Imprisoned journalist Fevzi Yazici won a pair of Awards of Excellence from the Society for News Design’s 42nd Best of Print News Design Creative Competition. Yazici’s artwork from his prison cell in Turkey was featured across a three-page spread titled “Art of Darkness” published in The Washington Post in May.
Yazici, the former Design Director of Zaman newspaper, was imprisoned in 2016 as part of a crackdown on free speech in Turkey. He was an SND World’s Best-Designed judge in 2015 and for 10 years co-hosted a world-class design conference in Istanbul — +1T Design Days. Yazici is appealing the conviction that sentenced him to 11 years and 3 months in prison. He is one of more than 200 journalists imprisoned worldwide.
The award-winning entries feature several of his illustrations drawn in his dimly lit cell. The main image in the package — Arrest Socrates — was stippled using a common ballpoint pen. Said Yazici of the piece: “This picture says that thoughts cannot be imprisoned. Because, if you try to imprison thoughts, the ideas turn from light to a prism and begin to shine.”
Sunday marked his 1,216th day in solitary confinement.
https://www.snd.org/2014/06/great-work-1-zaman/
https://www.snd.org/2015/03/design-judges-reflect-on-papers-vying-to-be-worlds-best/