SNDSMagazine 2016|2
Learn how to make connections others don't 16 Put knowledge in the world 3 The value of the rough sketch 4 SNDS16: Enjoy buzzing days in Malmö 6 It’s all about PRIMING 8 Media Designers of the future 12 CampSNDS: 2-day web bootcamp 14 The secret of the highly creative thinker 16 The way we were: A brief moment 18 From classroom to newsroom 20 The absence of undo 26 Ignite talks in San Francisco 28 Three steps to expand SNDS 32
SNDS BOARD
SNDS SECRETARIAT
SNDS MAGAZINE
ON THE COVER SNDSMagazine 2016|2
Learn how to make connections others don't 16
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 ISSN 1901-8088 Print: GraphicCo, graphicco.dk SNDS Magazine is set in Real Text and Museo Slab and designed in Adobe Indesign CC.
SUBSTITUTES FOR THE BOARD Björn Heselius, KSF Media, Finland John Hällström, Upsala Nya Tidning, Sweden Ingrid Meisingset, Adresseavisen, Norway Søren Nyeland, Politiken, Denmark
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
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
2
SNDSMagazine 2016|2
S Read SNDS Magazine as e-magazine: www.snds.org/magazine
Put knowledge in the world 3 The value of the rough sketch 4 SNDS16: Enjoy buzzing days in Malmö 6 It’s all about PRIMING 8 Media Designers of the future 12 CampSNDS: 2-day web bootcamp 14 The secret of the highly creative thinker 16 The way we were: A brief moment 18 From classroom to newsroom 20 The absence of undo 26 Ignite talks in San Francisco 28 Three steps to expand SNDS 32
“Birdcage”, student work by Andreas Green Lorentzen. Illustration from the book The secret of the highly creative thinker. See more p. 16–17.
THANKS A big thank you to our contributors in this issue: Kim Bjørn kimbjorn.com Ole Munk & Maj Ribergård ribmunk.dk Dorte Nielsen & Sarah Thurber dortenielsen.com see-connections.com Jessica Wuensch jessicawuensch.com
SNDSMagazine 2016|2 editorial
Put knowledge in the world Complexity is a fact of life, so we must learn to deal with it – Donald A. Norman*
In his book Living With Complexity Donald A. Norman argues against the dogma that simple is always better. His area of interest is the tools we use in computing and in everyday life – tools that are often seen as too complicated. But ‘complex’ and ‘complicated’ are two very different things. The world may be complex but the tools and technology we use to get through the day should not be complicated to operate. And it is up to both designers and users to make them manageable and understandable. One way to deal with the complexity of life is to “put the knowledge in the world” – by adding hints and suggestions that guide our way (like lines on the floor in aircrafts showing the way to the nearest exit) or by learning from the knowledge other people put in the world. In any case, it is not a solution to make the tools simpler because we want that complexity: “Complexity is good. Simplicity is misleading. The good life is complex, rich, and rewarding – but only if it is understandable, sensible, and meaningful,” Norman says. SNDSF 2016
Complexity is also a basic condition for the news and media business, if the SNDSF conference held April 7–9 in San Francisco is anything to judge by. With a two-day, four-track schedule it was maybe not complicated but then at least difficult even to choose which sessions to go to. My own personal impression of the subjects – which took up a whopping nine pages in the programme – was that our business is headed in many directions. PH OT O There were talks about handling BY L AR S AARØ big data; building connections and co-creation; there were thoughts about visual reporting compared to other kinds of reporting; and even hands-on tips to write html code for the sight disabled. We also saw hundreds of magnificent, if not exactly new, front pages of iconic Spanish Metropoli. For the *In: Living with Complexity, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2011 start-up designer or journalist, there was advice
on how to be a team of one. “One is the loneliest number,” Rebecca Monson said – but it’s also great fun and has its advantages. As varied as the full programme was the Saturday session with “Ignite Talks” – 15 speakers, 5 minutes each. Moderator Steve Dorsey promised us a complete conference in less than two hours – or at least a glimpse of some of the complexities out there (p. 28). The final keynote speakers from IDEO, Bryan Walker and Zena Barakat, commented directly on the theme of the SNDSF workshop: “Evolving our craft” – when they closed the programme with the words: “To evolve journalism, we as designers must evolve”. In which direction we must evolve, is of course up to each individual or organisation. One of the (too) few Scandinavians to attend SNDSF, Lotta Ek, Art Director at Dagens Nyheter, was not in doubt when reading the signals in the SNDSF programme: “The conference had such heavy focus on digital that it almost seemed as if print was already dead and gone,” she says. IN THIS ISSUE
Putting knowledge in the world is also about teaching other people what you know. This is our main focus in this issue – education, or how to learn from others. Several articles draw from inspiration found in books – like Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow (p. 8); Nielsen & Thurber’s brand new The secret of the highly creative thinker from which we also borrowed our cover illustration (p. 16); and we review a new book about Contemporary Danish Illustration (p. 26). We introduce 20 new media designers from NTNU in Gjøvik, Norway (p. 12) and report from a new course in editorial design and interactive storytelling in the digital domain at DMJX, Copenhagen. Last but not least, a brand new initiative will be launched in connection with the SNDS16 conference in Malmö: a 2-day web workshop called CampSNDS (p. 14). And there’s more; enjoy it all. Oh, and remember – don’t miss out on the low prices for registering early to the SNDS16 conference – head over to page 6–8 to learn more. And have a great summer. Lars Pryds Editor, SNDS Magazine
SNDSMagazine 2016|2
3
‘The importance of the rough sketch’ on Behance: bit.ly/adolfoa
Adolfo Arranz’ blog: lasombra.blogs.com
Sketch and final infographic by Adolfo Arranz.
The value of the rough sketch Adolfo Arranz is a Spanish born illustrator, infographics designer and Creative Director at Mediacorp, Singapore. In a recent post on Behance he showed some of his infographics side-by-side with the early sketches for the work. “Preliminary sketches
are for me one of the most important part of my job as an infographic designer, these allow me to develop the ideas quickly and have a complete view of the infographic look before it is finished,” he says: “Hand sketching helps me to value composition,
distribute elements on the graphic, etc.” Looking into Arranz’ work process gives a great idea about how much work needs to be put into creating the sometimes very detailed, information-heavy designs. In some cases, the composition is right
on the spot in the first sketch, in others – like Mount Everest work shown here – proportions and placement of elements are changed for the final work. See more examples on the link above, and follow Arranz’ blog, “La Sombre del Asno”. -pryds
A new logo for Society for News Design Our ‘mother organisation’ SND is about to have a graphic facelift. At the SNDSF workshop in April, a new logo was presented along with a new elegant colour palette for the organisation’s website and other publications. The final finetuning of the new logo is being done as I write these lines, so the change may already be visible on snd.org when you read this. “The design was done by a team, but this version was mostly the work of Ellen Collier (Lead Designer at the Memphis Business Journal) and Reed Reibstein (Senior UX/ Product Designer at Ameri-
4
SNDSMagazine 2016|2
can City Business Journals). There were other members on the team, including Miranda
Mulligan, Steve Dorsey, Ramla Mahmood, Emily Yount and myself,” says Jon Wile, who
The Society for News Design’s new logo and colour palette.
