers of his generation. Learning from these masters Hill has worked his way through leading positions in the News Design area in the UK. He believes that designers have to work hard to earn their place in the organization. It’s not about making things pretty but helping people to understand the world we live in. Jon Hill will in his presentation give insight on the upcoming and at the time ongoing redesign of The Telegraph newspaper and its digital platforms.

Ted Irvine is the Senior Design Director at Vox Media, one of the fastest growing online publishers, whose properties include Vox, SB Nation, The Verge, Polygon, Curbed, Eater, and Racked. He helps lead Vox Product, the team of designers, developers, product managers, and support managers who create innovative experiences for the company’s large monthly audience. In 2012 SB Nation was recognized by SND as one of the World’s Best Designed news sites and apps. Read an interview with Ted on typecast.com: http://bit.ly/ted-i-interview

Emily Goligoski is a Brooklynbased researcher and producer. She leads audience development user research efforts at The New York Times. She previously spent her days at Mozilla talking to people about their needs and designing educational tools to empower them. Emily has taught needfinding at the Stanford design institute (“d.school”) and UX design at General Assembly. She completed her Master’s in Learning, Design & Technology at Stanford while conducting user research at Intel Labs. Before working in the Bay Area she reported for Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ) and studied journalism at Northwestern. An avid yoga practitioner, she has taught with the Art of Yoga Project and is a Youth Radio board member.

Rasmus Kyllönen is a paper man by birth. Ever since making his own magazine in his childhood, he has surrounded himself with print in various forms. Rasmus is nowadays an award-winning visual journalist at Hufvudstadsbladet, HBL, the largest Swedish speaking daily in Finland.

Website: www.voxmedia.com Twitter: @VoxProduct

Website: www.nytimes.com Twitter: @emgollie

Website: www.hbl.fi

More speakers on the following page Follow updates on the conference.snds.org website for more speaker announcements – or sign up for the SNDS Newsletter on snds.org

SNDS15 IS PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

Website: www.telegraph.co.uk Twitter: @jonhilldesign



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SNDS15 speakers

HO TO

OT OP

ANDERS BERGMANN NIELSEN

Anders has headed a small but efficient team towards editorial success on the digital platforms of ekstrabladet.dk. Award winning storytelling by use of graphics, visualization of data and nice programming are some of the tools. Anders recently moved to TV2.dk to help the Danish broadcasting company with editorial development on their digital platforms. Website: tv2.dk Twitter: @anders_bergmann

OT OB YL

A RS

AAR

OT OB YL

A RS

AAR

RUNE MADSEN

RICKARD FRANK

LIV HÅKER

Rune Madsen is a Danish designer, programmer, and artist living in New York City. He designs and builds web applications, data visualizations, algorithmic design systems, and many other things involving the artistic uses of computation. A former developer at the New Yorks Times, he is currently Director of Software Development for O’Reilly Media, where he leads a digital design team focused on the transition from print to digital. Rune is also an adjunct professor at ITP, New York University, where he teaches graduate classes on algorithmic design.

Rickard Frank is Concept Developer in Digital Business Development, Head of Design, Corporate Brand and Editorial Development at Dagens Nyheter in Sweden. He began his newspaper career at Svenska Dagbladet’s infographics department and became Head of Design at the same newspaper in 2001. In 2009, Frank became Editor-inChief at Trelleborgs Allehanda. In 2011 he left to lead the design process at Sweden’s largest morning paper, Dagens Nyheter. It’s major redesign project was launched in September the same year.

Liv Håker is an awarded designer and part of the editorial development team at Sunnmørsposten. She co-redesigned the print paper in 2013 and has worked on web design, data journalism and data visualization since – pushing for better digital visual storytelling. Tech junkie – code rookie. Member of the SNDS Best of Scandinavian News Design digital jury 2014–2015.

Website: runemadsen.com Twitter: @runemadsen

Website: www.dn.se Twitter: @rickardfrank

Website: www.smp.no Twitter: @livhaker

Follow updates on the conference.snds.org website for more speaker announcements – or sign up for the SNDS Newsletter on snds.org

SNDS15 IS PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

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Why not use a drawing? Illustrators made drawings in sympathy for Charlie – but only a few newspapers printed them Text by Lars Pryds pryds@mac.com Newspapers and online media all over the world reported from the attack on the French magazine Charlie Hebdo where 12 people – including five cartoonists – were killed January 7, 2015. Charlie Hebdo is a rare magazine in which illustration is the main form of expression, perhaps the most radical of its kind in the French tradition of caricature publications. Charlie Hebdo exercise the right – backed by French legislation which supports the right to express blasphemy – to ridicule literally everything, from Islam and Judaism to the Pope and the President of France.

