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OFFICERS

President: Steve Dorsey

Exectuive Director: Stephen Komives

Vice President: Jonathon Berlin

Secretary/Treasurer: Rob Schneider

Immediate Past President: Kris Viesselman

Regional Director: Douglas Okasakisnd20@snd20.orgwww.snd20.org

3An important element in newspaper and magazines, informational graphics — or infographics — is visual representations of informa-tion or data so that readers quickly understand a subject. It can be represented by maps, charts or illustrations.Publications have become more visual, but surprisingly

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self-made with backgrounds in design and illustration skills and with knowledge of programmes such as Illustra-tor, Photoshop or 3D.

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Juan Velasco in American University in Dubai

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Roger Fidler receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from SND President Steve Dorsey.

By Douglas OkasakiNews media professionals from across the board meet every year during a workshop organised by the Society for News

organisation based in the US. This year the workshop was held in St Louis, Missouri. More than speakers from all over the world shared their experience in print, tablet and online publishing. This year what drew attention was the optimism for the future.

news industry in America the annual meeting revealed a kind of hope for the future for news technologies and even for print editions in emerging countries.Crises were also responsible for life changes in people, but sometimes it can be for the better according to a presentation by Charles Apple, a visual journalist consultant, instructor and ACES (American Copy Editors Society) columnist in his presentation, Reinvent Yourself; Reinvent Your World. He mentioned a long list of great professionals in journalism who changed the profession because of their situation: a lost job, becoming frustrated or simply taking a chance to make their dreams come true. These include a journalist who opened a successful restaurant, or another who started writing a book or yet another who started a small newspaper by a paradise beach all by himself. Sometimes situations force us to take another direction but in the end everything turns out OK — a professional still lives his life with dignity. And in some cases things turn out better than when they were working in the media industry.Rob King, vice-president and editor in chief of ESPN digital media, shared his father’s

to work out. You just don’t know how yet.” King also said we should think of our jobs as

been in the same job for years, you’re not doing it right.”‘No Longer a Tourist’ was the session presented by Bill Gaspard, design director of China Daily, originally from America, who now lives in Beijing. The topic covered

becoming an expatriate employee. The presentation gave a practical look at the prospects and pitfalls of a new adventure and the reality of working in a different culture and language.

Lifetime achievementOne of the highlights of the event was the presentation of the SND Lifetime

for professionals in the news industry for maintaining standards of quality and innovation. This year, the awards went to Roger Fidler and Gayle Grin.Fidler is the digital programme director at Digital Publishing Alliance at the University of Missouri’s Donald W. Reynolds Journalism

he began experimenting

s, he created and

Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado., Roger’s team produced a video to

showcase this vision: The Tablet Newspaper: A Vision for the Future around years ago before Apple produced it on an industrial scale.Gayle Grin is AME Visual for the Canadian newspaper The National Post. She won the award for her creative work and leadership at papers in Canada and her enthusiastic, smart and tireless work on behalf of SND; sowing seeds, pumping energy and good humour into the board’s work and discussions, setting the stage for many of its initiatives. Her level of involvement at the board level, in workshops around the world and in facilitating the annual

competition, is amazing.According to Steve Dorsey, vice-president of R&D at the Detroit Media Partnership and

collaboration, with a tight focus on our shift to digital innovation and storytelling”. As for the visual aspects of publications, the UAE

ranks high in quality of design, creativity and innovation among the top countries. Newspapers from the country have won a number of awards for excellence in the ‘Best of News Design’ category.The SND competition surely helps raise

important things are maintaining the quality and thinking about how we can become better.

Designers walk the talk in America

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By Sajeev Kummar T.k.

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Nadine Chahine and Professor Hermann Zapf

Palatino Sans Arabic is a companion to both Palatino Arabic and the Latin-based Palatino Sans. While it has the same metrics and forms as Palatino Arabic, Palatino Sans Arabic has much less contrast and softer curves. Like its Latin companion, Palatino Sans is softly spoken – a friendly typeface that can be used for both text and headlines.

One of Nadine Chahine type designs.

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By SND Headquarters

The 33rd Call for Entries for SND’s annual creative competition is now posted. Click here for the Booklet, Editable pdf Entry Forms and Tally Sheets, and for deadlines and other information about this year’s competition.

The Call is posted in English, Spanish, Arabic and German, with more languages coming soon.

A printed version will be mailed to members in the next few weeks as well.

A Q&A with 33rd edition coordinator Josh Crutchmer about rule changes and key dates this year:

Question: When will the judging take place?The general judging will take place Feb. 3-6, 2012, in Syracuse, N.Y., and the World’s Best Designed Newspaper judging will take place Feb. 10-14.

What are the major changes this year?You will notice several changes to this year’s Call. SND’s print competition director Mar-shall Matlock, the print competition commit-tee and myself spent much of 2011 working

hope makes entering easier and more appeal-

updates this year follow:

World’s Best Designed Newspaper no longer requires mandatory dates: The new rules require one Sunday paper, three daily papers, and one paper from any day of the week, and the rules require that each entry be from a different month. The purpose: We realize that as space, staff and production have changed that mandatory dates can have a chilling effect on entering this category moreso than ever. The purpose of World’s Best Designed is just that, and we felt that simply requir-ing a cross-section of a paper’s best work throughout the year will increase the quality of this category across the board.