oversaw the work as design director for SND. Wile is Vice President/Content, American City Business Journals, and also the SND CLT chair – CLT being short for Charlotte, N.C., who will host next year’s SND conference in April 2017. The new logo is based on the eye symbol also seen in previous versions – now placed in a square-shaped container which is suitable (as a standalone without the letters snd – no longer in all-caps) to use as social media icons or in other places where square is the default format. -pryds × snd.org
Enjoy two buzzing days of Scandinavian news design in a great location in Malmö SNDS welcomes you to the 22nd edition of the annual Scandinavian News Design Conference and Award Show in Clarion Hotel & Congress Malmö Live. Text by Kim Bjørn kim@kimbjorn.com Here’s a quick look at some of the things you can expect at the SNDS16 conference: Thursday 13th of October we have a workshop on print design, welcome reception and exciting keynotes. In the evening there’s a delicious buffet and the popular “brain snack format” with a burst of short 5-10 minute presentations on ideas, concepts and findings in the news world - all
6
SNDSMagazine 2016|2
in an informal setting with a great view of Malmö. On Friday the 14th the conference will have the same succesful format as the former two years, with one main track of international and Scandinavian speakers presenting for 30 to 45 minutes each. During breaks there will be networking and sponsor exhibitions. In the evening you can enjoy the best news design in Scandinavia: The winners of the SNDS competition will be presented at the amazing
Gala Dinner and Award Show where you will enjoy a 3-course exclusive dinner with chilled vibes from one of the best lounge DJs in Scandinavia: Katrine Ring. THE VENUE
Clarion Hotel & Congress Malmö Live rises 85 metres above ground, a new landmark to add to the city skyline. A meeting place far beyond the norm for local residents, visitors and conference guests alike. SNDS is delighted to bid
you welcome at this magnificent location. PERFECT LOCATION IN MALMO
With its perfect location next to Malmö Central Station, just a few steps from the vibe of Lilla Torg, you have culture, entertainment, shopping, nightlife and parks right on your doorstep. You’ll also have wonderful views and proximity to Malmö’s Ribersborg beach. You can reach beautiful
PHOTOS: PR
Register early and save big conference.snds.org 13.–14. October 2016
Copenhagen via Malmö City Tunnel in just 35 minutes. If you’re a fan of architecture and enjoy both old and new, you’ll find Malmöhus Castle and the Turning Torso skyscraper within walking distance of the hotel. Oh, and don’t forget to grab a a luxurious drink in the skybar, 85 metres above the sea! CENTRAL POINT FOR MUSIC, ART AND DESIGN
Clarion Hotel & Congress Malmö Live is situated next
door to Malmö Live Concert Hall and offers fantastic performances of all genres for both hotel guests and Malmö residents. If you’re an art enthusiast, Clarion Hotel also boast a large collection of international and modern art displayed in the hotel’s public areas. Design enthusiasts will also appreciate their time here, as both the rooms and public spaces boast Scandinavian interiors by well-known manufacturers.
Inspiration, networking, learning, celebrating! This year, The Society for News Design Scandinavia meet in Malmö, Sweden for two exciting days packed with workshops, talks and the popular award show. Get your early bird tickets now and save BIG! You don’t even have to be a member of the SNDS – we give you that for FREE for the rest of 2016 when you register! We can’t wait to see you for this years conference! REGISTER NOW!
Get your tickets now and save big! €595 Early Bird Before 30 June 2016 Admittance to all talks! Welcome drink (Thursday) Buffet (Thursday night) Lunch (Friday) Award Show + Dinner (Friday night) Coffee/tea in breaks VAT (25%) excluded MORE INFO AND UPDATES conference.snds.org
SNDSMagazine 2016|2
7
€595 Early Bird Before 30 June
● Admittance to all talks! ● Welcome drink (Thursday) ● Buffet (Thursday night) ● Lunch (Friday) ● Award Show + Dinner (Friday night) ● Coffee/tea in breaks ● VAT (25%) excluded
8
SNDSMagazine 2016|2
conference.snds.org
It’s all about PRIMING In a wonderful book, Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman describes how the human brain works. Design consultant Ole Munk explains how his findings can be used to improve visual communication Text by Ole Munk ole@ribmunk.dk Illustration by Maj Ribergård maj@ribmunk.dk On a commuters’ train some twenty years ago, I ran into an old academy classmate who, just as myself, had started working with communication rather than architecture. He was responsible for a new magazine published by the
Copenhagen 1996 Cultural Capital project and proudly showed me his latest issue. It looked amazing but the text was all but illegible. As I began to explain why readers might find it a bit hard deciphering the minuscule type (columns at least 200 mm wide, filled with 6-point Bodoni, as I recall it) my friend cut me off: “Well, the most important thing is what it says, isn’t it?”.
SNDSMagazine 2016|2
9
Ill. 1. In this infographic package from Kristeligt Dagblad, the green bar chart immediately catches the eye, thereby misleading some readers to assume that the map will be about sunni/shia relations as well. The headline above the map is too weak to effectively prime the correct message: that the map shows Saudi Arabia and Iran and their allies.
… it’s all about priming Luckily enough, we had now reached my station and I was able to say goodbye without having to reply to his rhetorical question with the discouraging, yet obvious, answer. No, buddy, I’m afraid it hardly matters at all what the text says if nobody is going to read it anyway. And I believe many of us who claim to be professional communicators have far too high expectations regarding our audiences’ degree of curiosity, as well as their attention spans, and quite unrealistic ideas of how they process the information we present to them. READ THIS
If you think I’m wrong, you ought to read Daniel Kahne man’s bestseller Thinking, Fast and Slow. In fact, you should read it even if you think I’m right, because it is an absolutely wonderful book, filled with insights and conclusions that are relevant not only to people working with communication, but to anyone who’d like to know how our brains actually work.
