SNDSmag 1|2016

SNDSMagazine 2016|1

It’s all worthwhile 3 Chatting the news: Is that a good idea? 4 Where the devil resides 6 A calm garden of news 12 What I’ve learned as a print designer at SND digital 14 Let the show begin! 16 The end of the internet as we know it 18 The power of the tower 20 Tell your story with drawings 24 Look up here, I’m in heaven 26 We want new members 32

SNDS BOARD

SNDS SECRETARIAT

SNDS MAGAZINE

ON THE COVER SNDSMagazine 2016|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 Journalist Suomisvej 1 st th DK-1927 Frederiksberg C Denmark +45 40 10 28 30 frank.stjerne@gmail.com

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

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

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

Print: GraphicCo, graphicco.dk SNDS Magazine is set in Real Text and Museo Slab and designed in Adobe Indesign CC. 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 SNDS – the Society for News Design Scandinavia

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

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THANKS A big thank you to our contributors in this issue: Lars Aarø Fokus Foto www.fokus-foto.dk Maj Ribergård Ole Munk Ribergård & Munk www.ribmunk.dk Stine Carsten Kendal iBureauet/Information www.ibureauet.dk Courtney Kan Gannett Phoenix Design Studio SND.org @ChasingCrumbs Klaus Æ. Mogensen SCENARIO scenariomagazine.com Rasmus Kyllönen HBL www.hbl.fi

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

Risto Mandre from the print jury of the Best of Scandinavian News Design competition.

Jurywork in Billund, March 2016.

Photo: Lars Aarø.

See more p. 6–11

ISSN 1901-8088

SUBSTITUTES FOR THE BOARD Björn Heselius, KSF Media, Finland John Hällström, Upsala Nya Tidning, Sweden Ingrid Meisingset, Adresseavisen, Norway Søren Nyeland, Politiken, Denmark

It’s all worthwhile 3 Chatting the news: Is that a good idea? 4 Where the devil resides 6 A calm garden of news 12 What I’ve learned as a print designer at SND digital 14 Let the show begin! 16 The end of the internet as we know it 18 The power of the tower 20 Tell your story with drawings 24 Look up here, I’m in heaven 26 We want new members 32

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

Thorgerd Broni Jyllands-Posten www.jp.dk

SNDSMagazine 2016|1 editorial

It’s all worthwhile There’s a starman waiting in the sky He’s told us not to blow it Cause he knows it’s all worthwhile – David Bowie: “Starman” (1972)

In the first week of March, I had the pleasure once again of spending days in Legoland, attending the judging of entries in this year’s Scandinavian news design competition. Among my duties was to help with photographing all the print winners for the annual catalogue.

The jury looks at only the real original printed pages “as they were delivered to your readers”, as the competition guidelines demand. Preparing the pages for photograping, therefore, is a painstakingly analogue process, which involves a lot of work finding the pages to include in the book (large article series in, say, the feature category can amount to 20 spreads or more which is impossible to fit in), fixing the pages on cardboard by means of a lot Spray Mount – and removing the pages again to keep for reference, when the jury has to make the final decision.

This is not a one-man PH OT job. Long time member of the OB Y L AR S AARØ competition committee Søren Stidsholt Nielsen (see photo left, with me) and our photographer Lars Aarø also inhale their sweet share of Spray Mount during a whole day, and it’s really not all that healthy – it definitely makes you feel all sticky inside.

But it’s all worthwhile. We laugh a lot, comment on the judges’ choices all the time, look for lovely legs and beautiful girls in the winning pages (this year, there were not that many), but above all we get to see a lot of great design. This is, of course, also a treat for the judges – and they see even more, because they also look at pages that do NOT win.

One print jury member, graphic designer

Rina Kjeldgaard said: “I’ll be looking at my own work now with a completely new set of eyes. And I have a better understanding of which of my own newspaper’s pages are winners, and which aren’t. All from watching so many great pages.”

The same goes for the digital jury – although they need no Spray Mount to make screendumps of the winners. Looking through hundreds of design solutions is a great inspiration.

On pages 6–11, we bring you a glimpse from the judging process in Billund, in photos as well as in comments from the jury members on what they observed during their hard work.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

So it really is all worthwhile, as David Bowie sang in “Starman” back in 1972. The British rock ’n’ roll legend died in January – and for once, it was a cultural event (although a sad one, for us Bowie fans) that made newspapers all over the world clear their front pages. We asked design consultants Maj Ribergård and Ole Munk to rate (using black stars, of course) some of the magnificent visual tributes to the musical pioneer and mega star. See them in the back of the magazine, on pages 26–30.

But – before you reach the magazine’s final pages, we have done our best to collect a nice bouquet of interesting stuff for you. We hope you will enjoy a mix of stories from the real world of print and online news publishing, including the redesign of the Finnish newspaper HBL and a Dutch startup for online only journalism, as well as thoughts about the future of the internet and impressions from a print designer in a digital competition. And much more … in other words, things for the eyes and for the mind.

On a final note in this column we ask you to mark the dates 13–14 October 2016 in your calendar, as these are the days when the next SNDS conference will take place, and it will be in – ta-da – Malmö! The SNDS conference visited Malmö once before, back in 2002. Now, after four consecutive years in Copenhagen, we’re looking so much forward to be back in the cosy international centre of Southern Sweden.

We sincerely hope to see you all there.

Until then – stay cool and creative and make it all worthwhile.  Lars Pryds Editor, SNDS Magazine

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Download Quartz in iTunes.

Available for Apple Watch and the iPhone

Chatting the news: Is that a good idea?

Design director Ole Munk checks out a new iPhone app that lets you follow the news flow as if you were chatting with a friend Text by Ole Munk ole@ribmunk.dk What should the perfect news app look like? Stupid question, I know (sorry). Imagine asking someone: How would you design “the perfect book”?

