The two publications received SND’s highest honor for an entry from a jury of more than 40 judges during the 47th edition of the Society’s annual Creative Competition
In an unprecedented synchronized discussion spanning locations and time zones, 41 judges for the Society for New Design’s 47th edition of its Creative Competition, SND47, selected entries from The Pudding and The Washington Post for its prestigious Best In Show awards.
Best In Show is the highest honor that an individual entry may receive from the Society. The winners were chosen from the more than 4,200 entries that were submitted in this year’s contest. There were two separate awards given based on organization size to promote parity across newsrooms of differing resources.
Best In Show (Micro/Small)
The Pudding won Best In Show for Micro and Small Organizations for its story page design portfolio across multiple topics.
In their judges’ statement, the jury described a strong sense of joy and engagement across The Pudding’s work, noting that each piece felt unique, oozed charisma and was rich with meaningful, human stories. They highlighted the impressive design quality, cohesive identity and remarkable dedication behind the portfolio, especially since it comes from a small newsroom. Overall, the judges found the “phenomenal visual essays” highly engaging and distinctive.
“The amount of design work put into each story is really off the charts,” said one judge during the discussions.
Best In Show (Medium/Large)
The Washington Post won Best In Show for Medium and Large Organizations for its multiplatform line of coverage of conflict in the Middle East.
The judges described the Washington Post entry as “work that is at an extremely elevated level.” They noted a strong sense of clarity and power with the approach — “it’s all of the storytelling levers you can pull.”
They described the work as emotionally impactful, visually stunning and rich in detail, with every aspect of design reinforcing the subject and making an important statement. It “displays the state of storytelling and visual journalism.”
What the awards mean
According to SND Vice President Alex K. Fong, the awards are a reflection of SND’s core belief that the task of design in newsrooms is to bring clarity to the events of the day and the current cultural zeitgeist all around the world.
“To bowdlerize Joan Didion, we tell each other stories in order to live,” said Fong, who is the creative director and a masthead editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. “The practice of visual storytelling enables us to explain complex events, to create emotional engagement and to improve the retention of useful and critical information by audiences through the use of photography, infographics, illustration, animation, video, interaction and design across print, digital and social platforms.
“Design is not a luxury but a necessity in an increasingly visual world that is beset by disinformation and artificial intelligence ‘slop.’”
The discussion for Best In Show and SND’s other capstone awards took place in the early morning of Friday, April 24 in the Reuters office in Singapore and in the evening and waning hours of Thursday, April 23 at Clark Kerr Campus at the University of California, Berkeley in the San Francisco Bay Area.
For an entry to win Best In Show, it must have appeared on at least 66% of ballots from the jury.
“I have long admired the work from both of these publications,” said Reuters Asia Graphics Editor and SND Secretary Rebecca Pazos. “The Pudding has always pushed the boundaries of creativity in visual storytelling and I’m beyond happy that the judges uphold this as the future of our field.
“As for the Washington Post, the investment in some serious talent in previous years has been paying creative dividends — this group of exceptional people have been quite literally ’nailing it’ from every direction. The work they have produced in the past few years will be held up as the gold standard for years to come, a legacy that will not be easily forgotten.”
“These two winning entries are great examples of storytelling in the modern world,” added SND President Jon Wile, who is VP/Design at American City Business Journals. “The Pudding and The Washington Post have a great understanding of what their audiences want and expect from them, and the design only heightens the final product. This work shows the value that visual journalism brings to a publication.”
The full list of SND47 award winners is online.