The devil-may-care attitude to any authority – religious, economical, or political – is probably the main reason why this anarchist magazine has both supporters and enemies. The immediate, easy-tounderstand language of the cartoon is another. No need for long articles to understand the meaning – just a quick look and you get the point. A good drawing says it all in a split-second. Strangely, very few newspapers used this powerful tool to report from the attack. A search in Newseum.org’s collection of front pages published January 8 shows that less than 20 out of 2.200 used a handdrawn illustration to tell the story. Some of these are shown above.

The illustrators of Charlie Hebdo develop their ideas in a collective process, passing unfinished sketches across the table in the editorial offices in Paris. This way of working is very different from the way for instance Danish illustrators work, according to Lars Refn who is chairman of the Danish Illustrators’ Association and knew most of the killed illustrators at Charlie Hebdo personally. Danish cartoonists, on the other hand, mostly work alone and tend to finetune their drawings so they look nice – “If I cannot get a brilliant idea at least I can make the hatching look good,” Refn said at a meeting in February organised

by the Danish Journalists’ Asssociation. At Charlie Hebdo, the idea behind the drawing is much more important than the finished look. Charlie Hebdo’s illustrations are more ‘rough’ and ‘direct’ – aesthetics become less prominent. Life goes on, even after the terrible attack on Charlie Hedbo. Illustrators, artists and an enormous increase in subscribers all over the world now support the wounded magazine. One of the new subscribers is Arnold Schwarzenegger, which has caused of a lot of attention especially on social media platforms. Charlie Hebdo front pages: bit.ly/hebdo080115

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Building a new business brand On the October 21, 2014 a new business media brand, Finans, was born in Denmark. After years of preparation, nine months of development, the brand was launched on all digital platforms – desktop, mobile, tablet and newsletters.

Text by Lisbeth From Birkholm lisbeth.f.birkholm@jp.dk and Kartin Hansen kartin.hansen@jp.dk

Finans is developed and maintained by Jyllands-Posten under the support of JP/Politikens Hus. 20 new journalists were hired and grouped with all the business reporters of Jyllands-Posten to form the Finans editorial staff of around 60 journalists in total. The vision behind Finans is to give the busy business people insight and coherence in the business and economy of today, presenting in depth journalism with innovative and user-friendly digital formats.

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The mission is to deliver journalism that enriches people both in their professional and private life. Finans is a true “digital first” media. It holds no print edition. It is therefore a milestone in the digital transformation of Jyllands-Posten and JP/ Politikens Hus in general. And it is subscription based also. Finans should also be a brand on its own with no relation to Jyllands-Posten. This gave obvious challenges. FREE AND PAID FOR

The brand is based on a Freemium Business Model, meaning that it has both free content and paid content that is only for subscribers. A yearly

subscription of Finans cost around the same as a printed subscription of a Danish newspaper, so it is a bold initiative. The Freemium Model has obvious challenges with regards to the user experience. How should one communicate to the user what requires subscription and what is free? Finans took that question all the way and created two content universes – a free one and a paid one. The free area is called Live, while the subscription area has been given the name of the product, Finans. To support this approach a two-tab-navigation model was created containing sections from each content flows.

Finans has developed various editorial formats to make the overall vision come through. It has a rich article view with the ability to relate various components to the article to enhance the depth and user experience. HANDWRITTEN BRIEFS

Tagging is a vital part of the content flow. Every article is tagged with relevant tags and users can navigate by them as an alternative to traditional sections. On the newsletter level, Finans has developed a briefing format. Every briefing is handwritten by a journalist in a personal and informal tone instead of being an automatic feed of articles.

 Live frontpage and article

level on Finans mobile site. Subscription frontpage on the Finans App.

HO TO :

We aimed to create a design that would speak in a clear voice. We wanted to place Finans in the junction of aesthetics and functionalism Lisbeth From Birkholm Head of Digital Design, Jyllands-Posten

Speed is a main performance indicator for Finans. Both the desktop and mobile site has been enhanced to load as fast as possible. Finans is not only a journalistic achievement but also a technical, graphical and user experience achievement. In the following we present in very short the main considerations and descisions that formed Finans to be what it is. COLOR

The first design drafts had blue as the primary color, but quite early in the design process we realised that if we were to build a new independent brand and identity, we had to move away from colors previously used

by Jyllands-Posten for bussiness and financial content. We ended up going with a strong and expressive dark red color. FONTS

In a time where everyone seems to be introducing customized web fonts, we wanted to work with a native typography set. Having a loadbudget in mind and an adaptive cross-device design, we paired a couple of very classic typefaces: Georgia as primary headline font and Arial in addition. LOGO

The Finans logo was designed by UK-based type designer  Paul Barnes. It arises from

 Finans Live frontpage. A two column grid with big images and tags.