Naturally, the answer to such a question would depend on what kind of book I was asking for … and the exercise would lead to vastly different solutions if I had written a suspense novel or a coffee-table book presenting golf courses in South Africa.

Just the same, news apps come in a variety of shapes and skins, and they should; there’s no way to create a onesize-fits-all.

For instance, the latest version of The New York Times Page-One-on-Mobile looks very, very convincing. But then again, that’s The New York Times, and the page architecture, in all its cleanness and austerity, would never work for VG or Aftonbladet. Not that they would ever try.

Luckily, the pioneer spirit is still very much alive in the app market, and lately, one really

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bold experiment managed to make it all the way from the drawing board to the level of actual production on a daily basis. After three and a half years as a business news website, Quartz launched its first iPhone app. And it is a product that challenges even the most open-minded conceptions of “a news app”.

Rather, the new Quartz app wants to make you feel like you’re chatting with a friend.

And this particular friend appears to be very much in the know, as he or she is relentlessly suggesting new topics to keep your conversation going.

LOSS OF CONTROL

Well, then: To make a news app look – and, to some extent, feel – like a chat, is that really a good and sustainable idea?

On this question, my own personal jury is still out. No doubt this is fun, and the guys writing the copy (as well as adding emojis and the occasional chart or illustration to lighten up an otherwise textheavy visual environment) are doing a great job.

On the other hand, now

when Quartz has put me in “chat mode”, I can’t help finding it a bit annoying to be so little in control of our imaginary conversation.

So far, all the user can do is choose between 1) asking for more info on the topic Quartz has suggested or 2) jumping to an alternative topic, also suggested by the provider.

However, this may be just the start, and future versions might add diversity, flexibility, and personalization to the experience. Who knows, maybe even a bit of artificial intelligence? In any case, we should be thankful to Quartz for introducing us to this completely new, different, and very inspiring, way to present the news. 

Ole Munk is design director at Kristeligt Dagblad and a partner of Ribergård & Munk communication design, based in Espergærde, Denmark.. × www.ribmunk.dk

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

ccieurope.com

escenic.com

It’s hard work to be a jury member for four long days, but it’s also a great deal of fun. Jenny Johansson from Dagens Nyheter is looking at entries in the digital categories. Photo by Lars Aarø

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Where the devil resides

The annual judging of entries in the Best of Scandinavian News Design 2016 competition took place in the first week of March. For the 19th time, the juries met in Legoland, Billund, to look for the best overall design abilities and for the fine little devilish details, that can make design work stand out Text by Lars Pryds pryds@mac.com Ten jury members – six for print, four in the digital cate­ gories – spent four days judging a total of 525 entries.

For the first time, we had the pleasure of having an Estonian judge, following the decision in late 2015 to include the Baltic countries in the region covered by SND Scandinavia. Risto Mandre from the Tallinn based newspaper Õhtuleht thought that being a jury member was both a positive experience and a great learning opportunity: “The first thing I noticed soon after we started our jury-duty was the overall high quality of the work sent in. A

sign of the strong competition.

The majority of entries were well chosen. In most categories there was not much fishing with iffy designs. Secondly, we were glad to see loads of good photography, specially portrait photos. In many cases I found myself wondering, what great effort it must have taken to get people to agree to pose and to get their permission to publish.

Because there were some powerful photos on difficult topics.”

BEST DESIGNED NEWSPAPERS

Another new initiative this year was the decision to find TWO Scandinavia’s Best Designed Newspaper winners – one for large publications with a cir-

It’s amazing to see all the creativity that still oozes out of the news organisations. Above all a lot of great photography.

But where did the infographics go?

Print jury member Linda Haggström, Design Lead Business Development, Svenska Dagbladet (S)

culation above 20,000 and one for smaller publications with a circulation under 20,000, as announced in SNDS Magazine issue 04, 2015. Also, in all categories the smaller newspapers were judged separately and before the larger newspapers, thus hopefully giving smaller publications better chances to win awards.

ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS

The winners of Honourable Mentions and the nominees for Gold and Silver Awards will have been notified when you read this; the final winners will be announced at the SNDS16 Annual News Design Conference in Malmö in October (see page 16–17). 

STATITISTICS

2016 (2015) Number of entries submitted Print categories: 424 (423) Digital categories: 101 (113) Number of awards given Print categories Gold Awards: 9 (6) Silver Awards: 22 (16) Honourable Mentions: 27 (35) Scandinavia’s Best Designed Newspaper (small/big): 2 (1) Best of Show: 0 (1) Best Detail: 1 (1) Digital categories Gold Awards: 5 (4) Silver Awards: 9 (9) Honourable Mentions: 12 (19) Best of Show: 1 (1) Best Detail: 1 (1)

As a first-timer in this jury I was impressed to see so many high level entries showing that there are topskilled designers, illustrators and photographers in scandinavian papers. And that they do their work with a dedicated spirit. What I would like to see more is some funny, wild or grazy design solutions - now the overall impression was a bit serious and cautios. The lack of laughter can be an understandable consequece of hard times in our branch and society, but I also think that a liberating laughter would be just what we need.

Print jury member Anniina Louhivuori, Illustrator and Graphic Designer, Sunnuntaisuomaleinen (FIN)

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The digital jury judged just over 100 entries. From left to right: Jenny Johansson, Guro Lindahl Flåten, Kim Bjørn, Kim Schou, and Björn Heselius. Photo by Søren Stidsholt Nielsen.

The large media houses sit heavily on the awards – it is obvious that quality requires both time and staff, and that a tradition for focusing continuously on design pays off. Fortunately now and then smaller newspapers pop up their heads, but rarely the same newspapers year after year.

Print jury member Søren Rødkjær, Head of Design, JydskeVestkysten (DK)

The competition proved again that the level of Scandinavian news design meets high standards. I saw lots of compelling photo reportages, stunning illustrations, clever visual storytelling and consistent work on layouting. The only disappointment was a shortage of in-depth infographics. The amount of huge data based visual representations has declined from year to year. That is a pity.

