SND Lifetime Achievement Award Winners
About This Award
The Lifetime Achievement Award, the Society’s highest individual honor, is presented for a significant body of work that has had a lasting influence on the field of journalism; extraordinary service to SND and its members; or a combination of both.
Recipients
1993
Mario Garcia, for his outstanding contributions to the newspaper design and graphics profession worldwide. Through his work as an educator, researcher, author, lecturer and designer, he has elevated the entire graphics and design field around the globe.
1999
Edmund C. Arnold, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to newspaper design and graphics worldwide.
2001
Louis Silverstein, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the newspaper design and graphics profession worldwide.
2003
Richard A. Curtis, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the newspaper design and graphics profession; for his work co-founding the Society for News Design; for his initiation in creating and editing Design Journal; and for providing much need guidance; all of which have inspired an entire generation of visual journalists.
Robert Lockwood, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the newspaper design and graphics profession; for his work co-founding the Society for News Design and for serving as the first president of SND in its formative years and providing much need guidance; all of which have inspired an entire generation of visual journalists.
2004
Anton “Tony” Majeri Jr.. An SND founding member and member for four Pulitzer Prize-winning teams at the Chicago Tribune, he has served as SND President, judged the annual “Best of Newspaper Design” competition, chaired the Annual Workshop, taught visual journalism to audiences around the world, and served as a mentor to countless designers in the news business.
2005
Nanette Bisher, creative director of the San Francisco Chronicle, “was a part of those amazing early days when the term visual journalism was being defined in Allentown, Pa.,” said President Bill Gaspard. “For this Society she has been a great leader and friend. Over the years Nanette taught us about color and impact, about taking risks without taking yourself too seriously. And that, in a nutshell, is Nanette: Approachable despite her considerable talent, generous with her skills and always willing to coach.”
George Rorick, former member of the visual journalism faculty at The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. He created the color weather map for USA Today, and Gaspard said of him, “In the world of newspaper graphics there’s not a name better and more widely known than George Rorick’s. In addition to making a mark through his work at USA Today, the Detroit News, El Mundo and by creating KRT Graphics, George has inspired so many people that the industry is filled with talented graphic artists with a deep connection to George himself, journalists who pursued their craft because he made them see the possibilities in the world of information graphics.”
2006
C. Marshall Matlock, professor emeritus at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his 17-year leadership of the Society for News Design Creative Competition. In recounting Matlock’s many accomplishments since taking over the competition in 1989, Christine McNeal noted that entries had more than doubled, to nearly 15,000 per year, during his tenure. Matlock guided annual Competition Committees in recruiting more than 400 judges worldwide and thousands of facilitators to manage the competition judging and logistics during those years. He also oversaw publication of the annual book displaying the winners.
2007
Rolf Rehe, media consultant for Design Research International in Vienna, Austria. A founding member of SND and SND-DACH, Rolf Rehe was honored for many contributions to the field of typography and design, including the 50 columns on typography he has written for Design journal; his many interviews of typographers; two books published in several languages; a decade of teaching at Indiana University; and many volunteer activities for SND.
Lynn Staley, A.M.E/Design for Newsweek magazine in New York City. Former SND President Lynn Staley led the SND Annual Workshop in Boston 1993. In his presentation, SND Secretary-Treasurer Matt Mansfield said, “She built her reputation by transforming our craft, providing inspiration for young people just entering the profession and setting a higher bar for everyone else. I recall being a young designer and looking longingly at the work coming from The Boston Globe when she was at the helm … and I remember the leap she made to Newsweek emboldened all of us to dream higher and bigger.”
2008
Phil Ritzenberg for 50-plus years of service to the design industry. Ritzenberg was honored as an innovator and a tireless volunteer for the Society and designers. He has been a behind-the-scenes leader, helping found SND 30 years ago, and served as president from 1980 to 1982. Phil rose from a copy boy for the Cleveland Press in the early 1950s to be Assistant Managing Editor for Design at the New York Daily News, one of the first such management roles at a major U.S. newspaper.