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 Desktop article level: Mark-

and-share directly on the social media

 From the new design manual:

A strong logo, few colors and a native typography set.

 Guardian Egyptian and is de-

signed to work on all devices and in various sizes. It is both elegant and strong, and recognisable from a distance. GRID

Building a site with two equal yet different frontpages, required special attention. Would it be possible to have one design identity, but still differentiate and distinguish different types of content? How could we affect the users perception of the content? These were some of our main considerations. The result was black for Live and red for Finans and two different frontpage templates with the exact same backend

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options and configurations, but with two different settings and looks. The Live/free frontpage follows a two column vertical grid and displays only headlines, tags and big images. The Finans/subscription frontpage has a vertical three-column grid and each article is displayed with a slice of article bodytext, and smaller images, mainly to the right. NAVIGATION

Creating the desktop navigation was an achievement of its own. We run this as a separate project. The concept was clear, but the architecture we had to form and build. Several sketches were drawn, and a

few of the best made it into prototyping. These were tested on a Finans core audience and modified. The nature of this iterative process was complex, time consuming and frustrating at times, but extremely instructive. We ended up with the two-tab black/red navigation. ARTICLE TEMPLATE

In creating the article template the design team focused on the user experience and the integration of new functionalities such as “infinite scroll” (when the user scrolls down to the bottom of an article, the next article in the flow is automatically loaded)

Besides smooth functionality, the main priority was to build components for journalists to vary and enrich their articles, components that ultimately would add value to the user, enhance and engage the user experience. Inline images, videos, links, quotes, tabels, factboxes, toolboxes and tabels, company and financial data were designed. SOCIAL MEDIA

A huge part of the Finans concept is getting content to flow on the social media. Each journalist has a Twitter account and a dedicated Community Manager was hired to communicate and run a sober dialogue with the users.

For desktop article level we created a special feature, for users to ’mark-and-share’ a slice of body text directly on the social media. The user can mark a piece of text (with the mouse) and get a pop-up which displays the number of characters and the opportunity to share the slice on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

a company tag page where articles about the company are shown together with stock and core data about the company or via the article where company names are clickable and show an overlay with the most important data.

BUSINESS DATA

These were some of the main considerations we had during the Finans project. For the real experience visit Finans.dk

Being a business brand it was vital for Finans to have close integration to business data. On desktop and mobile platform, users have access to these data in three ways. Either through a search page where he can find core business data about a company, through

Lisbeth From Birkholm is Head of Digital Design and Kartin Hansen is Head of Digital Development, both at Jyllands-Posten, Denmark.

 Finans subscription frontpage: A three column grid with small images and display of bodytext

SNDSMagazine 2015|1 17

Scandinavian winners found No detail was left undiscussed in this year’s jury work at Hotel Legoland, Billund Text by Lars Pryds pryds@mac.com Four days of hard work, lots of fun and late night singing and guitar playing paved the way for finding this year’s winners in the Best of Scandinavian News Design competition. As always, the judges were hard but fair, and although many jury members also send entries to be judged, they have to leave the room when their entry is discussed. Mattias Bergman was a firsttime member of the jury: ”The jury process is intense and really ambitious. I found it great to learn that no detail is left undiscussed: no colour box, no hairline, no column grid is overseen. You also get a hunch of the current state in the Scandinavian media business – both strengths and

challenges exposed”, says Mattias Bergman. Below you can see some of the statistics of the competition – the most remarkable observation perhaps being that Sweden, in recent years multiple winner of both Scandinavia’s Best Designed Newspaper and SND World’s Best Designed, only will receive 9 awards this year shared between digital (4) and print (5) categories. Norway is the big winner with a total of 37 awards (17+20) while Finland (22 awards: 4+18) and Denmark (21 awards: 7+14) are on the same level, somewhat behind. It’s worth noting that while Finnish awards mostly are won in print, Norway performs well in both digital and print. The award winners (except for the Honourable Mentions)

will be presented at the SNDS15 conference in Copenhagen, October 1–2, 2015. On the following pages Lars Aarø – who also photographed all the winning pages in the print categories for the catalogue – has captured moments of concentration, fun, and serious discussion during the work of the two juries. Best of Scandinavian News Design 2015 Competition Committee Flemming Hvidtfeldt, SNDS President (chairman for the competition) (DK) Kim Bjørn, Cre8o (chairman for the digital competition) (DK) Søren Stidsholt Nielsen, Fynske Medier (DK) Lone Jürgensen, Jyllands-Posten (DK) Signe Stidsholt Jensen, Sund med Signe (DK)