Print jury member Stefani Urmas, Head of Design, Aamulehti (FIN)

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The print jury in collective concentration in the final judging. From left to right: Competition chairman Flemming Hvidtfeldt, Søren Rødkjær, Anniina Louhivouri, Linda Häggström, Stefani Urmas, Rina Kjeldgaard, Risto Mandre. Photo by Lars Aarø

Diving through the digital entries in the longform storytelling category, I’m pleased to see that the designers remember where the devil resides. There are so many clever small surprises and funny little details meant to make you smile and keep you interested.

We were glad to see loads of good photography, specially portrait photos. What great effort it must have taken to get people to agree to pose and to get their permission to publish. Because there were some powerful photos on difficult topics. In illustration there were some artistically strong and beautiful drawings and some unique style too. Only one thing left me puzzling: it appears that info-graphics have gone missing. Have they all emigrated to the digital world?

We sure would have liked to see more.

Digital jury member Kim Schou, Digital Content Producer, Kristeligt Dagblad (DK)

Print jury member Risto Mandre, Art Director and News Designer, Õhtuleht (EST)

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The small newspapers were judged first, and to prevent the jury from comparing with entries from the bigger media houses, these were covered with sheets until selection of the ‘small’ winners had been made. This way, the competition committee hope to have paved the way for a fair decision process. Photo by Lars Aarø

You do not need superpowers to be a jury member, but the Batman sticker on Kim Schou’s laptop helps give strenth during a tough week in Legoland. Photo by Lars Aarø

One thing I found really interesting about the jury-work I Billund, was that even though the jurymembers came from different countries, with different design-backgrounds and aesthetics, we had no trouble agreeing on what we found characterized good design.

I’m excited that we’re now seeing the start of an evolution of the news article format. It’s no longer just an image and some text situated within our news site’s walls. It’s expanding to the point where the story is where it needs to be, utilizing all the possibilities we have in digital media.

Print jury member Rina Kjeldgaard, Graphic Designer, Jyllands-Posten (DK)

Digital jury member Guro Lindahl Flåten, Graphic Designer, Dagbladet (N)

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Jury and competition committee in the entrance hall of Hotel Legoland, Billund, where the jury work took place 29 April–3 March 2016. Back row (left to right): Lone Jürgensen, Flemming Hvidtfeldt, Kim Bjørn, Jenny Johansson, Guro Lindahl Flåten, Søren Rødkjær, Stormtrooper, Søren Stidsholt Nielsen, Risto Mandre, Lena Häggström, Darth Vader.

Front row (kneeling, left to right): Lars Pryds, R2-D2, Stefani Urmas, Rina Kjeldgaard, Anniina Louhivouri, Björn Heselius, Kim Schou. Photo by Lars Aarø

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A calm garden of news Run from a former art gallery in Amsterdam, De Correspondent aims to move away from the daily news cycle by focussing on context, rather than what happened in the past 24 hours Text by Lars Pryds pryds@mac.com Launched in 2013 following a record-breaking crowdfunding campaign that raised $1.7m, Netherlands-based De Correspondent now has over 45,000 paying subscribers.

De Correspondent currently has an editorial staff of 30, including 14 fulltime journalists, plus a network of 22 contributing correspondents.

Rather than trying to catch up with the usual news flow, the expectation is that readers will follow a particular correspondent who collaborate with the communities around them.

Founding Editor-in-chief Rob Wijnberg says that when other media claim to be reporting “the news” there will always be thousands of other stories to be told. De Corres­ pondent aims to let their reporters tell these stories on the publication’s website, which was designed by digital creative agency Momkai, featuring a custom-made cms called Respondens.

THE MISSION

Each journalist has a particular area or ‘garden’ on the website – sections of the site they can call their own, and in which they can build a relationship with readers who choose to ‘follow’ them.

“De Correspondent has a stated mission of establishing a lasting relationship with the readers, who are also asked to contribute their expertise on the topics, the correspondents

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cover,” says Stine Carsten Kendal, Director for development at iBureauet, a media company owned by Danish newspaper Information.

She thinks that Scandinavian media can learn from the Dutch startup: “Information is inspired by all the new things going on in the exciting world of journalism. In Holland, journalists, designers and web developers worked together to create the new platform and cms for the online journalism, and everything is thoroughly designed to invite the readers to participate. They call them ‘members’ to stress the inclusion and particip­ation of the readers. The new media platform is also kept ad free, which I know is something all designers enjoy!”

SPACES OF CALM

However, the decision to make the publication completely ad free is not to please designers, although this is a nice touch, but rather to give the readers a special environment for reading. Creative Director Harald Dunnink compares the spaces on the De Correspondent website to rooms in a welldesigned art museum: “The museum affords me a calm space where I can focus on the works of others. This is an idea that ties in seamlessly with our approach at Momkai and The Correspondent. In the fragmented real time of digital media, we are bombarded by images and messages nonstop. Rarely do we tune out this

It’s interesting that this online only journalism organisation publishes a book, sets up an art exhibition and arranges public meetings. It shows that the synergy between different kinds of publishing is also important in a digital first world.

Director for development Stine Carsten Kendal, iBureauet/Information (DK)

background noise long enough to listen attentively to a single, solitary message. Our mission therefore, as I see it, is to create online spaces of calm.”

In a recent article he describes the basic principles for succeeding with this philosophy (see screenshot and link below).

OPENNESS TO READERS

Stine Carsten Kendal visited De Correspondent in 2015 when they were expanding their staff and were thrilled that their initial succes with crowdfunding was continuing.

“I was introduced to De Correspondent through Cathrine Gyllensted, a Danish specialist in constructive journalism, who has just been appointed director for constructive journalism at a Dutch journalism school. By communicating very professionally about their succes, De Correspondent has received international attention. I think it is also due to the simplicity of their site, design and message.

