Visual Editors
Visual Editors, NFP was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit in 2004.
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hgoodman
Contributing editor
Joined: 28 Apr 2004
Posts: 219
Location: Washington, D.C.
Posted:
Wed Apr 05, 2006 8:39 pm
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This year, one of the two papers to receive SND's highest honor is from Poland. None of the judges could read Polish nor was any translation offered, based on inquires I made of folks intimately involved with this year's competition.
The judges described the paper as “beautiful”, yet apparently, they couldn't understand a single word they saw. One can only conclude that Rzeczpospolita (zech pos POLE eeta) was honored because of how it looked, rather than whether all the parts worked together to make sense.
I've seen this scenario before. Years ago, I participated in an SND judging as a helper. This experience gave me a bird's-eye view of the judging process. I remember the judges deliberating over an illustration from a Scandinavian country. They were debating whether to give this entry a gold award - the highest award in this category.
One judge protested, saying “But I can't read it. I don't know what it says.” But another judge said, “Who cares what it says. I just like it!”
Much to my dismay, that argument carried the day and the judges unanimously gave their highest award to something they admittedly did not understand.
Now I'll bet that Rzeczpospolita is a fine newspaper with a fine design - maybe even one of the world's best - but every journalist should be a skeptic. I believe “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” So how could the SND judges know that Rzeczpospolita is “reaching out to the 25- to 45-year old highly educated, professional audience” (from SND's website) if they didn't know what it said?
I don't know whether Rzeczpospolita is one of the world's best designed newspapers because I can't read Polish. But I've known all of this year's judges personally or professionally for as long as my name was in that little box on Robert Lockwood's desk. And I know that they are are some of the world's best. And their work is some of my personal world's best. |
As someone who has disagreed with some of the things Alan has said before, I could not agree more about this. It seems to go against everything that journalism is about to give an award to something you can not read. If designers want to be considered Visual Editors (.com) then you have to be able to edit and understand what you are judging. I have no issue with a European paper being given an award over an American one. I have a problem if American papers are being judged on the content as well as design and European papers are not. |
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Robb Montgomery
Founder
Joined: 07 Mar 2004
Posts: 1504
Location: Chicago
Posted:
Wed Apr 05, 2006 9:27 pm
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A model to compare would be World Press Photo.
They consistently seat a diverse international jury. Remember they are judging photographs! I would champion any journalism group that places this kind of value on diversity. For the culture and perspective as much as for language.
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The 2006 jury
Chair: James Colton, USA, photo editor Sports Illustrated
Members:
• Paula Bronstein, USA, staff photographer Getty Images - Asia
• Per Folkver, Denmark, picture editor in chief Politiken
• Janine Haidar, Lebanon, photo editor Agence France-Presse
• Magdalena Herrera, France/Cuba, art director National Geographic
• Wen Huang, People's Republic of China, picture editor Xinhua News
Agency
• Gary Knight, UK, photographer VII
• Eliane Laffont, France, editorial director Hachette Filipacchi Photos
• Greg Marinovich, South Africa, picture editor Sunday Times
• Ricardo Mazalan, Argentina, photographer The Associated Press
• Simon Njami, Cameroon, artistic director Rencontres Africaines
• Kathy Ryan, USA, photo editor The New York Times Magazine
• Stephan Vanfleteren, Belgium, photographer
Secretary: Stephen Mayes, UK, director image archive Art + Commerce Anthology |
_________________
Where in the world is Robb? |
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robschneider
Contributing editor
Joined: 18 Mar 2004
Posts: 212
Location: Dallas Morning News
Posted:
Thu Apr 06, 2006 11:07 am
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This is an aside, but I do think it's relevant to Alan's initial number that needs to at least be noted.
263 of those 1,136 winners (23%) came from the 2 photo categories. There are page design portions of the photos categories, but I think the vast majority of those awards were for single or multiple photographs.
I'm not saying that photos shouldn't be a part of a newspaper design competition, but I think it does skew the numbers a little bit and I wanted to at least say it.
And while that number seems pretty big, it's also worth noting that something like 94% of entries don't get awarded. And that's also not taking into account all of the entries that get multiple awards. I would venture a guess (and it's just that) if you factor in the multiple awards, something like 4-5% entries get awarded, a percentage that I would think might be comparable to an NPPA or other contest.
That's not to refute Alan or Robb's points, but I think it adds a little more clarity to that 1,136 number. |
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