Award winners in the digital categories, by country. 2015. Gold Awards D NNN

Silver Awards DDD NNNNN S

Honourable Mentions DDD F F F F NNNNN NNNN S S S

Silver Awards DD F F F F F F NNNNN NN S

ÍÍ Best of Show Award (1) ÍÍ Best Detail (1)

2015 2014

Gold Awards 10 5

D = Denmark F = Finland N = Norway S = Sweden

Honourable Mentions DDDDD DDDD F F F F F F F F F NNNNN NNNNN NNN S S S S

Total awards given, digital + print. 2014–2015.

Print jury Håvard Holten, VG (N) Jesse Jacob Lindkvist, Dagbladet Information (DK) Sami Valtere, Helsingin Sanomat (F) Mattias Bergman, Freelance (S) Anne Laitinen, Turun Sanomat (F) Lars Pryds, Tolstrup Pryds  Grafisk Tegnestue (DK)

D = Denmark F = Finland N = Norway S = Sweden

Award winners in the print categories, by country. 2015. Gold Awards DDD F F F

Digital jury Elisabeth Svendby, AMEDIA (N) Björn Heselius, Hufvudstadsbladet (F) Ulf Högberg, Dagens Industri (S) Magnus Bjerg Mortensen, TV2 (DK) Liv-Jorunn Håker Ottesen Sunnmørsposten (N) Anna Kallenberg, Dagens Nyheter (S)

+ ÍÍ Scandinavia’s Best Designed Newspaper (1) ÍÍ Best of Show Award (1) ÍÍ Best Detail (1)

Excl. Best of Show, Best Detail, and Best Designed awards

Silver Awards

Honourable Mentions 25

56 29

 The 2015 jury and competition committee photographed in the Legoland amusement park – which was opened especially for this

occasion. From left to right, top row (on the terrace): Sami Valtere, Lars Pryds, Håvard Holten, Elisabeth Svendby, Flemming Hvidtfeldt, Anne Laitinen, Mattias Bergman. Front row (on the ground): Jesse Jacob Lindkvist, Lone Jürgensen, Kim Bjørn, Ulf Högberg, Liv-Jorunn Håker Ottesen, Björn Heselius, Magnus Bjerg Mortensen, Søren Stidsholt Nielsen, Signe Stidsholt Jensen. Photo by Lars Aarø.

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MATTIAS BERGMAN, ANNE LAITINEN, LARS PRYDS

BJÖRN HESELIUS

SAMI VALTERE, ANNE LAITINEN

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JESSE JACOB LINDKVIST (DETAIL)

HÅVARD HOLTEN, MATTIAS BERGMAN, SAMI VALTERE (HIDDEN), JESSE JACOB LINDKVIST, ANNE LAITINEN

LIV HÅKER, KIM BJØRN, ULF HÖGBERG, MAGNUS BJERG MORTENSEN

ELISABETH SVENDBY

SØREN STIDSHOLT NIELSEN

LIV HÅKER, HÅVARD HOLTEN, ULF HÖGBERG. PHOTO BY SØREN STIDSHOLT NIELSEN

LIV HÅKER

PHOTOS BY LARS AARØ (EXCEPT ONE)

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 You will see infographics in a lot of places, where you would not expect it. Mostly in practical situations with a purpose, but also in art museums, where the diagrams are surprisingly exhibited as fine art. Illustration by Jaime Serra.

 Physical objects and real humans work well

together. When the infographics magazine in St. Petersburg decided to make an infographic about how much it rains in different cities across the world, they got 11 people with umbrellas to act as the main illustration of the piece. Illustration by infographicsmag.ru

The visual language of the future Newspapers are no longer the main place to look for exciting new stuff. Gert K Nielsen, owner of Emotion and long-time graphics editor, artist and communicator, looks at trends in today’s infographics.