Another thing I like is how they use infographics to show how they spend the membership fees, to show their responsibility towards their readers and their openness,” Stine Carsten Kendal says.

“One of the issues De Correspondent has raised, is how to qualify comments and debate following the journalism. They work both with the cms and with active participation by the journalists, and also with little triggers like pointing out some members

De Correspondent is ad free – the business model is “selling content to readers, rather than selling readers to advertisers”, as Editorin-chief Rob Wijnberg says.

as specialists or experts and showing their comments more prominently. They also make it possible to add notes to the article for further reading, without interrupting the flow with links.”

SYNERGY IN PUBLISHING

In today’s multi-layered media landscape, it’s not enough to focus on a single outlet or on just reporting the news. It’s important also to reach out to readers on other platforms and through other media: “To me, it is interesting that this new online only journalism organisation publishes a book, sets up an art exhibition and arranges public meetings.

It shows that the synergy between different kinds of publishing is also important in a digital first world,” says Stine Carsten Kendal.

“So much interesting is going on right now with online media that I cannot wait to see what the future brings.” 

De Correspondent:  decorrespondent.nl Dutch journalism platform the Correspondent reaches milestone of 40,000 paying members:  bit.ly/corresmile De Correspondent on Medium: m edium.com/

de-correspondent Cultivating calm: a design philosophy for the digital age: b it.ly/cultivatingcalm

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From left, judges Sarah Slobin of the Wall Street Journal, Javier Zarracina of Vox and Jessica Gilbert of McClatchy Company view entries for the Best of Digital Design competition.

What I’ve learned as a print SND.org editor Courtney Kan helped staff the Best of Digital Design February 19-21 in Washington, D.C. Text by Courtney Kan kan.courtney@gmail.com Now in its 15th year, the SND Best of Digital Design competition continues to grow and has seen technology shift from Flash to Apple watch apps.

The number of entries, the quality of entries, and variety of organizations and platforms represented speaks to the evolution of this competition and the industry.

The Best of Digital Design competition evolved out of the SNDies (multimedia competition) in 2010. Co-directed

by Ryan Sparrow, journalism faculty at Ball State University,

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and Jeremy Gilbert, Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Washington Post, the Best of Digital Design competition aims to reflect the emerging technologies available to journalists and an ever-changing definition of what defines “news.” Last year, the World’s Best Designed™ website was awarded to Facebook.

THE WOW FACTORS

This is my first time attending the Best of Digital Design judging and I am primarily a print designer, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.

But I’d say my experience has far exceeded any expectations

I had entering the weekend.

I’ve come away inspired by the beautiful visuals and technological proficiency showcased, even in the non-winning entries. There’s truly great work being done, by publications large and small.

In conversations with the judges, I’ve noticed trends.

They are looking for polished user experiences, careful editing and contextualization.

The judges are looking for wow factors and projects that take chances, be it in the design, technical execution or storytelling.

Lynne Perri, journalism faculty at American University and

our host for the weekend, observed: “The buzzword here is “stretch.” Yes, the entries — on the San Bernardino shootings, the Paris bombing, killings by cops — are tremendously interesting and visual. But the question asked again and again by competition co-director Jeremy Gilbert is this: Did the graphic designers, artists, web-developers stretch?”

WHY DIDN’T WE TRY THAT?

I am coming away from this judging with a clearer understanding of the Best of Digital Design competition. To win an award here, it’s not enough to simply have great visual

Judges for the Best of Digital Design competition dive into the first round of judging. Over the course of a few days, they viewed hundreds of entries and awarded 2 gold medals and 22 silver medals. Five websites were named finalists for the World’s Best Designed™ website.

designer at SND digital design, clean navigation and seamless integration of multimedia.

The medalists are immersive, innovative and push the boundaries of digital design.

Yes, they are heavily evaluated on their technical merits, too.

But award-winning work is the project that makes you take a step back and wonder, why didn’t we try that or wouldn’t it be cool if we all were doing work like this?

I think that’s my takeaway from this weekend: Whether you’re an interaction designer, a print designer, or a developer, do work that serves your readers first. Give them

a clean, intuitive experience and great storytelling. But then push yourself and your publication to take chances and think beyond the current limits of the medium. Even if you don’t win an award, you’ll be giving us all something to think about.

THE FUTURE

And as the competition continues to evolve, we’re witnessing conversations around a changing definition of design.

Awards discussions are just as much about story design as experience design. When asked where the competition may be headed in the future,

competition co-director Ryan Sparrow said, “From wearables to VR, we’re seeing designers think about how these stories work and function across a multitude of platforms. But it’s just an extension of the role news designers have always played. And that is as an advocate for audiences and the desire to have their news and information prioritized and explained in a compelling and appropriate manner.” 

Previously published on snd.org (Feb 20, 2016).

Printed with kind permission.

Courtney Kan is a designer for the Gannett Phoenix Design Studio and the editor of SND.org. F ollow her on twitter: @ChasingCrumbs  www.snds.org See the digital winners: b it.ly/snddig16

The World’s Best designed news website winners will be announced at the annual SND workshop in San Fransisco this April: s nd.org/sndsf2016

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Let the show begin!

The Annual News Design Conference & Award Show

13-14 October 2016 Clarion Hotel & Congress Malmö Live Malmö, Sweden Register early and save big: Egg: € 495,- (before 30 April) Early Bird: € 595,- (before 30 June) Bird: € 695,- (before 31 August) Eagle: € 795,-

snds.org

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SNDSMagazine 2016|1 17 Photo: Søren Stidsholt Nielsen

The end of the internet as we know it The internet is decentralised, open and free for all to use. These features have made the internet what it is today; a global communication platform, marketplace and content library that has created immeasurable wealth for the entire world. Yet these very features are under attack from outside and inside, possibly leading to the end of the internet as we know it.