10 SNDSMagazine 2016|2
The underlying chord of these 512 pages of condensed wisdom is the simple principle that we humans have got two different ways of thinking, and that we prefer to use the easy one – the one which is based mostly on intuition and presumptions. “System 1” works effortlessly and through a lot of guesswork. And surprisingly often, our guesses turn out to be right, thereby getting us through our daily routines without having to stop and analyze every single incident on our way. Yes, the traffic light did turn green after red and yellow; yes, the shop assistant did ask if I needed a receipt, and I answered no, thanks, just like I use to do; and yes, my neighbour did complain about the rainy summer, and I agreed. Without our system 1, life would be an endless series of complicated decision-making. No wonder Kahneman appoints system 1 to be the hero of his book. But at the same time, Thinking, Fast and Slow warns us about our tendency to rely routinely on assump-
tions and intuition when facing a complex problem, and it contains numerous examples of how system 1 can lead us to wrong conclusions and inadequate solutions. LAZY BRAINS
As everyone will have guessed by now, “system 2” describes a different, more analytical way of thinking; the one where you have to make an effort and consider different alternatives before making your mind up. According to Kahneman, our brains are basically lazy and will often allow system 1 to make decisions and solve problems for which system 2 would be better suited. The author holds a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences and many of his examples deal with money issues, but what I find particularly interesting are the implications his findings have to the field of communication. Because if our audience prefers to use system 1 and is generally reluctant to activate system 2, how much of the more complex and detailed information we pres-
ent to them do they actually process? Again, the answer is obvious: Much less than we might imagine. What I learned, first and foremost, from Thinking, Fast and Slow is the importance of sending clear signals to all those system 1s out there. If you can assume that many among your audience won’t bother to dig down into the complex, detailed, effort-craving parts of your message, it becomes paramount that the immediate, visually strong components appealing to system 1 will lead them in the right direction. Kahneman introduces the term “cognitive ease” to describe the state of mind where acquiring information feels effortless, thereby increasing the chance that this information will be perceived as credible or even true. And he lists four qualities with the potential to facilitate cognitive ease: Related experience, meaning that the new information bears resemblance to things you are already familiar with; clear display, which hardly needs
Ill. 2. This double-truck with letters from Soviet war prisoners was almost ready to be printed, and I was quite happy with the result …
further explanation; good mood – learning new stuff becomes easier if the learning situation feels pleasant – and finally, my personal favourite: good priming. PRIMING IN VISUALS
“Priming” can be roughly defined as what you say before you actually say it. In printed and digital communication, “priming” could be the immediate visual signals which the audience will perceive before having read a single line of the text. It is incredibly important – maybe even more important than what the words say – that these signals will lead the viewer in the right direction. Part of the audience will never go any further, and we want everyone – even those lazy bastards – to get the gist of our message, don’t we? And to the few brave souls who make it all the way into the tricky part, it is crucial that we have managed to establish the right expectations in their minds … because still, they will be guessing a lot, and might easily misinterpret our
Ill. 3. … when I realized that I could further prime my message by adding a blurred swastika in the bottom left corner. Without reading a single word, the reader will know that this story is about nazi concentration camps.
message if their presumptions do not correspond to what they see. WHAT YOU SEE IS …
In many cases, they won’t even see what you show them; they will see what they expect to see. Above, you’ll see a couple of examples from my own work. In my eyes, the second one is successful, the first one less so. First, my Middle East map (ill. 1). The “sinners” are 1) the neighbouring bar chart which so clearly shows the shia/ sunni balance in Middle East countries – thereby creating false assumptions about the point of the bigger map. And 2) the map headline that lacks the salience to specify that this map shows Iranian and Saudi Arabian allies, not shia- and sunni-dominated areas. Bottom line: This infographic ended up confusing a lot of readers. Even though it contains no actual errors. The double-truck presenting letters from Soviet war prisoners was almost ready
to be printed, and I was quite happy with the result (ill. 2), when I realized that I could further “prime” my message by adding a blurred swastika in the bottom left corner (ill. 3). This story would have worked just fine as it was, but I am pretty sure that the overall positive response was, to a large extent, due to the visual cues that effectively primed this story to the reader’s system 1: the barbed wire and the swastika, immediately setting the scene and leading readers in the right direction. An important sentence from the theory of multimodal communication says: Communication has happened when there has been an interpretation. Good priming – and, in general, trying to address the interpreter’s system 1 – can help us make communication happen more often. It can also increase chances that the interpretation will match what we intented to say. In other words, if you want to be a true communicator, never forget thinking about how to prime your message.
Kahneman, Daniel (2012): Thinking, Fast and Slow 512 pages ISBN 978-0141033570 Penguin Books www.penguin.co.uk
Maj Ribergård and Ole Munk of Ribergård & Munk communication design are design and communication consultants, based in Espergærde, Denmark. Ole Munk is also design director at Kristeligt Dagblad. www.ribmunk.dk
SNDSMagazine 2016|2 11
On June 3-4, 2016, 20 newly hatched Bachelors of Arts in Media Design invited to graduation exhibition. Here’s the whole team – showing the poster for the exhibition, designed by the students as a joint project. Photo by Andres Gimmestad Gule / NTNU
Media Designers of the future 20 new Bachelors of Arts in Media Design from NTNU in Gjøvik ready to take on the world Text by Lisbeth Tolstrup tolstrup@pryds.com As news platforms and presentation possibilities get increasingly varied, graphic and media designers need to have a broad foundation and knowledge about the many different disciplines in the field. This places heavy demand on the educational systems, and at NTNU in Gjøvik, Norway, this focus has high priority. A new hatch of Media Designers recently graduated their Bachelor’s Degrees – the first under the new administrative
12 SNDSMagazine 2016|2
organisation which since January 1, 2016 includes NTNU in Trondheim and the University Colleges in Ålesund, Gjøvik and Sør-Trøndelag. The 3-year degree programme has been available in Gjøvik since 2003. This year’s students therefore are the 11th class to graduate. New is the merger with NTNU – Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet, now offering the professionally focused degree programme in graphic design, BA in Media Design in Gjørvik. The traditional organisation has covered the education of
graphic designers in typography, editorial design, way finding and interactive digital media design. This broad spectrum prepares students to apply for jobs in a wide range of companies and institutions. Ole E. Wattne, Assistant professor, Norwegian Media Technology Lab Faculty of Computer Science and Media Technology at NTNU i Gjøvik, says that former students now work as in-house designers for example within the police or in banks, others in different advertising and design companies.
At NTNU, the students have worked with both traditional disciplines like magazine-, newspaper-, and type design, as well graphic solutions for digital media and new platforms. “NTNU has a unique profile with focus on the combination of typography and editorial with information design and theoretical subjects,” says Ole E. Wattne. The big question here, as in other professional environments, is where the students go after graduation. Ole E. Wattne says prospects are
Tarjei Ødegård is one of 20 who recently graduated their Bachelor degrees in Media Design from NTNU in Gjøvik. “I’m looking for a job in interaction design, and later I’d like to study for a Master’s Degree,” he says. The final exhibition showed ten projects by each graduate student in print or digital design. Photo by Andres Gimmestad Gule / NTNU
generally good for the Bachelors in Media Design from Gjøvik to get jobs in the business, while others continue studying for a Master’s degree in Norway or abroad. Some of this year’s graduates have actually already found jobs. THE PROGRAMME
For the last 15 years efforts have been made all over Europe to make education systems more transparent and interchangeable across boarders, in order to give students better chances to apply for studying abroad. NTNU Gjøvik’s BA in Media Design is a 3 year full-time programme, which is the equivalent af 180 ECTS points, organised under the Faculty of
Computer Science and Media Technology. Two main areas are in focus in the programme: gg Graphic design – typography and editorial design gg Information design – user interface and user centered system development Contrary to other education on bachelor level in Norway, all subjects are mandatory in Gjøvik, which means no optional subjects. There is no final Bachelor thesis – instead, students work thoughout the programme with practice-based projects, relevant media theory is introduced and students must write a minimum of two essays each term, based on their own personal studies.