Text by Gert K Nielsen gert@emotion.dk In the old days – before the Millennium – infographics were hot in newsrooms all over the world, including Scandinavia. Today, it’s difficult to see any evolution in infographics in the newspapers. With very few exceptions, the focus seems to be on keeping pace with the past when there was both time

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and budgets for large infographic projects. Magazines, organisations, and communication departments within corporations have taken the lead when it comes to new thinking. But this doesn’t have to be as bad as it sounds … It does cost a lot of money to rethink what you’re doing and to venture into unknown territories. So maybe it’s just a

sign of good business acumen when newsrooms under pressure lean back and learn from the others. Which direction to look, then? Here is a couple of infographic trends which are already big or will be in the nearest future. PHYSICAL OBJECTS

Tired of infographics with generic icons and diagrams

that all look the same? Start building your own graphic – with physical objects or maybe even people set up to tell your story. Take a photo of the setting, add text and other necessary info – and you have a graphic with your personal touch that will stand out. As a bonus – your readers are likely to remember it better. There’s a lot of inspiration to find in this genre at Rus-

 Danish newspaper metroxpress gave the story about the Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen a twist, when they put a red and white cartoony guy in a traditional infographic and told the readers how much the astronaut could save in taxes by working so far from home. Illustration: Metroxpress/Emotion.

 One bit of information – one infographic: The German bureau C3 made a few

online-videos when the Rosetta-landing was about to happen. They explored the angle ‘What can go wrong in the landing’ in a lighthearted fashion, and rather than telling the whole story in one piece they chopped it up in five very short videos suited to be shared on social media. Illustration: C3 Visual Lab.

The megagraphic is a dead format. Chop it up in smaller bits and give it a new life. P

HO TO :

sian infographicsmag.ru. The funny guys in Sct Petersborg have made it a speciality to build their own infographics and publish them in a free magazine, where all content is infographics. INFOGRAPHICS EVERYWHERE

In the future you will see infographics everywhere. It is becoming increasingly easier to

Gert K. Nielsen, Owner, Emotion Infographics

create displays – and more and more data is collected. You will meet infographics when you travel, when you shop, when you get your receipt or when you pour a cup of coffee in the office – all these places will feature automatic or semi-automatic information displayed using infographic tools. How will the news media hook up to this trend? It will be interesting to see.

LITTLE BITS

The good old Megagraphic is dead. Elaborate infographics containing it all – locator maps, illustrations, vignetted photos, icons and cartoons – are still being produced, but they had better not. It is probably great fun for the designer to make them, but it is torture for the readers who give up and plunge into content that has been edited better and divided

into smaller parts. Furthermore, the gigantic infographic is tied to its static print format. In a time with limited ressources it’s not wise to devote all energy to a single format which will never get a life online and which readers cannot share. HUMOUR

Infographics deliver useful information – and this is the reason why they are



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 This homeless man is almost a prototype for the infographic of the future: He sits in an unusual place. He uses physical objects. His information is split into small bits – and all is done with a great sense of humour. Photo by imgur.com

 The bureau Beutler Ink constructed a successful poster with custom made icons

for all the films which have ever won an Academy Award in the ‘Best Picture’-category. The beauty of it is that you’ll spend a long time trying to figure out the icons and remember when you saw the films – and every time you get one right, you feel really smart. (No, the rat in 2006 is not Ratatouille …) Illustration by Beutler Ink.

shared generously on social media. Unfortunately the genre has been overflooded with graphics which do not give much information but basicly are produced with the single purpose to get people to click and share. It’s easy to mash up something and call it an infographic, but there’s still no easy shortcut to create well-edited content with energy and humour. The classic storytelling model – start with the main points, then add more body and information and finish with a twist – also works well in graphic narratives. The tiny element of humour can be the reason readers will share the graphic with their friends. THE STORY TOLD IN ICONS

Finally a recent, funny trend you need to be quick to join before it’s too late.

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Tell your story using small icons, which may not be immediatly dechiffrable – the reader therefore has to put some effort into reading. It could be “The Year in Icons” or “All Academy Award Winners” as icons (see illustration). Why does this work? Brain research shows that every time we decode an icon – solves the puzzle – a little dopamin is released in the brain, and we feel good and really smart.

Gert K Nielsen is running his own studio doing infographic work for various clients all around the world. He also teaches infographics and is right now working to start an infographic day / conference in Denmark.

We create creative teams, businesses and products.

Going solo Kim Bjørn, Head of Digital Design, Ekstra Bladet since 2006, is going solo. He has quit his job and starts up a new company in April. For several years he has been – and still is – a driving force in developing the digital part of the Best of Scandinavian News Design competition and also at organizing the SNDS conferences in 2014 and 2015. He has been active as a designer, author and speaker for more than 20 years. Q: You’re launching a new company, Cre8o, in April this year. What’s it all about?

