SND is proud to announce the two winners of World’s Best Designed in its Digital and Print News Design Competitions: The New York Times and DIE ZEIT.
The New York Times named World’s Best Designed in the Digital News Design Competition
A panel of 21 judges from the Society for News Design’s 43rd edition creative competition, the Best of Digital News Design, has selected The New York Times as the World’s Best-Designed Digital News Experience for coverage of climate change and the Tokyo Olympics.
Judges recognized the New York Times for the breadth and depth of their entries, consistently stunning work and perfectly handled details: “This portfolio demonstrates why the team is so lauded: deeply-reported, beautiful work with cutting-edge use of video and 3D graphics.”
One judge wrote, “The Times has the vision to deliver slick, clearly thought-out, accessible and rich interactive content. Their step-by-step guides to athletics and impressive topographic and map-based diagrams feel authoritative and best in class.”
Their work included these pieces from two different organizational portfolios submitted, with work ranging from in-depth infographic pieces, to thoughtful art direction, excellent animation and smart use of video:
- Subtle shifts hint at dramatic dangers in the Atlantic Ocean
- A climate alarm rising from the Antarctic
- This glacier in Alaska is moving 100 times faster than normal
- A climate change guide for kids
- Sunisa Lee is unmatched on uneven bars and wants Olympic glory
- Here’s what happened in Simone Biles’s vault
- How Olympic athletes run
- Who leads the medal count
- How fast the Jamaican sprinters ran to sweep the women’s 100 meters
Judges also noted how an investment in design and visuals helps to increase the impact of the stories: “It’s always delightful to see the kind of beauty and power they can produce with their well-managed resources and exceptionally talented crew. They invest in visual journalism and it shows.”
Another wrote, “Design is integral to these stories, driving the narrative forward, and the Times continues to set the standard for visual storytelling and evolving areas of journalism in technology and data reporting.”
And their work had a lasting impact on the judges, “You know an organization is doing the best possible work when on every story in their portfolio there’s some part that either moves you, wows you, or it leaves you wondering — wait, how did they do that?!”
SND has awarded World’s Best-Designed Digital News Experience since 2010.
Other finalists for the award included Reuters and The Pudding.
The Best of Digital News Design™ is a juried contest honoring visual and technical excellence in storytelling, graphics, social media and product design. The competition awarded 10 gold medals, 24 silver medals, 115 bronze medals and 578 awards of excellence to work from 137 organizations. The winners came from 1,948 entries, and you can find a full database of the winners here.
DIE ZEIT named World’s Best Designed Newspaper
After three days of discussion, judges in the Society for News Design’s 43rd Best of Print News Design competition have selected DIE ZEIT of Hamburg, Germany as World’s Best Designed. Four newspapers were named finalists for the Society’s top honor.
The judges said:
Our attention has become a commodity that every media outlet – new and old, digital and print – is vying to attract. Accelerated by an extended pandemic, more and more of our time is being spent in a metaphysical world. As we judged these entries separated by multiple time zones and brought together on Zoom, we asked ourselves what would it take to be World’s Best?
After all, great editorial print design is about more than a palette of refined type, arresting photography, beautiful illustrations and informative graphics. Great print design paints a coherent experience for the reader where every carefully chosen element contributes to convey more than the sum of its parts. The best experiences present context, clarity and understanding in ways only the print canvas can deliver.
To be World’s Best, we agreed that all the designer’s tools must be at play but in a considered and disciplined manner that would evoke curiosity, understanding and joy. The newspapers that were selected as finalists harnessed the power of design to not only do justice to the content but to take it further – creating an additional layer of depth to the conversation between newspaper and reader.
Design continues to shape the experience of journalism for readers. As our industry faces the challenges of media literacy, these publications successfully designed signals to engage and aid readers through the complexities of the day’s news. The finalists deliver excellence in ways that print still does best: curating a broad and unique news experience and understanding the impact of pacing, all while championing a distinct editorial voice.
Our selection for World’s Best delivers a reading experience that is truly distinct. Much like a well-loved book, DIE ZEIT’s purposeful literary presentation invites readers to spend time with its content, without the distraction of competing visual signals. DIE ZEIT’s minimal design choices create a hierarchy executed with simple flawless sophistication, allowing imagery to serve not only as companion to the text, but as a visual conversation on its own. Strong, artful photo edits are a hallmark — effective as dramatic point of entry single photographs or as conversational diptychs that speak directly to each other. So much care and attention is enacted on every page that we could imagine a reader saving an issue to return to through the week. This experience is not ephemeral like digital and it challenges the disposable mentality that has overwhelmed our industry.
The judges for this year’s World’s Best Designed Newspaper were:
- Frank Mina, Assistant Managing Editor at the Seattle Times
- Lucie Lacava, Consultant
- Kate Elazegui, Design Director of Opinion at the New York Times
- Harry Hepburn, Lead Designer at the Telegraph
- Adolfo Arranz, Creative Director at the South China Morning Post
The 43rd competition ended with the jury of 27 judges awarding 18 gold medals, 68 silver medals and 798 awards of excellence. No Best in Show was awarded. You can find the complete database of winners from this year’s competition here.