SND37 judges noticed a few design trends as they look through more than 8,000 entries this weekend. At the end of the second full day of judging, here are a few of their observations:
“In the winning papers I see that every part of (the design) has meaning and is integral to the understanding of the reader,” said Joe Hutchinson, design director for Rolling Stone. Winner entries are “not over designed. (They are) simple but effective with good use of typography with visuals. I am impressed with how much room is being devoted to visuals.”
“I saw more original art and less stock art,” said Aly Morris, design director for RedEye. “Clean typography—bigger art with subtle photography.”
Mike Rice, features design director at The Star Tribune in Minneapolis said he noticed less use of studio handout art in the art and entertainment or movie page designs. “The art was more conceptual, with subdued typography.”
“(I) saw a lot of repeated pictures—several photos from the same session—which is a popular Scandinavian trend,” said Ole Gravesen of Politiken. “I noticed old fashioned, retro typography, too,” as from the 50s and 60s.”
“There is a greater divide in photo editing. Stronger papers have more photo editing, said Tracy Collins, director of the Phoenix Design Studio at Gannett. “Younger people should learn to edit photos well.”
These notes came from judges in the news category:
Bad things: There are a lot of circle graphics or graphics that seem to be overloaded. They are hard to read when they are too fancy. There is a lot of over designing particularly in sports.