SND 34 Winners: Three That Never Stop Surprising Their Readers

TAKEAWAY: The Washington Post, Gulf News and Times of Oman are among the 10 most award winning newspapers in the world. Here’s why they teach and inspire us.

The Washington Post, Gulf News and Times of Oman: among the top 10 newspapers in the world with the most design awards

We take great pride in saluting all of the well deserving winners at the 34th edition of the Society of News Design contest, which took place earlier this week at Syracuse University.

At Garcia Media we are especially proud to see that three of our client newspapers have placed in the top 10 most awarded publications: The Washington Post, Gulf News and Times of Oman.

In two of those titles, Gulf News and Times of Oman, it is remarkable to see them achieving such status. In each case, when we first began working with the team of these newspapers there was no design department as such, no art director, and, most importantly, no culture of visual journalism playing any significant role.

With the arrival of talented design directors such as Miguel Gomez at the Gulf News, and Adonis Durado, Times of Oman, came the start of graphic departments, the recruitment of extremely talented artists, illustrators and designers from around the globe, and the rest is, as they say, history.

They continue to surprise readers of their newspapers with visual presentation that emphasizes storytelling, with experimentation as the key. In these graphic departments, the staffs are having fun trying new things, sometimes for stories that are played secondarily in the newspaper. In other words, at these titles, it is not just about big graphic productions for the cover stories.

Both the Gulf News and the Times of Oman have become daily published portfolios that designers around the globe can take a look at to learn and to be inspired.

In the case of The Washington Post, where a tradition of visual journalism, and, particularly photo journalism, have existed for years, it is admirable to see how the team continues to excel in the area of visual storytelling, especially with major stories, and, particularly, in their Sunday edition, where the front page surprises all the time. It is worth noting that for the Post, the most classic, minimalist and simple design is what makes its packages so powerful.

These three titles inspire all of us, for sure, and I feel great pride to have been associated with them and with their design history.

Congratulations to all!

For a list of all SND 34 winners and other contest details:
http://www.snd.org

Where’s Mario until March 2, 2013?

Mario’s upcoming speaking engagements

Take advantage of our iPad Design/Ad Lab workshops

Do you want to take your brand to the next level by creating a tablet edition? Garcia Media can help. We now offer one- to two-day iPad Design Lab workshops on demand to jumpstart your presence on this exciting new platform. We also offer iPad Ad Lab workshops to develop engaging advertising models for your app. Contact us for more information.

SND 34 Winners: Three that never stop surprising their readers

Purchase the book on the iBookstore

iPad Design Lab has been given the QED Seal

The QED (Quality–Excellence–Design) Seal is bestowed by the judges of the Publishing Innovation Awards after “a thorough, professional 13-point design review with an eye towards readability across multiple devices and in multiple formats.“

Learn more about the QED Seal here.

The EPUB version of book is HERE:

Now available: The EPUB version of iPad Design Lab: Storytelling in the Age of the Tablet, ready for download via Amazon.com for Kindle:

http://tinyurl.com/8u99txw

Here is how you can get iPad Design Lab book:

The original version of the book is the multitouch textbook version available on the iBookstore for iPad (iOS 5.0 and up):
https://itunes.apple.com/book/ipad-design-lab/id565672822

This version includes video walkthroughs, audio introductions to each chapter, swipeable slideshows, a glossary and a sophisticated look and feel.

Apple only sells multitouch textbooks in certain countries at this time, unfortunately. Copies are available in at least the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, and the United States.

For those in other countries and without an iPad, we have made the book available in a basic edition for other platforms. This basic edition includes the full text of the original, along with the images and captions, but lacks the other features such as audio and video. It is available on the following platforms in many countries:

Amazon Kindle:
http://amzn.to/SlPzjZ

Google Books:
http://bit.ly/TYKcew