All portfolio categories now also include subcategories for staff portfolios: Fear not, the individual portfolio categories have not changed, and they still require six pages. We have added optional subcategories to enter work produced by a single staff. Staff entries will require eight pages. The purpose:

Ladies and Gentlemen, Pull Your Tearsheets: Enter SND’s annual creative competition

The individual portfolio categories are an-nual highlights during judging, with such strong work shown annually that the bar for

as teamwork and collaboration is at more of a premium than ever, a similar category for the work of a staff is long overdue. We hope these categories will be extremely competi-tive and that we can adequately articulate the level of honor it will be for those whose work wins in here.

Special News Topics now includes a sub-category option for features content: The purpose: Had a multi-part travel series on your state’s bicycle trails? Maybe ongoing

series. We added the subcategory to Special News Topics to give these projects a home.

Special Coverage categories have now been broken down into news, features and sports subcategories: The purpose: No longer will, for example, a special section on the opening of a new sports venue or theater be judged alongside a special section about a natural disaster. We feel this is fair to both those who enter these categories and the integrity of the judging itself.

When is the deadline to enter? Jan. 11 for U.S. entries. Jan. 18 for non-U.S. entries

www.snd.orgwww.snd20.org

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-What is your educational background?After training in arts and graphic design at the Arts

now defunct El Sol newspaper in Peru, then imple-mented the infographics teams at three newspapers within the EPENSA newspaper group before working

my education by taking a scholarship with Reuters in Pamplona, Spain and embarked on different courses of journalism and visual communication at the Poynter

the infographics and the most sought-after awards in the media recognised by the level

at different universities in Peru and been a lecturer around the world, specialising in both infographics and visual communication.

If you weren’t a designer what would you be?

infographic designers we tell stories,

on narrating visually. Either way it would involve com-municating a message to a wider audience.

-How did you get into design?

not only in words but through visual elements, which can

the visual is easily recognisable and that it is all about

great pleasure in creation.

What projects have you been involved in?

the introduction of infographics sections in newspapers in Peru and have implemented that

template in Arabic dailies Emarat Al Youm and Emir-

for the Al Bayan media organisation and the projects are wide and varied. They include a book on the history of the UAE, one of the largest infographics published on the 2008 Beijing Olympics and a hugely successful guide to the Formula One Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi last

November.

What role can infographics play in pushing design forward?

-ers use the visual metaphor, which is

a powerful aid to the thought process. Because they use a combination of images, words and numbers, they operate in a hybrid system that touches both the visual and the verbal. There-fore, you’re not only creating a design, but

also enriching that design to increase the effectiveness of our communication.

visual journalism, binding information, analysis and innovation. And, with the advances in technology, the attraction of infographics today lies in thinking of new ways to merge the two. The medium is the message and infographics are the medium of a new era. They provide a new tool to process information; a design for the modern society.

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5 Luis ChumpitazQuestions to

Our region SND20- Middle East and Africa was fea-tured in two important magazine from SND. Design

give an overview from design in Middle East and Africa. Thanks to Lars Pryds, Anders Tapola, Suzette Moyer and Sthephen Komives.

Award winner F1 page

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H o n o u r i n g c r e a t i v i t y t h a t s e l l s p a p e r s i n M i d d l e E a s t

FPay attention to the design of the newspaper pages you are reading. Some not only provide the news, but are masterpieces combining content with creativity.Now, for the first time in the Middle East an exhibition will highlight the work behind the pages that make up a daily. Award winning examples of news design from the Gulf will be exhibited at The American University of Sharjah in the College of Architecture, Art and Design gallery. The displays are selected from The Best of News Design Creative Competi-tion and the award winners are featured in the 37th annual book, The Best of News Design.The Society for News Design, founded in the United States in 1979, and the Newhou-se School of Communication at Syracuse University sponsor the annual Best of News Design competition, as well as related exhibitions and publications. Over the past decade, Gulf-based newspapers have gained increasing recognition in the areas of news graphics and information design.For the first time, SND president Steve Dor-sey, will be visiting the UAE for the Sharjah exhibition, where he will also speak the evolution of design in UAE newspapers.Dr Mario Garcia, from Garcia Media and responsible for the first Gulf News redesign,

exhibit that makes newspapers the protago-nist is a very good idea. Many people know newspapers as household items, like they do a chair, a table or a fork. Not much attention is paid to them.”