According to the official programme desription, this course differs from other programmes by having a “markedly academic profile”, with the intention that practice-based work should include reflective thinking and knowledge of relevent information seeking. The three year programme is concluded with a presentation of ten select study projects which are evaluated and exhibited as a final event. More info about BA in Media Design: ntnu.no/studier/bmed facebook.com/ mediedesign.ntnu This year’s BA Graduates: avgangsutstilling.no
BACHELOR OF ARTS
A Bachelor of Arts (BA) is a 3 year full-time study. Each year is 60 ECTS-points (European Credit Transfer System). A full BA is 180 ECTS-points, with each subject weighing a specific amount of points. NTNU
Norges Teknsk-Naturviten skapelige Universitet was founded 1996 in Trondheim. January 1, 2016 NTNU Trondheim merged with the University Colleges i Ålesund, Gjøvik og Sør-Trøndelag. The result is a simplified administration, but each institution still has its own unique profile. Currently about 39,000 students are enlisted at NTNU, 3,500 of these at NTNU i Gjøvik.
SNDSMagazine 2016|2 13
“It’s core that people feel part of the process and feel important,” says Chris Courtney, instructor at the CampSNDS in October. There will be hands-on sessions and group work like in this photo from a previous CampSND in Montreal, Canada, but there will – of course – also be a lot of coding and data visualization on your computer. Photo: SND
2-day web bootcamp in connection with the SNDS16 conference New initiative: Learn responsive coding and data visualization in Malmö, 15–16 October Text by Kim Bjørn kim@kimbjorn.com CampSND is the Society for News Design’s training program created for those interested in learning the basics of responsive web design and data visualization. We are excited to offer a camp in Scandinavia for our members in connection with the SNDS16 News Design Conference in October. In connection with the SNDS16 annual News Design
14 SNDSMagazine 2016|2
Conference in October we have arranged a two-day event that would quickly give attendees some quick digital skills for building websites and then push into how to build data visualizations online. It’s called CampSNDS and has been succesfully led in North America by Chris Courtney, Lead Mentor at Bloc.io and Training Director at SND. The two day bootcamp is open to all SNDS members whether you participate in the conference or not.
The camp cover the basics of HTML, CSS and some frameworks like Foundation or Bootstrap while teaching participants how to use Github to publish their work. The second day lean heavily on an introduction to Javascript and then dive into the various data visualization tools that could be used from RAW (which is completely online) to Chart.js (which is a little more advanced) to d3 (which has a very, very steep learning curve).
To participate in Camp SNDS, all attendees must bring their own laptop, and we would have a number of resources available for attendees in the week leading up to the sessions to help them get comfortable with the concepts covered in the CampSNDS sessions. The goal is to have all attendees shipping responsive data visualizations to websites that they have constructed by the end of day 2.
CampSNDS
Check conference.snds.org for
BASIC INFO ABOUT THE CAMP
registration for the camp and
WHAT: Responsive coding and data visualization. HOW LONG: 2 full days. WHERE: At Clarion Hotel in Malmö – same place as the SNDS16 News Design Conference. HOW MUCH: The price is only €199 ex. VAT (incl. course, lunch, tee/coffee for two days)
!
2
you are interested by emailing us at snds@mail.dk
LIMITED SEATS: We only have room for 15 participants – so sign up fast! WHEN: Saturday–Sunday 15–16 October 2016 – in close connection with the News Design Conference (which takes place on 13-14 October). HOW: Once you are signed up to participate in CampSNDS, you will receive prep work to complete before the weekend begins. It is advised that you give yourself at least a couple of days to work on this before arriving at camp. The work is considered to be suitable for all levels of digital designers, so if you have no HTML or CSS background you can still participate. SND Training Director Chris Courtney will be inviting you into the CampSNDS community on Slack.
1
conference. Or let us know if
Chris Courtney CampSNDS’ instructor, Chris Courtney is a former print designer who took the leap into mobile only to start circling back to the open web. He says about himself:
The program: DAY ONE – SATURDAY 15 OCTOBER 2016
Intro to digital design: An overview of the craft and what you should be prepared to learn HTML/CSS overview: What are the component parts and how do they work together? Inspect Element: Pulling the internet apart, one page at a time My best friend is a framework: Constructing a simple project using a few lines of code Responsive overview: What is responsive design and why it matters Build together: Participants pair together on building a prebuilt project provided by the CampSND team (advanced designers can begin working on independent projects) DAY TWO – SUNDAY 16 OCTOBER 2016
Javascript is weird: Understanding simple Javascript and the building blocks needed to create projects Diving into RAW: How to quickly create data visualizations that you have little control over Creating with Chart.js: Pushing the boundaries of data visualizations that you have some control over Off the deep end: Working with the power of D3 and having complete control, but at a price. Create and ship: Working together through the afternoon on projects with what you’ve learned. All projects will be published online.
CampSND in action – on SND.org: Kai Teoh attended CampSND in 2013 and shares how the experience helped him jumpstart his career in digital design. bit.ly/campsnd
I’ve been lucky enough to travel the world while evangelizing greater risk taking in media and never, ever asking permission to do what your gut says is right. Currently, I’m busy trying to help the newspaper industry reinvent itself while I’m also jumping at every chance possible to build new web-based, non-mainstream media products and learn from them. The two compliment one another but couldn’t be more different at their core. I used to despise the inaction and rhetoric that gridlocks most organizations. Now I more curious of how these groups of professional people got that way. Often, it is fear of failure that has backed PH OT these talented staffs into their O: B LOC.IO respective corners. While I do believe that most discussions and theories are best left for classrooms and conferences, I strive to leave room for people to be heard. It’s core that people feel part of the process and above all—the need to feel important. If your employees do not feel important, how can they possibly convey that importance to the customer. I’ve found that you learn the most through rapid creation, analysis and iteration. Repeat this cycle enough times and you’ll have a pretty good idea of who your customer is and how to serve them—which is exactly what the top priority of every business should be.
SNDSMagazine 2016|2 15
People say: You can’t teach creativity. Then again, creativity is all about reversing assumptions Sarah Thurber, in The secret of the highly creative thinker
The secret of the highly creative thinker is loaded with great visual ideas that make you smile. Here, a “Shark Tooth Knife” by DMJX student Thomas Jørgensen Parastatidis.