Bill Gaspard, Las Vegas Sun, for years of dedicated service as president of SND, the SND Foundation and as site chair for the Annual Workshop and Exhibition twice — in Las Vegas and also in San Diego in 1997. Gaspard was praised by SND past president Nanette Bisher for his ability to involve everyone in getting things done for SND.
2009
Miguel Urabayen, for his many decades of contributions in pioneering visual journalism in the international community. He not only was one of the best popularizers of computer graphics but generally of the image as a key tool to tell the news, in particular in Spain and Latin America.
Nigel Holmes, for his groundbreaking work in explanatory graphics. His work at numerous publications, most notably Time Magazine, paved the way for a generation of graphic artists. He has tirelessly worked to advance the craft – “The best way to explain things is always the simplest way” – through his lectures and several books.
2010
Javier Errea, for his unflagging contributions to SND and the industry. He organizes the Malofiej conference – the world’s premier information graphics event. He organizes the ñh event – which assembles great speakers and honors the best of news design in Spain and Portugal. He was described as creative and innovative, modest and unassuming, welcoming and supportive. A true friend to SND, and an inspiration to us all.
Lucie Lacava, for her elegance in innovation in news design, her heartfelt stewardship of the Society, and her lifetime of unmatched service. Her professional SND contributions include past presidency of the Society for News Design. She is a founding member of the francophone chapter of SND, based in Paris. She has given visual personality to more than 80 publications across Canada, the United States, Latin America, Europe, and the United Emirates.
2011
Gayle Grin, for her creative work and leadership at papers in Canada that have been an inspiration and her enthusiastic, smart and tireless work on behalf of SND that has benefited us all. Her focus as a board member and as president was to keep us from losing sight of our international mission and pushing for a vibrant global identity for the Society. Her legacy with SND is of planting seeds, pumping energy and good humor into the board’s work and discussions, setting the stage for so many of our initiatives. Her level of involvement at the board level, in workshops around the world and in facilitating our annual competition is staggering.
Roger Fidler, innovator, leader, teacher, founder and friend. He is a founding member of the Society for News Design, and created the organization’s first newsletter. He also served as the Society’s first vice president, and organized SND’s third-ever Annual Workshop and Exhibition, in Miami in 1982. But his lasting legacy has been introducing the news media to new technologies. In 1981 he began experimenting and developing portable, flat-screen reading devices, the forerunner of the tablet that is now transforming the news design industry. “Roger has been a true visionary in our industry,” said fellow SND founder Tony Majeri. “He was one of the few folks in our midst who possessed the skills to act as the perfect model for the future leader of the visual journalism we were all building.”
2012
Roger Black, for decades of contributions to newspapers and magazines, for embracing typography as an integral element of sophisticated design, for pioneering work with digital type and digital mediums. One of the principle creators of the “Rolling Stone look” in the 1970s, Roger would go on to New York magazine, the New York Times and Newsweek before founding his own studio and cofounding Danilo Black with Eduardo Danillo. He also founded The Font Bureau with David Berlow. As Michael Wolff said in his New York magazine profile of Roger, “We (the general reader) expect magazines to look the way Roger makes them look. Roger has created a standard. … A Roger design helps you deal with your insecurities. Roger moves you to where you want to be. At the front of a newsstand. At a power lunch. At the heart of pop culture.”
Deborah Withey, for her art, her passion, her teaching, her dedication to small newspapers, and the communities they cover. For her devotion to storytelling and constant pushing of the boundaries of our craft. Her impact on smaller papers is unmatched. It was demonstrated in the first quick courses that hop-scotched across the country and around the world in the following years, in her redesign work. As design consultant for Knight Ridder Newspapers, where she was able to bring her energy, her unique vision to KR publications across the country. Transforming not just newspapers, but newsrooms, designers and, in a sense, communities. She redesigned most of the KR’s 36 newspapers. Four were chosen as SND’s World’s Best Designed over those years. Deb served as president of SND in 1995 and taught design all over the U.S. and world. She was a founding judge at the Malofiej workshop in Pamplona and a visiting teacher at University of Navarra, and a visiting scholar at Ball State, University of Missouri, Syracuse and Michigan State. Her work at the Virginian-Pilot set a new bar for what news design can be.