Text by Klaus Æ. Mogensen scenariomagazine.com The internet was deliberately designed to be a decentralised network. The predecessor of the modern internet, ARPANET, was developed during the Cold War by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, later renamed DARPA) as a robust and decentralised alternative to existing communication platforms like the telephone system; one that would be less vulnerable to nuclear war.

Unlike the telephone system, the internet cannot be shut down by destroying a few communication centrals. Any two surviving internet nodes can in theory communicate with each other if there is an unbroken line of cable or wireless hotspots between them.

This decentralised nature is the very soul of the internet.

There is no centre or periphery to the internet, which has become a global network where anyone can connect with anyone else without restriction, and where everybody is free to upload or download content and to build a business out of doing so. It is difficult to assess how much the internet has contributed to global wealth, but a 2011 McKinsey study estimated that the internet at the time was responsible for 3.4 percent of the GDP in the major economies.

This only includes the measurable, monetary wealth generated by the internet; if we add the experienced value of having free or inexpensive

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access to data, information, communication, software, cultural content, entertainment, education, networking, and more, the actual generated wealth is staggering.

We owe all this wealth, measurable and experienced, to the free and open structure of the internet. Yet this free and open structure is increasingly under attack from outside and inside.

WHO CONTROLS THE INTERNET?

The internet was designed to be without any localised controlling authority, barring the assignment of IP addresses (handled by the apolitical non-profit organisation ICANN).

Yet today, the internet is subjected to an increasing amount of control, not only in limited democracies like China and North Korea, but also in the liberal Western democracies. This control may be instituted with the purpose of protecting copyright, fighting child pornography and drug crime, or discovering terrorist plots, and it can take the shape of blocking access to certain websites or surveillance of internet traffic (Google, for example, compares images sent by Gmail with a database of known child porn pictures).

Few people are likely to protest any control that can prevent serious crimes, but there are examples of the control going far beyond that purpose. In Great Britain, the government has introduced an obligatory porn filter that in-

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ternet users actively must opt out of – and become registered for doing so. Studies of what pages are actually blocked show that not just porn sites are blocked, but also non-pornographic websites about homosexuality, file-sharing sites, sites where suicidal people can get help, sites where you can report domestic violence or child abuse, and sites that are judged to have ‘extremist’ political or religious content.

In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed that the US intelligence agency NSA illegally recorded the telephone and internet use of millions of US and foreign citizens; something that Google’s Eric Schmidt, among others, thinks may break the global internet we are familiar with today, since nations that won’t put up with this surveillance will create their own alternatives to the internet or at least require companies to store domestically created data on domestically located servers (so-called data localisation).

If this happens, the global internet we know today will be replaced by a number of national or regional nets with little or no interconnectedness.

This will mean an end to the global marketplace and social platform that the internet has become.

During the Hong Kong protests in 2014 when the authorities shut down the mobile phone network, protestors created their own off-the-grid network of smartphones using an app called FireChat, which creates a local network of de-



vices using their Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity, without the need of internet providers or phone masts. This is called a mesh network.

Mesh networks, being wholly decentralised and hence very difficult to control, are true to the idea of the internet, but the requirement of having unbroken links of short-range connections effectively limits their range to densely populated areas, making them no true replacement for the global internet we know.

Paradoxically, those who celebrate the openness of the internet may thus contribute to breaking it up by using open, but local alternatives.

WHEN IS THE INTERNET NOT THE INTERNET?

The possible breakup of the internet as a reaction to control and surveillance, as outlined above, is certainly a cause for concern, but it is probably not very likely to happen.

A more likely scenario may be a sort of compartmentalisation of the internet, where the dominant online companies and services create regional platforms and make it difficult for local users to use platforms in other regions – like how Netflix makes it difficult for Europeans to use the American Netflix platform. Such compartmentalisation can be used to force different price structures for different markets, similar to regional codes for DVDs, or to comply with local regulations.

While on that subject, regulation may make it difficult

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Klaus Æ. Mogensen is a futurist and Scenario’s Science and Technology Editor. He co-wrote the books Counterculture (Gyldendal Business 2011) and Creative Man (Gyldendal 2004) and is the man behind e.g. the description and naming of the Anarconomy trend.

SCENARIO is the awardwinning magazine on trends, ideas, visions, and possible futures. It was established in 2010 and is developed by futurists from the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies in regular collaboration with the brightest minds, notorious leaders, and prolific influencers from around the world. s cenariomagazine.com

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 for new players on the market to combat the big companies’ compartmentalisation of the internet. For instance, all online stores in the EU are now required to collect VAT for the country where a customer resides; something that requires too much bureaucracy for small stores to handle, with the consequence that many small online stores now have stopped selling their products to foreigners. The loss of net neutrality will have similar consequences, with major online companies being able to pay the fee for favoured traffic, while new and small competitors will not.

A more subtle and hence more insidious threat to the internet as we know it is that increasingly, when people think they are using the internet, they really aren’t.

This is particularly the case when smartphone and tablet apps replace internet-based services accessed with browsers. When you use apps, your phone or tablet may well use the internet to communicate with the service provider, but it is a strict two-way communication with a service central, not anything resembling net-

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worked communication. It is in fact very like pre-internet times when you called a telephone service to get the time of day or a weather forecast.

Browsers are multi-purpose communication tools that allow access to all content on the internet; apps are single-purpose tools that limit your communication and content to what the creators of the particular apps allow. This is a huge benefit to the service provider, as it limits your ability to access competitors.

If you for instance use a browser to access Amazon’s online store, it is easy to look for the same items in other online stores; but if you use the Amazon app, you have to leave the app, open an app for the other store, and search this store. What’s worse, some smartphone and tablet platforms today don’t even allow you to buy content except from stores associated with the company making the smartphone or tablet. With iPhones and iPads, you can only buy apps from Apple’s app store, and with Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet, you can only buy apps from Amazon’s app store.