O TO

A: I needed new challenges, that you simply cannot get unless you start your own company. At the same time, after more than 20 years in the design business, I thought it was time to start a company focusing on strategic design and business development – nowadays design is playing a big part in creating succesful companies and products. I teamed up with a businesspartner, who shares the same vision of helping startups as well as big companies in creating more creative teams, products and businesses. Together we have a strong network and competencewise we cover a wide range of services – from business development to creative, digital product-focused workshops, app- and website development – and everything in between. Q: After so many years as an employee, with good regular wages and a secure position at Ekstra Bladet, is it not a little scary to start your own company? A: Of course! But as with everything else; if it isn’t a bit scary it probably isn’t worth doing.

Q: Will you, in your new company, be able to draw on your experience from Ekstra Bladet, but also your previous jobs (like e.g. teaching at DMJX – the Danish School of Media and Journalism)? A: Indeed – I think everyone’s past experiences add up – and in this situation I can heavily draw on my experience developing not only the design of the most visited news site in Denmark but also my organizational and creative skills – as well as on my previous experience as creative director in a mobile company. I actually still teach courses in communication design, visual and digital design – it keeps me on my toes. Basically I like to spend more time helping companies and people grow – not only make things pretty. Q: What other projects are you working with at the moment? A: A lot of interesting stuff. In Cre8o we also focus on developing our own digital products. And then I’m co-writing (and designing) a book about digital news design that will be out later this year – but more about that later ;-)

Follow Kim: http://twitter.com/kimbjoern http://twitter.com/cre8ocom http://kimbjoern.dk Email: kim@cre8o.com

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SCREENDUMPS FROM ME-MO MAGAZINE #1, 2015

Images of a cruel world Me-Mo Magazine is a brand new iPad only magazine that through powerful photo journalism wishes to “push the boundaries of visual storytelling”. We asked design consultant Ole Munk to take a look at the premiere issue, published January 16, 2015.

Text by Ole Munk ole@ribmunk.dk “If we could smell, hear, taste and feel what it is like to be under attack from hidden enemies, we might make different decisions in life … we might realize how delicate our freedom and comfort is, and take it less for granted”. The ambition of ME-MO Magazine is a noble one. Five award-winning photo journalists – four Spanish, one from Italy – have been witnessing at close range, as globe-trotting

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photographers frequently do, the pain and fear dominating parts of the world which most of us know about only from the occasional news story. Their hope is that sharing their grim experiences with us might make everyone care more and maybe start changing things for the better. The problem is that, just like ME-MO editor Maral Deghati mentions in her introduction, we are all “drowning in data and obsessed with daily struggles”. I am afraid that catching our attention for real

and making us engage with “the whole narrative” behind the daily news flashes is going to demand stronger, more impactful means than the intellectual/artistic approach chosen by the ME-MO team. Every single image in this digital publication is indeed strong as well as beautiful. Still, browsing through slideshows, mainly in black and white, mixed with a couple of graphics and video/audio clips and garnished by long, contrastless lines of text, simply feels like an experience you’ve

had before. And the emotional effect for which the authors are aiming gets impaired by the fact that navigation feels rather complicated, in spite of lots of small infographics trying to help you along the way.

ME-MO Magazine can be bought in the iTunes App Store (an Android version is on the drawing board) and the price of the first issue is USD 9.99. More info: memo-mag.com

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 Maps4news generated maps with great detail are an important part of the visual storytelling in this article about a Roman emperor.

No need for panic calls Most news publications – not least the printed ones – need a quick locator map now and then, or even elaborate maps with tons of information. Anyone having created maps in software like Adobe Illustrator or Freehand (remember Freehand?) knows how tedious it can be to get all details right. Maps4news is a software package designed to make map creation simple, intuitive and fast. We asked Maija Hurme and Björn Heselius who have been using the software since 2011 about their experiences with Maps4news. Tekst by Maija Hurme maija.hurme@ksfmedia.fi and Björn Heselius bjorn.heselius@ksfmedia.fi At KSF Media (Hufvudstadsbladet, Västra Nyland, Östnyland, Loviisan Sanomat, Hangötidningen-Hangonlehti), we have been working with Maps4news since early 2011. During the first years, we we mostly focused on creating map styles and taking part in the development of the software. Back then, the software came as a rather clumsy client