2013
Harris Siegel, for his groundbreaking work, particularly in sports and features design at the Asbury Park Press. His work influenced a generation of designers, injecting audaciousness, East Coast attitude and a fan’s appreciation into pages that broke the boundaries. His portfolio of work during the 1990s and 2000s represents one of the great runs in newspaper design history. He was a mainstay at the competition judging in Syracuse and served SND as competition coordinator of the 19th edition of the Best of Newspaper Design. His presentations at SND workshops and quick courses are the stuff of legend. The work he did 20 years ago would be winning SND awards today. It is easy to see the marks of Harris’ legacy in the pages of those who became excited about design by studying his work in SND annuals.
2014
Rodrigo Sánchez, for two decades of spectacular magazine cover design. Sánchez was part of a wave of Spanish design that reinvigorated global news design beginning in the 1990s and continuing to today. As art director of La Luna de Metrópoli, the weekly supplement of the Spanish newspaper, El Mundo in Madrid, Sánchez has carved a vision of bold illustration and humorous double-takes on art and pop culture, always offering a fresh, intelligent look, a wide range of languages, and extensive knowledge of graphic design history. One year, 36 of the 52 Metrópoli covers earned awards at the SND judging. “His work is both powerful and beautiful,” said consultant Lucie Lacava. “Controversial, ironic, conceptual or typographic, his covers never cease to surprise and amaze.”
Hans Peter Janisch , design consultant, for two decades of service to the Society. Janisch helped spearhead SND’s expansion internationally. In 1999 he helped found SND DACH, a region representing German-speaking members, and served as its first regional director. In 2004 he was appointed to the SND board as international director – a position he held until 2012. A promoter of visual journalism all over the world, Janisch brought an invaluable international perspective to the board, at a time SND was committed to broadening its reach. Said past president Gayle Grin, “Hans Peter opened doors for that commitment.”
2015
Tom Bodkin, for several decades of leading design excellence at The New York Times. Bodkin joined The Times in 1980 and became design director of The Times in 1987. He also serves as Chief Creative Officer of all New York Times Company enterprises. The Times, for decades the leading voice of American journalism and among the world’s most distinguished brand identities, is the only U.S. newspaper in the last decade to earn World’s Best Designed status from SND. Under Bodkin’s eye, The Times’ graphics coverage of the 9/11 attacks was awarded Best in Show in the 23rd Edition, setting a bar so high that no other Best in Show award would be given for the next ten years.
Steve Dorsey, for his years of leadership within SND. In more than two decades of volunteer, Dorsey served SND in just about every way imaginable, from competition coordinator (21st edition) to magazine editor to SND Foundation president. Steve was the 2011 president of SND. He has evangelized on behalf of SND on four continents, bringing a forward-thinking perspective to the Society during a time of transition in the industry. His professional role as VP/Innovation at the Austin American-Statesman and before that as VP for R+D at the Detroit Media Partnership uniquely positioned him to guide SND and its membership through a changing media landscape and visual storytelling realm.
2016
Rob Covey. Leader. Coach. Talent scout. Innovator. Advocate. Covey attended the 1978 design seminar at API that led to SND’s founding, and for more than 30 years since has championed innovation and design intelligence at print and digital publications including the Arizona Daily Star, the Seattle Times, U.S. News & World Report, The Discovery Channel, National Geographic and Science. He was integral to the creation of the SND competition, was a key member of the first SND competition committee, and ran the program twice. Covey served as SND president in 1989. SND past president Lynn Staley said, “Rob was a leader in the fight and a treasured ally as we all set to work redrafting the meaning of journalism to include presentation in all its forms.”