Unexpected connections A new book reveals The secret of the highly creative thinker. Building on recent research in neuroscience and many years of experience from teaching design students, Dorte Nielsen and Sarah Thurber offer a practical guide to cultivate one of the most wanted skills in modern life and work: your creativity. The philosophy is that creativity is a skill – and skills can be taught. Dorte Nielsen, on whose Master Thesis from the International Center for Studies in Creativity, New York (2012) this book is based, made the observation that highly creative people are good at seeing connections – so if you develop this skill, you will enhance your creativity. Text by Dorte Nielsen and Sarah Thurber. From The secret of the highly creative thinker THE UNEXPECTED CONNECTION
Once you start looking, you'll find connections everywhere. Free association, comparisons, gap finding and cross-fertilization are all forms of connection making. During incubation, when you are pondering over a challenge, your mind is simply waiting to make a connection between a trigger and your challenge. And it doesn't matter if the idea trigger is a newspaper headline, a waffle iron, or a lady on the bus with a funny hat. The point is, you have made a connection. Making connections is at the core of every creative
16 SNDSMagazine 2016|2
process. The more unexpected the connection, the more dramatic the breakthrough. Greek philosopher Heraclitus was onto this more than two thousand years ago when he said, “The unexpected connection is more powerful than one that is obvious.” Consider the example of Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press. Gutenberg was an entrepreneur and inventor by nature and a goldsmith by trade. He had already invented a movable, metal set of type, but he spent years struggling to find an effective way to transfer ink to the paper. The print impressions he could make using the more standard approaches of rubbing or stamping rendered poor quality text. One day, on a trip to a local winery, he noticed the screw mechanism on
a wine press. In a flash, he saw a new way to transfer ink from his moveable type to the page. As with many great insights, the connection Gutenberg made between the wine press and the printing press seems simple, almost obvious to us now. But in the 15th century it was unexpected, and became the light that ushered Europe out of the Dark Ages. There are plenty of other famous examples of unexpected creative connections: Isaac Newton connected a falling apple with the force of gravity. Gandhi connected nonviolence to revolutions. Coco Chanel connected suits to pearls. Elvis connected African-American blues to white teenage girls. In these and countless other cases, a creative connection resulted in something larger
than the sum of its parts. The equation 1+1=3 may not work in math, but it's a perfect description of what happens when your mind makes a new and valuable connection. HOW HIGHLY CREATIVE PEOPLE THINK
Sit back and watch a highly creative person think. Just watch. “Let 's colonize Mars.” “Your sandwich looks like it has a moustache. “ Creative people are forever surprising us by challenging assumptions, flipping ideas, and expanding, contracting, and recombining things in their heads. It 's a three-ring circus in there. Actually, that 's not a bad analogy. While less creative people seem to think in logical, linear patterns, highly creative
Boot camp in creativity
The light bulb is a universal symbol for getting a bright idea, but DMJX design student Jeppe Vidstrup Nielsen added a safety pin from a hand granate in his “Dangerous Idea”. Photos from the book.
people think in analogical, web-like patterns-connecting all sorts of things that more conventional thinkers wouldn't ever put together. What looks like ADHD to you, may well be creative genius at work. In creative departments of advertising agencies, creative professionals will spend the day waltzing through a wide range of topics, pulling ideas out of thin air, making connections left and right and springboarding from data to inspiration. They are jugglers, throwing around high speed, high quality, original ideas that somehow still manage to stay relevant and aloft, whether the focus of the day is hair care or helicopters. For better or for worse, creative people seem to have the ability to look at the same thing as everyone else,
and see something completely different. What highly creative people do can seem magical, or completely off-thewall. Who could have predicted that a cartoon mouse would become an international icon of creativity? That a cell phone could be the object of one 's affection? Or that electric cars could be sexy? But there is a method to the madness. Highly creative people make connections all the time. Making a connection is like having a mini “Aha!” moment. It has the same quality of discovery and surprise. Aha moments happen every day to nearly everyone. They are often simple insights. They may not be flashy to anyone else, but if it's new and useful to you, it qualifies as a connection.
Nielsen, Dorte & Sarah Thurber (2016): The secret of the highly creative thinker 192 pages 16 x 24 cm ISBN 978-90-6369-415-9 BIS Publishers DK: Grafisk Litteratur www.grafisk-litteratur.dk DKK 225,- + shipping see-connections.com
“Creativity is just connecting things”. This quote by Steve Jobs sums up the message of this great new book, The secret of the highly creative thinker, by creativity experts Dorte Nielsen (DK) and Sarah Thurber (USA). Creativity is all about combining things that have nothing to do with each other – with surprising results. This book is about learning how to do that. The book’s Part 1: The nature of seeing things outlines the basics with examples of people who changed history through connection making – e.g. how a baked waffle inspired the design of a Nike running shoe. Part 2: The theories behind it all is a walkthrough of ideas that support the link between connection making and creativity, from 1930ies ad people and psychology research of the 1960ies to neuroscience research of today. Sounds boring? It is not – the text is fluent, fun, and easy to read. Part 3: Enhance your innate creativity – the book’s largest part – is where you get your hands dirty. Three challenges warm you up to the creative connection boot camp – 21 exercises which will enhance your ability to see connections. Each estimated to take 10–15 minutes – so anybody can take this quick course even with a busy working day. Part 4: Putting connections to work gives a handful of tools to help you use your new skills in the real world – like ‘Mind mapping’, ‘Cross connections’, and one that could really produce interesting results – ‘Random inspiration’. The book itself is a delicate production with good paper quality, high legibility, clear typographic choices, and lots of inspired and inspirational illustrations by students at DMJX, Danish School of Media and Journalism. It’s a perfect companion for teaching creativity, and if you take the exercises yourself, you’ll find that life is actually fun – once you see all the unexpected connections out there. –pryds
SNDSMagazine 2016|2 17
2015 – 20 €
2012 – 15 €
2014 – 15 €
2011 – 15 €
2010 – 15 €
2013 – 15 €
2009 – 15 €
2008 – 15 €
2007 – 15 €
Back issues of
The Book
Best of Scandinavian News Design Is your collection incomplete? Did you miss out on one or more of the previous years’ catalogs showing all the winners in the SNDS Best of Scandinavian News Design competitions?
Don’t worry. Order your back issue today by sending an e-mail to the SNDS secretariat at: lone.jurgensen@jp.dk
Price 15 € pr. book + shipping (issue 2015: 20 €)
Each book is A4 format, 72–80 pages, full colour reproductions of all winning entries. 18 SNDSMagazine 2016|2
Remember this? A real desktop with tools used to produce graphic design in the pre-computer age. Photo: graphicmeans.com
The way we were: A brief moment Those of us old enough to remember paste-up, Letraset, X-Acto blades, and red film, will be delighted when the film Graphic Means premieres later this year. Those who don’t remember will be enlightened Text by Lars Pryds pryds@mac.com The next generations of graphic design students will have difficulty getting a precise idea of the trade’s history – a.o. because access to the original artefacts of the production setup is disappering, JohnPatrick Hartnett (designer/ lecturer) writes in the latest issue of Eye magazine. But there’s hope. A new film, Graphic Means, will perhaps
not give students the possibility to have pre-digital tools in their hands, but it will document the techniques used. Subtitled A History of Graphic Design Production, the film will cover print production in the 1950s through the 1990s — from linecaster to photocomposition, from paste-up to PDF: “It’s been roughly 30 years since the desktop computer revolutionized the way the graphic design industry works.
For decades before that, it was the hands of industrious workers, and various ingenious machines and tools that brought type and image together on meticulously prepared paste-up boards, before they were sent to the printer,” says director and producer Briar Levit on the film’s website, graphicmeans.com Briar Levit is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Portland State University, and the idea for the film formed in
her head when she realised she had only a vague knowledge about print production before the Mac: “It occurred to me that if I knew so little, my graphic design students know even less! So with this, I set out to document the tools, processes, and people, of this brief moment in the design world.” Graphic Means: Watch trailer and preorder at × graphicmeans.com PHOTO: GRAPHICMEANS.COM
Some of the graphic design experts interviewd in Graphic Means (left to right): Steven Heller (writer/designer/educator), Tobias Frere-Jones (type designer), Paul Brainerd (co-founder, Aldus), and Ellen Lupton (writer/designer/educator).