28 SNDSMagazine 2015|1

for Windows. Since we are working on a Mac platform, the new online version was a very welcome update. The online tool is quite intuitive, so it has not been necessary to consult many tutorials or make any panic calls to the Dutch guys at Maps4news. We use the maps generated by Maps4news mainly in our print editions of Hufvudstadsbladet, Västra Nyland and Östnyland. From time to time we also use the maps as part of online graphics. At the moment only our

infographics journalists use the map tool. Ultimately all layout staff should be able to create maps with Maps4news in our organisation, however, at the moment skills in and licenses for Adobe Illustrator are needed in order to clean up the maps generated. Our strategy is to make the production of small maps and locators faster. Maps4news serves this purpose well, and we have not felt the need to get any other software for maps. Of course, we re-use maps of the world from our archives

as well as our own custom built template maps. For other infographics, including some maps, we use graphics by TT Nyhetsbyrån. THE ADVANTAGES OF USING MAPS4NEWS

From a legal aspect, we no longer need to check every map for copyright. Also the time consuming work of tracing maps over a layer of assembled screenshots of original maps in Illustrator is a distant memory. Disadvantages – well, some

 Two different maps were used in this infographic to show where earthquakes may strike in California and worldwide.

HO TO

Maps4news serves its purpose well, and we have not felt the need to get any other software for maps.

BY K

BY L

ILHJ Á L M SS O N

The guys at Maps4news have been very easy to work with,

most of our numerous wishes have been met within a short period of time. We feel that all the features we have asked for, sooner or later, have been incorporated. The tool has proven to be a good addition to the daily work at the infographics desk, however, it is not possible to rely on the generated maps without having someone checking for content accuracy and cleaning up the vector files. Our own favourite design, created with the Maps4news software must be the map of

Rome shown above (page 28). It was made using two maps created with Maps4news. The first map we generated gave us the main geographical outlines, and the second map provided parks for identification.

Brunnar med bakterier Nup urb öle

Käringmossen

n ge vä

maps need to be generated a few times in order to get all necessary information printed in the vector, since the preview does not always correlate to the actual generated map. Getting all the details correct in a map can sometimes be quite a time consuming project. The larger the map, the longer the waiting time for the software to generate a map. WISHES FOR FEATURES IN FUTURE RELEASES

ESBO

ARØ

Nupurträsket

Sprängningar Svartbäcksvägen

Åb ole de n

Svartbäckträsket

Maija Hurme is an infographics journalist and Björn Heselius is head of visual department, both at KSF Media, Helsingfors, Finland

HBL

 Small locator maps are created quickly with Maps4news – no more tracing screendumps in Illustrator or checking for copyright issues.

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The journal of a profession The book 100 Classic Graphic Design Journals confirms how graphic design magazines have influenced designers and the profession for more than 100 years Text by Lars Pryds pryds@mac.com Different factors influence the building of a trade or a profession: The training of skills, the education you undertake, colleagues you work with, people you look up to as role models within your profession, and the way other professions look at your work. All these and many other elements help create the ethos and identity of the trade, making you feel that you belong to that profession.

Read on: 5 great books about design magazines and/or magazine design

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For the graphic designer, an important element has been the trade magazine. Starting out as an appendix to the print business, from the beginning of the twentieth century graphic design grew into the profession we know today. A new book documents how trade magazines played an important role in this evolution. 100 Classic Graphic Design Journals showcases each magazine with a short description of its history and content, supplemented by reproduc-

tions of typical covers and spreads. Wellknown classics mix with surprising new friends it would be interesting to get to know better. Among the classics are Graphis (published 1944–2004) which – when I was in design school in the 1980ies – was the overwhelmingly luxurious source of inspiration, one that you could not afford but had to read at the library. U&lc (published by ITC 1973–1999) was another defining voice in international

John D. Berry (2005): U&lc: Influencing Design and Typography Already a classic book – about the classic typographic magazine published between 1973 and 1999, written by the magazine’s last editor.

graphic design, with its focus on typography. For a while it was even possible to subscribe for free – a real treat for a design student. My small collection of original U&lcs has been lost, but in 2005 a representative sampling of its pages was made into a book (see below). Newer classics still published today include the influental British Eye (founded 1990), the Japanese IDEA, published since 1953, and Typografia, founded 1888 in Czechoslovakia.

Steven Heller (2003): Merz to Emigre and Beyond – Progressive Magazine Design of the Twentieth Century A comprehensive documentation of avant-garde cultural and political magazines and newspapers from the early twentieth century to the present.

 Kurt Westergaard may be the most wellknown Danish cartoon

artist today, but Social Kunst (1930–32) bears witness that the tradition for using caricature goes a long way back.

