Marco Hernandez was selected by a panel of 21 judges as the World’s Best Designer for his information graphics portfolio from Reuters in the Society for News Design’s 43rd edition creative competition, the Best of Digital News Design. This was the second year that a designer has been recognized as World’s Best. SND has awarded websites, apps, overall experiences and organizations the World’s Best-Designed™ Digital News Experience distinction since 2010.
Other finalists for World’s Best Designer included Elizabeth Hart, for her art direction portfolio from The Washington Post and Simon Scarr, for his art direction portfolio from Reuters.
Judges applauded Marco for his innovative graphics work: “He can consistently produce interesting works with high quality, covering a wide range of topics. His works are not only about great illustrations and infographics. He’s also good at putting everything together with a cohesive style to make it very comfortable to read through. And you can always find interesting little details in Marco’s works that make them shine.”
Marco’s portfolio covered a range of topics, from a piece about sand mining, to harvesting ice cores, to forgotten Olympic sports. There was also mapping and charts in a piece about sand dredging, and beautiful illustrations in a piece about researchers learning about carbon in the Amazon rainforest.
Judges wrote, “I was so impressed by the versatility in this portfolio. Each one is unique. There’s mapping, illustration, annotating, and charts that show scale in really effective ways. As a visual journalist, you want to show scale and scope – and this portfolio really does that. This person’s work anticipates your questions in the way that really good storytelling does. It is an incredibly high level of execution. It shows a mastery of their craft.”