SNDSMagazine 2016|2 19
PHOTO BY KIM BJØRN
Students have iPhone, desktop and laptop screens handy to check if their designs look reight in any screen size.
From classroom to newsroom It is only natural for future interactive designers to explore, challenge and develop the area of editorial design. They are and should be part of the digital storytellers. Kim Bjørn explains why Text by Kim Bjørn kim@kimbjorn.com Interactive storytelling has never been more relevant and interesting. The tools and platforms are there, and the users are ready. This year’s digital part of the SNDS competition was a clear indication of that, as we saw way more entries in the storytelling category than ever before. Learning about digital edi-
20 SNDSMagazine 2016|2
torial design automatically ensures that the students brush up and combine their skills in a variety of design disciplines such as typography, image editing, visual organization, layout, interactivity, and – most importantly – selecting, editing and emphasizing content to produce a meaningful story. This is why teaching editorial design in a news- and storytelling context is so essential. In order to ensure that
digital designers will be part of future thinking and development of interactive storytelling, Karsten Vestergaard, programme director at DMJX, presents the school’s 2nd year students of interactive design to a training module with focus on editorial design and interactive storytelling in the digital domain. In May this year I had the pleasure of planning and carrying out a two-week module
with two very specific assignments for the students: Design an article template; and design an interactive feature to the article. The imagined client was information.dk, a Danish news site, and the assignments were part of a larger project carried out with students of anthropology at the University of Copenhagen. “It is only natural for future interactive designers to ex-
Esben Lorenzen makes the articles a bit shorter by letting the user get more info when hovering over the small red dots.
It is only natural for future interactive designers to explore, challenge and develop the area of editorial design Karsten Vestergaard Programme director, DMJX
Where do the refugees from Palestine flee to? Designed by Mikael Waaben Blædel.
plore, challenge and develop the area of editorial design”, says Karsten Vestergaard. I can only agree. It is more important than ever to ensure that future generations of digital designers are part of editorial design carried out in news organisations in Scandinavia. We already have a strong tradition for journalistic and editorial staffing up in the newsrooms. But as news is developing in in-
creasingly visual and technical directions, we must focus on getting interactive designers and developers into the editorial departments as part of the storytelling teams – whether in newsrooms or corporations. On this and the next two spreads you can see some of the results from the two-week module at DMJX – including data visualizations, infographics, interactive features and re-imagined articles.
SNDSMagazine 2016|2 21
Timeline and article with great contrasts by DMJX student Emilie Richter Fafner.
Philip Stampe reimagined the article layout and an interactive map visualising information from the Panama Papers.
Behind the real design of Information.dk Text by Kim Bjørn The design of information.dk is based on ongoing input from readers, staff and data and done by frontpage editor Jens
22 SNDSMagazine 2016|2
Christoffersen who is overall responsible for the digital design of the site. There is a slight visual resemblance to the printed paper and the fonts FF Meta Pro
and Franklin Gothic provides contrast and readability. On a daily basis, around 20 articles are published on together with around 50–70 news stories from Ritzau.
In 2012 information.dk was radically changed in terms of interaction design and technology based on a number of analytics but also a desire to break new ground better fit for
Terkel Gjervig Nielsen shows where playgrounds are located in connection with areas of air pollution.
The Economy of
The Avengers age of ultron
Mark Ruffalo 23.55 min
Chris Hemsworth 14.18 min
Screen Time
Robert Downey Jr. 45.34 min
Jeremy Renner 19.56 min
Mark Ruffalo 2.8 mio Chris Hemsworth 5.4 mio
Design often gets better when the designer has a deep interest in the subject. Here, student Erik Asbjørn Haubroe Methmann shows that Robert Downey Jr. in “The Avengers Age of Ultron” earned the same amount as the rest of the top-cast together – but only appears less than a quarter of the time in the finished movie. Also, though 40 million dollars sounds like a huge salary, the film made 1.404 million dollars.
Scarlett Johansson 33.07 min
Jeremy Renner 6.1 mio
Chris Evans 50.25 min
Chris Evans 6.9 mio
Scarlett Johansson 20 mio
Actors salary 81.2 mio
Robert Downey Jr. 40 mio
Box office 1.404 mio
the editorial profile and user platforms. In 2014 a mainly visual redesign was carried out. The users reacted positively to the redesigns and traffic increased accordingly.
More information: i nformation.dk t witter.com/informeren
SNDSMagazine 2016|2 23
Casper Rasmussen chose to compare grades and types of schools in time and on a map.
24 SNDSMagazine 2016|2
An article about Tjernobyl. The timeline breaks down the catastrophic 46 seconds and continues to the effects centuries later. Designed by Jacob Sørensen.
Learn digital news design at DMJX DMJX in Denmark is at the heart of media and design. Over 3.500 course attendees and hundreds of BA-students pass the gates each year. Among numerous interesting offerings you find the first and only official news design course in Denmark. The Danish School of Media and Journalism offers Scandinaiva’s first official course in digital news design, where you learn to analyze and design for news concepts like articles, frontpages, themes, longreads, data visualization, streams, breaking news, comments, social sharing and a lot more. Dive into subjects like colour, gestalt rules, typography, grids, composition and contrasts – and learn to create readability, clarity and engagement through mockups, wireframing, prototyping, userstories and styleguides. Though the course is design-focused, technical subjects like platforms, browsers, responsiveness, screen sizes etc. are also touched upon. The course is a great opportunity for graphic designers, journalists, editors, photographers, infographic designers, video producers and all others working with news on desktop, tablet and mobile platforms. The course is taught in Danish but is also provided on a per-organisation basis. MORE INFO
PHOTO BY HELENA LUNDQUIST, DMJX
bit.ly/dmjxnewsdesign dmjx.dk
In this interactive infographic , the reader can explore ways to save money on the power budget, by searching for ‘hot spots’ in the illustration. By Marius Juul Nielsen.
DMJX – Danish School of Media and Journalism – is a training and knowledge center for the media and communications sector with a focus on talent, lifelong learning and innovation.
SNDSMagazine 2016|2 25
The absence of undo Contemporary Danish Illustration raises the question: Is illustration art? Text by Lars Pryds pryds@mac.com Not so many decades ago, illustration used to be a flagship of newspapers and magazines, each having their own ‘signature’ illustrators. This is still the case in some major publications but in general, photography or a graphic designer’s solution are most editors’ first choice to accompany an article. This does not mean that illustration is dead, it has just ventured into other areas – and the old-fashioned definition of illustration as a supplement to written text may no longer apply. Adrian Shaughnessy, in his book Graphic Design: A User’s Manual, sees the illustrator’s role as a part of a visual communication landscape, where the actual illustration is a visual storytelling, albeit in the personal style of the illustrator and with the freedom to
26 SNDSMagazine 2016|2
comment rather than just be an addition to the text. Adrian Shaughnessy also notices a recent growing interest in illustration and its being united with design. This calls for a new look at what illustration is: “For me, a new expanded definition of the discipline now exists. Illustration is any sort of image made – and by ‘made’ I mean created by hand, machine or digital sorcery – that isn’t pure photography”. 1) Shaughnessy’s expanded definition of illustration is necessary to keep in mind, if you want to understand the concept of the book Contemporary Danish Illustration. BUT IS IT ART?