These devices still feature

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browsers, but it is not unimaginable that future versions won’t, forcing you to rely on limited app stores – probably with the excuse that this is safer and more convenient for the user, which may even be true.

Still, it is worth remembering Benjamin Franklin’s words: “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”.

The internet as we know it was built on the philosophy of the liberty of everyone to access what they want and upload the content they want, without fear of surveillance and control. Are we willing to give up this essential liberty to gain a little short-term safety and convenience?  This is an article from SCENARIO 04:2015, printed with kind permission. If you are not a current subscriber to SCENARIO or a member of The Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, then subscribe or get in touch at s cenariomagazine.com/ contact/

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A front page of HBL before the redesign.

These three front pages show HBL after the redesign – the first one (above) without the tower, which readers forced back to be part of the nameplate.

The power of the tower One thing led to another. A new brand identity for Helsinki based HBL (Hufvudstadsbladet) evolved into a complete remake of the product palette. The biggest response from the readers had nothing to do with the rebranding itself though, but with the charachteristic tower logo. Where had it gone?

Text by Rasmus Kyllönen rasmus.kyllonen@ksfmedia.fi

HBL is the fire Swedish speaking Finns have gathered around for 151 years. But as the world changes, so does the ways journalism is distributed.

In February, HBL launched the new HBL 365 application,

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which now is the main channel publishing all the journalism produced. The revamped website HBL.fi runs today with a new business model with free registration instead of the old paywall. The readers born after 1985 form the new target group for the website. The aim is to do online journalism in a fresh

way collaborating more with the readers and being a part of their lives 24/7.

THE CORE VALUES

The redesign was kicked off by putting a new edge to the mission HBL as the largest Swedish speaking paper stands for – starting with talking

about us as a media house instead of just a newspaper.

The publisher, KSF Media, stated in the new mission that the journalism should act for a bilingual and multicultural Finland and for a society that builds its future on education, entreprenurship and openess.

These ideas will manifest in

The use of the brand colour orange was intensified throughout the products. Orange has been the signal colour for HBL since early 2000. The complement colours Citron, Indigo, Fuchsia and Kaktus and different shades of nude complete the palette. The rebranding was made in-house in collaboration with brand development agency Grow.

actual actions by HBL. The first one was the launch of the Recommend a Refugee initiative, an easy-to-use mobile service that helps companies and refugees find each other.

THE TOWER GATE

The HBL tower, a landmark in central Helsinki, has been

a part of the logo in different forms over the years.

This time, it was toned down in the brand redesign, as it worked poorly digitally.

The symbol was also erased from the front page of the print – and the response was immediate.

What happened then was an

Two local newspapers Västra Nyland and Östnyland published by KSF Media also got a revamped website and print.

event that we now know as the Tower gate.

Bättre sent än aldrig, as the phrase goes in Swedish. Two weeks later the tower made its welcomed comeback in print.

This time on a premiere spot on top of the H. To boost the comeback, readers were asked to find five

hidden towers in the paper.

This was a way to engage the readers, who loved the competition.

A DIFFERENT FEEL

As the typography and colour palette were uniformed throughout the brand, the print also needed a face lift. 

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Examples of news spreads from section 1 in the new design.

Opening of the Culture section (top) and a front page for a special supplement section (bottom).

The new brand guidelines give the opportunity to evolve the design in the paper even further Rasmus Kyllönen, visual journalist, HBL

The latest redesign being as new as from January 2015, the changes made seemed quite cosmetic. However, the new brand guidelines give the opportunity to evolve the design in the paper even further.

The tuned print was art directed by Marita Granroth, head of the visual department

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at KSF Media, and Rasmus Kyllönen, visual journalist at HBL. The Sunday edition got a even more charachteristic look, with a different use of the HBL logo on the front page.

A new Weekend-section was introduced to the readers, gathering all bigger stories,

opinion material, science and travel. The aim is to emphasize the Sunday feel even more in the paper.  Rasmus Kyllönen is a visual journalist at HBL. He was a speaker at the SNDS15 conference in Copenhagen, 2015.  www.hbl.fi

The application HBL 365 is the result of a collaboration with Helsingin Sanomat. The app is run by the same platform as the HS app. Each day a morning edition is published, consisting of material from the print and updates. On top of that, an evening edition is published on weekdays.

The Sunday edition breaths a different feel compared to the weekday papers.

Example of the Sunday edition before the redesign.

The new HBL.fi offers readers to make their own news feeds. The website was made in-house in collaboration with service design agency Palmu.

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The first part of the book is an introduction to useful concepts and techniques to use in different kinds of assignments.

Tell your story with drawings A new book by design consultant and illustrator Maj Ribergård is a great tool for illustrators Text by Thorgerd Broni thorgerd.broni@jp.dk Turning pages, looking at images. Looking at images, turning the pages. Jumping from headlines and black-and-white line drawings to colour explosions, gestalt laws and perception principles and then – looking at more images and turning more pages. I’m an illustrator – and I have been given the difficult task to WRITE about a book about visual storytelling …

THE BOOK

First, there’s a personal overview of methods for idea generation, methods for sketching

Read on: 4 other great books about illustration

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and exercises. Specific guides for choosing the best methods for specific jobs.

Then, an introduction to concepts used for categorizing the illustration technique that will be relevant to work with in different cases. There’s also a simple and clear description of how to communicate using contrast, colour and composition, negative space and the gestalt principles. Concepts which I am instinctively and subconsciously, rather than intellectually, aware of in my daily work as an illustrator.

Moving on to text and drawing. Maj Ribergård stresses the importance of creating a

connection between illustration and text – that the text is rooted in the illustration, and vice versa. The book shows explanatory examples of what works and what doesn’t – in the case when writer and illustrator is one and the same person, as well as in the case where the job is to illustrate someone else’s text.