2017
Randy Stano, for his leadership as a visual journalism educator. Stano has taught at the University of Miami since 1995. He served as president of SND in 1992, the same year Hurricane Andrew devastated communities south of Miami. The Miami Herald won a Pulitzer Prize for that coverage, design-directed by Stano in 1993, along with a Best of Show and six gold medals from SND. Earlier, Stano served as assistant art director at The Kansas City Times when the paper won a Pulitzer for coverage of the Hyatt Hotel disaster in 1982. “I’m up here because of all of you. All of you continue to teach me, and what I learn from you, I bring to my students.”
Darcy Greene, for her role as a visual journalism advocate, in preparing students for professional success. Greene has taught for decades at Michigan State University in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences. She has bought legions of students to nearly every SND workshop since 1994 and spearheaded the strong student chapter at MSU. Greene arrived at Michigan State in 1984 to teach photojournalism and then worked to expand the visual journalism curriculum to include print publication design and online web publishing, as well as print and interactive graphics.
Cheryl Pell, for championing the cause of design and journalism for nearly 30 years as an educator. Pell joined the faculty at Michigan State University in 1987 to become the first full-time executive director of Michigan Interscholastic Press Association — a position she held until 2012. She retired from MSU in August. For 29 years, she influenced the lives of college and high school students alike. “Receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award has been a great honor and humbling experience,” Pell said. “Being able to work with students for all of my professional life, including teaching high school, has brought me tremendous joy. Being a part of SND has been the icing on the cake.”
2018
John Grimwade has created visual explanations as graphics director for Condé Nast publications, the Times of London, and as a contributor to more than 30 other major magazines including Popular Science and Eight by Eight, a soccer magazine that was the SPD’s Magazine of the Year in 2015. All the while, he’s been teaching and mentoring visual journalists around the world at conferences, in classrooms and with his blog, “Infographics for the People.” Currently assistant professor at the School of Visual Communication at Ohio University, Grimwade also taught for years at the School of Visual Arts in NYC.
Janet Froelich, as art director and creative director at The New York Times for 22 years, Froelich directed storytelling on the pages of The New York Times Magazine and T: The New York Times Style Magazine where she came up with hundreds of cover images. She later served as creative director at Real Simple, a magazine with 2 million subscribers. Froelich has won more than 60 gold and silver awards from graphic design organizations including SND, the Art Director’s Club, The Society of Publication Design and more. She was inducted into the Art Director’s Hall of Fame in 2006.
2019
Susan Mango Curtis is an associate professor at Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University (NU). Since 1997 she has taught students to effectively report, create, edit and design visuals to tell the news in both digital and print. An award-winning Adobe Education Leader, she was an early adopter of digital publishing on smartphones and tablets. She is also a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists’ visual task force, and she has represented SND and NABJ at Unity conference four times, putting together the visual journalism workshops.
Tim Harrower has been an editor, designer and columnist at newspapers large (The Oregonian), mid-sized (The Rochester Times-Union) and small (the Times weeklies in Beaverton, Ore.). He became a journalist in the ’80s after his first career choice — rock ’n’ roll super legend — fizzled out. Harrower’s first book, “The Newspaper Designer’s Handbook,” has been a fixture in newsrooms and classrooms around the world, translated into Russian, Chinese and Polish. His follow-up, “Inside Reporting,” is America’s most popular news writing textbook.
2020
Matt Mansfield, an award-winning journalist, designer, educator and volunteer. A champion for nonpartisan reporting, visual storytelling and innovative design in his own career, Mansfield has volunteered for the Society in a variety of roles over the course of three decades. Mansfield has served in SND’s leadership and was most recently co-chair of SND’s annual workshop in Chicago in 2019, a role he took on twice before — in 2015 in Washington, D.C. and in 2004 in San Jose, Calif. Besides working as a news leader in California, Illinois, Indiana and Washington D.C., Mansfield also spent many years as a professor at Northwestern University, where he was the co-director of the Medill journalism program in the nation’s capital.