Is illustration art? The editors ask this question in the beginning of the book and answer by presenting a collection of 32 talents working with illustration, with the expressed intention of acknowledging
them as artists rather than ‘just’ illustrators. Each mini portfolio consists of six pages, one with a Q&A, and five with examples of each artist’s work. This way the reader gets a pretty good idea of the personality and style of the artists. Most images appear as stand-alone or personal projects – although several of the artists mention that they also take on commissions. Except for a (Danish) title and technique, none of the illustrations are explained and none of them are shown in the context they may have been commissioned for – which makes it hard to guess if any of the illustrations were actually created for a client or meant to be a piece of art. All artists work with handdrawn illustration – often in combination with digital techniques, and the book is very much a tribute to this analogue approach to illustration.
Esther Whang & Julie Cirelli, ed. (2015): Contemporary Danish Illustration Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing Hardcover, 232 pages 27×21 cm Text in English ISBN 978-91-87543-12-8€ 42.00 + VAT and freight costs www.ao-publishing.com www.danishillustration.dk
Examples from the artist portfolios in Contemporary Danish Illustration. On page 24: Michelle Carlslund’s message to us all to remember to kiss. Above: Anders Scrmn Meisler works with acrylics, ink, crayons, gouache and collage on paper. Photo by Lars Pryds
The question of which is better – analogue or digital – is discussed in several cases. Most answers praise the unpredictability and the natural ‘mistakes’ of the hand-drawn, but, as Josephine Kyhn says, “I think I could not live without the one or the other, as the two can be very different”. For Stine Maria Aalykke, hand-drawn illustration works best when it’s mixed with the “rigorous and clean looks from fonts and other digital forms”. Surprisingly, her portfolio in the book does not show examples of this. Others mention the fact that in analogue work it is impossible to press Cmd Z: “I actually think the absence of undo in hand-drawn illustration is the greatest advantage over digital illustration,” as Benny Box says. THE MOST NOTEWORTHY
The editors claim that this book presents “the 32 most
noteworthy contemporary illustrators in Denmark”. 2) This is a rather bold statement – compared to what and by which standards? Some members of professional organisations of illustrators may be puzzled to read this. Further documentation of the 32 illustrators’ engagements or job experience is limited to a list of links to each artist’s website. Some appear (judging by the answers in the Q&As) to be seasoned illustrators with a wide range of work, while others seem fresh out of design school, trying to find their way in the real world. One way to find your place in the professional world of art and illustration is to find out what is right for you to work with: “My best work is created from a belief that a drawing can expand the world,” says Signe Parkins. Most important, perhaps, is to find out whether you are an artist or an illustra-
tor – or both, which is absolutely possible. Contemporary Danish Illustration is a beautifully designed and well-produced book – and a nice-to-have physical object, a delicate coffee-table book that will match the framed printed artwork available from many of the portrayed artists’ websites or from webshops like Finderskeepers. The book gives you a quick and personal presentation of 32 Danish illustrators – and although there are many different styles represented, the chosen ones seem to represent a common trend – perhaps because most were born in the 1980ies and all but two are based in Copenhagen. ILLUSTRATION – OR ART?
The title of this book signals an overview of contemporary illustration in Denmark, while the inside pages show portfolios of artists working with illustration techniques – so
maybe the title is somewhat misleading? You should not expect a complete picture of the state of illustration in Denmark today in this book. To get this full picture would require a lot more research and a broader view on the field of illustration, and would have to include the old as well as – among others – Adrian Shaughnessy’s expanded definition of what illustration really is.
Notes: 1) Shaughnessey, Adrian (2009): Graphic Design: A User’s Manual. (p.149-153) London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd. 2) As quoted from the book’s cover and the preface. On the book’s website danishillustration.dk, the quote has been modified to “…32 of the most noteworthy contemporary illustrators…” (15 May 2016).
SNDSMagazine 2016|2 27
PHOTO: SND.ORG
16 #SNDIGNITE SPEAKERS, READY TO ROCK’N ROLL
DARREN SANEFSKI
JULIE ELMAN
RENDA MORTON
Ignite Talks bring inspiration and fun during speed session Attendees at the SNDSF conference in San Francisco 7–9 April 2016 were lucky to see a large number of talented speakers in two short days of sessions. For those who attended the Ignite Talks on Saturday afternoon, they got an additional two days’ worth of speakers and presentations in less than two hours Text by Jessica Wuensch jess.wuensch@gmail.com Steve Dorsey asked the audience, “Who is ready to have some fun?” and was met with a chorus of applause. He then outlined the parameters of the event: Each presenter gets 20 slides, 15 seconds per slide, for a total of five minutes. While nothing matches the experience of being in the room while these presenters shared with such energy, here is a brief recap of the things they had to share:
28 SNDSMagazine 2016|2
MATT MARTEL Fairfax Media Martel spoke about helping fellow newsrooms, especially with major news events, and sharing images and illustrations that can benefit everyone. His example was illustrating Olympic courses. “It’s the same course for everyone,” he explained. Sharing is caring. JOSH KADIS Alley Interactive Kadis, Director of Product Development, talked about the relationship between bad user experience design and good product design. There are a lot
of elements which affect these relationships, but he also noted that it’s easy for metrics to overlook the human element. DARREN SANEFSKI University of Mississippi Sanefski’s presentation focused on his love of Gestalt design and how it can be used to teach basic design principles to students. Gestalt design uses a variety of methods, such as proximity, similarity, contrast, and more to create intentional ways for a viewer to perceive an image. Sanefski Gestalt videos: bit.ly/darrengestalt
JULIE ELMAN Ohio University Elman’s topic, her personal exploration of fear titled The Fear Project, talked about her experiences with creative fear and how she has harnessed that creativity for personal growth. “I will give fear the finger because what else is there to do other than fly in the face of fear,” said Elman. The Fear Project: fear-project.com/ KYLE ELLIS Society for News Design Ellis’ talk focused on students and the ways SND and the in-
PHOTOS BY LARS PRYDS
KYLE ELLIS
DENISE REAGAN
PHOTO: NINA PRYDS
PHOTO BY THOMAS HAGER
PETE MORTENSEN
LARS PRYDS
One of Denise Reagan’s slides showed the aerialist performance by Bittersweet Studios in collaboration with Shinique Smith’s Project Atrium installation, Quickening, members’ preview, MOCA Jacksonville, March 18, 2016. Image courtesy of Thomas Hager.
dustry can best serve to them during their time as student journalists. “Student media is a place to try new things, experiment, and take risks.” While Ellis expressed a level of worry for students and their abilities, he mostly wanted to open up a discussion about this topic and is seeking students and professionals to engage with. snd.org DENISE M. REAGAN MOCA Jacksonville Reagan, the Director of Communications at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, talked about launch of MOCA Jacksonville’s new website in January 2016 and the subsequent growth. She focused on the functions of
the new website, particularly the blog section, which was created as part of the redesign in January: “The blog allows us to tell our own stories”. mocajacksonville.unf.edu PETE MORTENSEN Matter Mortensen spoke on a brief personal and professional history of Wally Wood, an important but less known comic book illustrator who came up with “22 Panels That Always Work.” Mortensen talked about how collaborations between writers and comic book artists (or in this case, designers) are not always two sided, and there are ways for writers to be less lazy and for designers to be more creative in their interpretations.