THE ARTISTS

After these first chapters follows the presentation of five artists and illustrators.

Through the presentation of their work and thoughts the reader gets a fine introduction to the variety in the work

Julia Rothman (2011): Drawn In: A Peek into the Inspiring Sketchbooks of 44 Fine Artists, Illustrators, Graphic Designers, and Cartoonists The sketchbooks of creatives. “A voyeuristic visual journey into how artists doodle, brainstorm and flesh ideas out,” Maria Popova wrote on Brainpickings.org

processes, techniques and expressions of the different artists – from strict, contrasty black-and-white line drawings to a more loose and sketchy expression. We also get a look into the dialogue and cooperation (or the lack of it) with other professions like writers and journalists.

Finally, Maj Ribergård gives a short summary of relevant copyright issues – in other words: what is an illustrator allowed to do – and not to do.

This is very useful.

The book is divided into five main chapters which are clear and consequent and the many illustrative examples of

Berg & Teleman (2013): Svensk illustration – en visuell historia 1900–2000 “An excellent book about the history of Swedish illustration […] with the potential of a classic”, we wrote in SNDS Magazine no. 3, 2014.

With interviews with and examples of the work by five Danish illustrators the reader sees different ways to work “in real life”.

methods and techniques make it easy to understand the subjects. Keywords in the margins are a great help to navigate and find subjects in the text. Also placed in the margins are many useful suggestions for further readings if you want to dig deeper into specific subjects.

THE AHA-EXPERIENCE

As an illustrator, there are things in this book that make words and theories fall into place for me – and actually explains what I instinctively do, when I work with design or illustration. I had a few AHA-experiences – for instance, I did not realise that what I do can

be described with words like conceptual illustration, cross pollination, perceptual units or gestalt laws.

A few places it would have been great with even more profound explanation of theories – like, the connotation of signs in the chapter about form and colour, or in the chapter about idea generation. But in general the book is a great introduction to the basic rules of the profession, its methods and processes, all explained with relevant theories.

THE CONCLUSION

“Fortæl med tegninger” is a book that will make you know

Whang & Cirelli (2015): Contemporary Danish Illustration A documentary snapshot of contemporary Danish illustration today. A visual collection of 36 talented and prominent Danish illustrators working at the inter­ section of art and illustration.

a lot more about drawing and telling stories. Even with my many years of experience as an illustrator and graphic designer the book enables me to work much more consciously and focused with both actual illustration and with my general working methods and processes.

The instructions are a great help to keep focus and learn how to attack each individual job as an illustrator.

The book is – of course – nicely illustrated. As Maj Ribergård writes, “‘Illustration’ means ‘to throw light on’” – and she sure did throw some new light on me. 

Maj Ribergård (2015): Fortæl med tegninger – En bog om visuelle virke­ midler til illustrationsbrug Grafisk Litteratur Hardcover, 155 pages 21×22 cm ISBN 978-87-91171-60-4 DKK 300.00 www.grafisk-litteratur.dk NB: Text in Danish

Index Books (2015): Behind Illustration This publication brings 34 more innovative and exciting illustrators to the forefront, and looks behind the work to give a deeper, more personal vision of the artist.

Thorgerd Broni is a graphic designer MD and illustrator at JyllandsPosten, Viby, Denmark.  www.jp.dk

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Look up here, I’m in Heaven When British rock pioneer and mega star David Bowie died of cancer on 10 January, two days after his 69th birthday, the world lost one of the really big icons. Bowie was an artist who “blazed a trail of musical trends and pop fashion, reinventing himself, his music and media across many decades”, the Guardian wrote in his obituary (see bit.ly/db-obit ).

Newspapers all over the world cleared their front pages in Bowie’s honour, some better than others. We asked design consultants Maj Ribergård and Ole Munk to review some of the front pages and rate them with one to six stars. Black, of course.

Herald Sun (Australia) Pure rock’n’roll expression A simple, stylish and efficient way to say goodbye to a rockstar and a music pioneer. This template can be used again when the next big old rockstar leaves us.

The headline is unfocused – “STARMAN” seems almost superfluous?

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Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten (DK) Yes, the stars look very different today Jyllands-Posten chose to run a quote from “Space Oddity” – one of Bowie’s early hits – placing a small black star as the dot over the i in the first line. A nice reference to the ‘Black Star’ album, which ended up being Bowies last album.

The words alone are touching and beautiful. I read the quote a couple of times and think – yes, the stars do lookvery different today. The drawing of Bowie I could have done without.

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Times of Malta (Malta) Bowie was this important to some people The photo of a woman with Bowie tattooed on her back interacts perfectly with the headline, “Death of an icon”.

This front page indicates that the editors know their readers well. Maybe not all of them are Bowie fans. But the newspaper shows how big an impact his death has on many people.

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Text by Maj Ribergård · maj@ribmunk.dk Ole Munk · ole@ribmunk.dk

Denník (Slovakia) Bowie gets the last word This front page plays with Bowie’s visual food for thought by showing the cover of his final CD cover in full. There are no references to his earlier work in neither words or pictures, we are completely up-to-date with the present time which can be expressed as precise as in the headline: “David Bowie 8.1.1947- 10.1.2016”. The news is presented in a nice and simple way. The message is directed at all the Bowie fans who are supposed to know about the new album and probably also know about his death before they see this front.

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The Guardian (UK) Star quality A surprising choice of photo, exposing neither the young extravagant Bowie or the older, straighter version but rather someone inbetween. You could argue that the photo suggests the “elusive, unknowable star quality” mentioned in the subhead. An opposing point of view might be, however, that this photo lacks the flamboyance which characterized Bowie during the most important years of his career; the years which probably means most to the majority of his fans. As for typography and design, this frontpage bears the Guardian mark of perfection.