Nuances

that constitute what goes into the design of a

12newspaper will be great. And, the fact that it will profile the terrific work by so many of the newspapers of the Middle East will make it even a more desirable type of event,” he said.

still not up to speed in terms of design, the exhibit will be an eye opener to all the possibilities.”Lucie Lacava, responsible for the redesign

have reasons to celebrate the extraordinary work from the region.”

importance of visual journalism in the storytelling process. From page design, to photography, illustration and info--graphics, in just a couple of years these papers managed to reach the highest stan-dards of visual excellence, an accomplish-ment which often takes decades to reach elsewhere,” she said.

quality and design craftsmanship of their pages to international standard, but have surpassed it in many ways. This body of work will serve as inspiration to many others, because there is always room for improvement.”

not only to maintain this lead and level of creativity, but to also apply it to other platforms, since newspapers can no longer rely on the print version alone. But in doing so they must remember to maintain and enforce their loyalty to the brand, as they evolve into other mediums.”The CAAD exhibit will feature award--winning work from the region, including Gulf News, The National, Al Bayan, and the Times of Oman.The exhibit opens on November 20 at 5pm in the CAAD gallery. The opening will feature a round-table discussion in the CAAD auditorium on the state of

impressive is the degree to which news-papers in the region have plainly made intelligent, innovative design core to their missions,” said Stephen Komives, SND’s executive director.

value. And it is not confined to a single paper or country, but continuing to spread throughout the region.”_____________________________

What: Best of News Design from the Mideast Where: The American University of Sharjah When: The exhibit opens Sunday, 20 November at 5:00 in the CAAD gallery. Sunday’s opening will feature a round table discussion in the CAAD auditorium on the state of news design in the MENA region.

Participants will include:Steve Dorsey, President, Society of News DesignMiguel Gomez, ArtDirector, Gulf NewsLaura Koot, Managing Editor, The NationalAdonis Durado, Design Director, Times of Oman and Al ShabibaLuis Chumpitas, Art Director, Al BayanDouglas Okasaki, SND Regional Direc-tor, region 20- ME and Africa

Exhibit dates are 20 November–1 De-cember at AUS in the CAAD gallery. The round table discussion will take place at 5:00 pm in the CAAD auditorium. More information snd20@snd20.org

The National (Abu Dhabi)Times of Oman

Gulf News

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Al Shabiba (Oman)

Times Of Oman Times Of Oman

The National

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Al Bayan

The National

A very special Thanks to Bob Dham for make the

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Al Bayan

Gulf News

Gulf News

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We wanted to do something hight-impact to mark Earth Week and to

And the more we worked on it, the greener it got. The planning for the themed edition began last year with print tests on green-coloured newsprint and discussion of story ideas that might relate to all seven of our sections in the Saturday paper.Over the last few months we engaged all the section editors to

come up with green-related content and we worked on several cover options.

background ended up holding the themed edition together.And we fully committed when we turned the nameplate and all the furniture green as well.The Saturday team worked closely with Deputy Art Director, Nathan Estep, to pull

– Laura Koot,

In the last Earth Week, The National printed the entire edition in a special green paper. The result was impressive. How was the plan for it?

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BECOME A MEMBER

How was the experience of to organize a SND ST. Louis conference? It was a great learning experience. I really appreciate all the (often) thank-less, unseen

hard work that people have put into events that I have attended throughout my career.

you faced? As with life, balancing time and money were huge challenges. We also had two

other major journalism conferences going on in the US the same week as our event, and two smaller, but popular niche journalism

groups were battling for the same speakers and attendees since there›s a lot of overlap, so it was very challenging, especially with speakers and attendees having very limited time and money to offer for events like these in the current economic environment.

Did you have nightmare in this period of organization? I had a lot of moments where I'd wake up in the middle of the night thinking I'd

forgot to do something for the conference, so

What›s your advice for who are organizing any event? I had really encourage future

conferences to ‹blow up the conference› idea and experiment with new ideas, formats and types of events. We had a contract with the hotel that was agreed to years ago (even before I started working in St. Louis) that somewhat limited us to how much we could do -- especially with expenses for food/drink and

space excited to see what Cleveland and future SND conferences do when they›re planning to take advantage of not being locked into these contracts because they are very expensive and limit your freedom and how you spend your time and money.

Can you do it again?Sure! I need a couple months to

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5Questions toWILL SULLIVAN

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PICTURESJuan Velasco farewell party in Dubai

PICTURESgraphic news anniversary in london

the plan is to have it circulated frequently during the year. All collaboration will be necessary to continuing this project and of course, your contribution will be more than welcome.

As you know, the Middle East region was

and although our region is still a designer’s

very different now compared to the previous years. But we can’t let this situation affect the

investment in design is required.

from American University of Sharjah who made it possible and for the presence of our SND President Steve Dorsey who give prominence to the event. Of course to provide more meaning to this exhibition is the hard work and talent of all designers in the region. The exhibition is well represented by Art directors such as Miguel Angel Gomez of Gulf News, Laura Koot of The National, Luis Chumpitaz of Al Bayan and Adonis Durado of the Times of Oman and Al Shabiba.

For some consecutive years our region has been recognized in the world for the creative works and quality of news design. This is the result of all the great efforts by all great talent designers from all over the world, who are now based in the region.

Please, you are invited to get more involved with our organization by becoming a SNDmember. You may also participate in the SND competitions, workshops and lectures from time to time.

in the National Geographic lecture by Juan Velasco in AUD. More events and workshops are coming and you are more than welcome to

Douglas Okasaki- SND Regional Director snd20@snd20.org