RENDA MORTON New York Times Morton, who describes herself as a feral cat unleashed at the New York Times after working for small organizations for years, asked the question: “Are we using jargon to distance ourselves from our work?” She continued to recount her personal experience in cutting the word “user” out of her vocabulary for a year, how it challenged her, and yet made her a better listener and colleague. BILL GASPARD China Daily Gaspard, the Design Director for China Daily, has been in China for the last five years and shared with the audience a collection of successful design
work being done by China Daily as well as other, lesser known publications, while also explaining a bit of his life living and working in Beijing. LARS PRYDS Tolstrup Pryds Graphics / SNDS Magazine Pryds kept it short and sweet with a list of ten reasons print will not die, with Scandinavian competition winners as visual examples for each and every one. “I just love print, and I’m gonna show you why,” he said. Get Pryds’ slides: pryds.com/ignite.pdf
More #SNDignite presenters on the following page
SNDSMagazine 2016|2 29
PHOTO: REED REIBSTEIN
CHRIS COYIER AND MIRANDA MULLIGAN PHOTO: SLIM POCKET FILMS
REED REIBSTEIN
LUCIE LACAVA – WITH STEVE DORSEY
REED REIBSTEIN American City Business Journal Reibstein’s presentation was visually appealing and intriguing as he spoke on the use of unusual typefaces in news design. The ideas he shared, such as standing out with unconventional type contrast and getting more bang for your buck with an atypical font family, support his statement that “there is great opportunity to look beyond the usual suspects” to find unique type treatments that work for your publication. Get Reibstein’s slides: bit.ly/unusualtype CHRIS COYIER AND MIRANDA MULLIGAN CodePen Coyier and Mulligan chronicled their interest and attempts at
30 SNDSMagazine 2016|2
learning to use a letterpress machine in their neighborhood in Milwaukee. The experience proved to be challenging, interesting, and very messy, but fun, adds Mulligan. “Why do we spend so much time analyzing why we are doing things?” she said in response to the idea that letterpress is merely a hobby with no purpose. LUCIE LACAVA AKA @LULUCREZIA Lacava Design Lacava’s Instagram career has grown, changed, and progressed very quickly once she became a selected Instagram featured account. She shared her tips to curate style and aesthetic, which in her case is the color blue and architecture-heavy shots. Lacava on instagram: instagram.com/lulucrezia
STEPHANIE GRACE LIM
STEPHANIE GRACE LIM Design Ninja Lim’s story started as a personal account of how she documented her vacation with her boyfriend, showcasing how one small dive into iPhone videos has sparked a new area of focus for her. Now she looks to share her joy and excitement with the world via her YouTube channel. She shared technical tips about filming and editing, and encouraged people to submit their iPhone videos to her via email. SLim’s slides on YouTube: bit.ly/slimignite
Text previously published on www.snd.org Printed with kind permission
Full SNDSF coverage: × snd.org/sndsf2016 Ignite Talks on twitter: × #SNDignite
Jessica Wuensch is a student at Ohio University studying Visual Communication + Strategic Communication. She loves L.L. Bean Boots, The Hamilton musical, and Orbit’s “sweet mint” gum. × jessicawuensch.com × @jessica_wuensch
where strategy meets technology Let our world class publishing solutions accelerate your business strategy.
ccieurope.com
escenic.com
SNDSMagazine 2016|2 in my honest opinion
Three steps to expand SNDS Text by Flemming Hvidtfeldt fhvidtfeldt@yahoo.dk Summer is ahead. So is the upcoming SNDS-conference, which is to be held in the great city of Malmoe, Sweden, October 13th14th. As I do look forward to summer I also look forward to the conference. It’s the first time in five years that the conference is to be held outside Copenhagen. And it’s the first time ever we have expanded the conference. This time we’re not only having a conference. In conjunction with the conference we’re hosting “CampSNDS”. Two days of indepth teaching in data visualization. That’s exiting. It tells two or maybe three stories about the development of SNDS. First of all SNDS is – as every news business is – changing. From the old days with print in focus to a much more digital focus. We have been on that road for many years, but this year we are taking a much bigger step with the conference compared to the last couple of years. Secondly we are taking up the art of education. SND has been doing that a couple of years. With great success. We will see if it’s the same in Scandinavia. We have organized a CampSNDS in connection with the conferPH ence in Malmoe with a two days OT OB Y LA RS A A R Ø intensive workshop. Quite exclusive – only 15 participants can join the camp and I’m exited to see, what the participants gain from the two days. On top of the work the participants will establish close relationships which in the long run will give them a network across boarders, that they can be a part of for many years and that they can gain inspiration from. So the
CampSNDS is not only about being better at your own work. It’s also a great possibility to expand your network and find out how other colleagues are working. The third story is about the cooperation between SNDS and SND. It really has improved, which in my view is the best that could happen for both SNDS and SND. During the SND-conference in San Francisco in April I had some great talks with the international director of SND, J.C. Edwards. The result is, that SND is funding a part of our upcoming promotion tour in the Baltic Countries, which is scheduled to take place August. It’s an attempt to get more people from the Baltic States to join SNDS as members – as well as an attempt to get more participants to the Scandinavian conference. Another outcome of the SND-conference was the CampSNDS, wich I do hope will be an success. The transformation towards more digital is essential for an organization like SNDS. But the consequence is not that we forget print. During the conference we will have speakers that will focus on print and we will have a masterclass solely focusing on print. So everyone in print still have every reason both to join SNDS and to participate in the conference. If you want to be a part of SNDS and if you want to join the conference do not hesitate. We still have early bird low registration prices. Check conference.snds.org and find out more about the conference – and register before summer. It’s cheaper to do it now. And you will know what to do in October. Have a great summer.
Flemming Hvidtfeldt is SNDS President and chairman of the committee for the Best of Scandinavian News Design competition. He is a freelance journalist.
BECOME A MEMBER OF SNDS
Join the professional network for news designers and visual journalists: A global network to people working in the news business all over the world. SNDS Magazine – four printed issues every year with info, news, advice and more. Catalogue with all winners in the annual Best of Scandinavian News Design competition.
R educed price for participating in the annual seminar and workshop. Invitations to events organized by SNDS. Found out how to join: www.snds.org/member