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Something happened on the day he died Spirit rose a metre and stepped aside Somebody else took his place, and bravely cried (I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar) David Bowie: ‘Blackstar’ (2016)

Berlingske (DK) A mess ‘David Bowie 1947-2016’ ‘Blue showdown over taxes’ ‘69 voices about one of the icons of rock music’ Regardless of the order in which you read the three verbal statements on this cover, it’s a mess. The portrait of Bowie as Ziggy Stardust is cut in half and it is therefore visually attached to the article about taxes. A very unfortunate design – a horisontal division of the page would have worked much better.

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Estado de Minas (Brasil) Visual caricature Perhaps the cultural differences plays a role here? A Scandinavian audience would find it strange to see a caricature illustration for an occasion like this. Bowie was extremely visual in the first place so it appears unnecessary to add and extra layer of artistic expresseion. The headline “Mais vivo a cada dia” (More alive for each passing day) does not contribute to a strong whole.

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DeMorgen (Belgium) Bowie as terrorist Readers who do not recognise the Aladdin Sane lightning symbol will be very disoriented. Is this about terrorism, or Obama, or what? Could be that the readers of DeMorgen are used to see the elements of the page mixed up this way, but to a Scandinavian reader it’s messy and confusing. An interesting experiment that stays unredeemed.

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Politiken (DK) Words apart Good thinking to base the coverage upon two images from the “Aladdin Sane” sessions, and very original to exploit the jump from the front page to the section B cover dramatugically. If the intention was to say “Bowie has closed his eyes” the headlines should have played along in the narrative. It seems like Politiken’s text editors and picture editors did not speak with each other.

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New Zealand Herald (NZ) Direct communikation through super strong photography Refreshing to say goodbye with the contemporary Bowie, not least because so many newspapers take the Aladdin Sane approach. However, having chosen the simplest of headlines, it would have been appropriate to work more with the typography of it to make it more elegant and/or original.

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Liberation (France) One minut of silence A very quiet front page.

In this context this photo represents a moment of silence – as if Bowie’s death was a pause in the music, a natural part of it and of life itself.

Again, a page from one Bowie-fan to another. The headline “Vies et mort de Bowie” (The lives and death of Bowie) is not fantastic, but it supports the message and the mood of the image well.

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I recall how we lived on the corner of a bed And we’d speak of a Swedish room Of hessian and wood David Bowie: ‘An Occasional Dream’ (1972)

Information (DK) We get real close Beautiful interaction between the headline and the simple black-and-white photo of Bowie on stage. We are getting really close to both the performer and the man, and we like the sincerity and simplicity of this front page’s statement.

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Maj Ribergaard and Ole Munk of Ribergaard & Munk communication design are design and communication consultants, based in Espergærde, Denmark. × www.ribmunk.dk

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National Post (Canada) The many faces of Bowie Great collection of photos, logically paired with a Bowie quote that fits the occasion. If the portraits had been organised chronologically the interaction with the headline could have been even stronger.

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SNDSMagazine 2016|1 in my honest opinion

We want new members Text by Flemming Hvidtfeldt fhvidtfeldt@yahoo.dk We have just finsihed the jurymeeting for the competition Best News Design Scandinavia 2015. This year the participation in the competition was average. And that’s a pity.

In order to to make the chances better for small news organizations the committee decided to introduce two new prizes by the name “Best Small Newspaper Design Scandinavia” and Best Small Digital News Design Scandinavia”. And we did see more entries from smaller news organisations as weel as entries from the Baltic countries, who have become a part of the SNDS from 2016.

I was happy to notice this, but compared to the total number of news organisations in Scandinavia and the Baltics the number of entries in my opinion is too small – and so is the number of members in SNDS. You could blame the board of SNDS for not beeing progressive in promoting the society and the competition. But you could also blame yourself for not promoting SNDS as a member. In fact we all are to blame for the low number of members as well as for the declining number of entries in the competition.

But now is the time for change. Not only for the sake PH OT OB of SNDS but also for the sake of Y LA RS A A R Ø developing news design in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. Because we all gain from a membership of SNDS – if and when we are a part of SNDS and when we exploit the possibilities it gives every member.

Apart from the annual conference and the competition SNDS is the only organisation that connects news designers in our region.

No one else does that and if you want to get great ideas, inspiration you could always call a member. You could also connect with SND through SNDS and then you have a whole world of opportunities to get ideas and inspiration and maybe even friends.

This is a story that needs to be told in every news organisation in Scandinavia and The Baltic countries.

So now I urge you to take a look in your organisation and see if you have any colleques

who should be a part of this special community, where visual communication, good design and surprising solutions on how to present stories in both digital and print is on the top of the list. Maybe you even could take a look at neigh­boring news organisations and see if you know anyone there who could be interested in becoming a member of SNDS. You are not on your own in the project of getting new members. I promise. In September SNDS will launch a campain in order to raise the number of members in the member-countries.

During September the board members in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark will visit a number of news organisations in their own countries in an effort to both promote SNDS and the upcoming conference in October, which will be held in Malmoe, Sweden.

The board members will at that time present the benefits of beeing a member of SNDS. In addition to this the jury members from the juries this year in both the digital and the print competition will vist a number of news organisations in their respective countries.

On top of this the board is planning a promotion campain in the Baltic countries as well in order to tell about the benefits of SNDS and in an effort to get new members from these countries. It will take place in August-September.

I’m pretty sure that SNDS will prosper from these campains. But I also know that the most important promotion is the one each of you can do. Your say whether or not SNDS is an advantage for you both in your professional work and when speaking of getting new friends, colleagues and inspiration is crucial when talking about having a strong, prosperous and inspirational SNDS. You could argue that it’s up to the board to get new members and secure SNDS. We will do that. But we are not stronger nor bigger than the number of members, so we need everyone of you to promote SNDS. You will all benefit from that. The bigger SNDS gets the more we can do for you. Almost for free. 

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

He is a freelance journalist.