 IDEA (Japan, 1953–present) is one of the few examples in the book with non-latin text. The visual content, however, speaks in an international language easily understood.

Among older magazines are American Printer (published 1883–2011) which contained “a lot of dry technical writing that will not be of interest to graphic designers today, but the advertisements are a rich source of design history”. Alphabet and Image (A&I), a British quarterly published 1946–1949, featured in one issue a detailed analysis of Times Roman and in another an article about the role of typography in psychological warfare. One of the high quality

there’s a few from countries like Iran, Mexico and South Korea – and a single one from Scandinavia: Social Kunst, published in Denmark 1930– 1932. Its nine issues were devoted to political illustration and caricature, influencing the political and cultural debate from a socialist and anti-fascist point of view. If you work in the field of graphic design, 100 Classics… both adds to your identity and makes you feel you belong in a strong profession.

reproductions shows an I&A article about Scandinavian newspaper mastheads – which already then (1947) had a style of its own, although the “editorial policy in display has been largely influenced by contemporary American make-up”. This is one of the book’s real strengths – that you can not only read the text about the magazines, but you’re also able to read the text in the historical magazines themselves. Most examples are from the USA, UK and Germany but

William Owen (1991): Modern Magazine Design A very personal and well-written survey of magazine design from the early twentieth century up to the late 1980ies, with focus on the US and the UK.

Rudy Vanderlans (2009): Emigre No. 70 – the Look Back Issue A walkthrough of the 69 issues of one of the most popular and controversial graphic design magazines in the late twentieth century.

Steven Heller & Jason Godfrey (2014): 100 Classic Graphic Design Journals Laurence King Publishing 224 pages, 29,4×24,3 cm £30.00 www.laurenceking.com

SendPoints (2014): All About Mags Shows contemporary magazines from around the world. A nice detail is the indication of the grid size and the fonts and font sizes used for each magazine.

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SNDSMagazine 2015|1 in my honest opinion

Awards and Awards Flemming Hvidtfeldt fhvidtfeldt@yahoo.dk Two competitions for news design have just been completed. One competition in the US and one in Scandinavia. Scandinavian entries did great in the US. Congratulations. In the Scandinavian competition we had fewer entries in the print categories than we are used to. In the digital competition the number of entries was about the same as last year. But the quality was good in both print and digital. So far so good. The Scandinavian winners – except for the honourable mentions – will be presented at the SNDS15 conference in October in Copenhagen. In addition to the celebration of the gold and silver award winners the program will be great – see the presentation of the first speaker announcements on pages 10–12 in this magazine or on the brand new conference website which you find at conference.snds.org. Hope to see you all in Copenhagen.

O TO

BY L

ARØ

The SNDS competition and the SND competition are not the only ones to be held. There are many more if you look around the world and Europe. That is really good, but why should you prefer the “SNDS Best of Scandinavian News Design” instead of other competitions, I’m often asked? It is costly and compared to some European competitions in fact very costly. And the chances to get an award are small.

quality of the competitions. Very big differences in fact. For my part I can only say that if it is the quality that counts – and not only the number of awards you get – you have to participate in competitions that have juries with skilled members who have the courage not just to hand over as many awards as possible, but to judge every entry by the book not considering if this media company or this country is getting an award or not. That’s the way it works in the “SNDS Best of Scandinavian News Design” competition. And that’s the way it will be working in the future as well. In the long run an award given by the jury of “SNDS Best of Scandinavian News Design” in either print categories or digital categories will last longer and have more value than awards given in any competition, where the only purpose is to give away as many awards as possible. So the next time you are considering whether or not to participate in “SNDS Best of Scandinavian News Design” you should ask yourself if you want to be in a competition that look at the design and details and only want to give an award if the work is perfect or almost perfect – or if you only go for a large number of awards. The risk of participating in the “SNDS Best of Scandinavian News Design” competition is that you do not get an award. But if you choose to participate, which I really hope you do, and if you win, the award will be the most valuable one. As always – feel free to comment on this column. I hope you will.

On top of this someone once told me, that it’s not a question of the quality of the competition and of the jury members that counts. It is the question of how many awards you can get that counts. So if you have a chance of winning many awards in one competition and not so many in another you might prefer the competition where you have the chance of most awards. This is of course one way of looking at competitions. You are free to do so. I disagree. In my honest opinion there are differences in the

Flemming Hvidtfeldt is SNDS President and chairman of the committee for the Best of Scandinavian News Design competition. He is a freelance journalist.