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| Photo by Bonnie Layton |
| The IU group heard from leaders in visual journalism during the Society for News Design conference in St. Louis. |
Here are reports from the conference.
See a video by graduate student Tara Bender as she asked conferees "What inspires you?"
Opening Sessions, Friday, Sept. 30
By Tara Bender
Crossing the street from our hotel to the Renaissance Grand Convention Center in downtown St. Louis, my nervous energy and excitement began to rise to the surface. Yesterday, I met fellow student attendees and enjoyed a reception at City Museum downtown, but today is what I was really excited for — sessions of presentations from professional visual journalists from around the country and around the world.
Design icon Tim Harrower’s session, “Fun 101,” had me at the word fun. His humorous and inspiring presentation was full of examples of how to engage readers through interactive features (in print!), giving each page a personality of its own. In his words, a paper without the “fun stuff” is like a restaurant that serves only meat and potatoes — people will get what they need, but it won’t be enjoyable, and they probably won’t come back for more.
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| Photo by Biz Carson |
| Jayne Flax, left, and Danielle Rindler before the first day's sessions at SND. |
SND is an international organization with a diverse showing. I attended two sessions yesterday that featured international presenters. Swedish designer Lars Pyrds opened the door to Scandinavian design. It was inspiring to see such a unique design aesthetic and hear the reasoning behind it, proving that design is intentional. It truly does drive the content.
Adonis Durado, a Filipino designer from the Times of Oman, presented his work, which truly blew me away. He considers himself more of an artist than a designer, and his visuals jumped off every page, pushed to the limit and made every page special. His mantra is that design should challenge and provoke the reader. He has coined the term “visual conceit,” drawing on the poetic term conceit, an extended metaphor that juxtaposes images in surprising ways. What a way to view our work as visual communicators.
This conference is full of people who are excited about the future of journalism and that continues to rub off on me. Talking with professionals in a variety of positions only makes me more excited to go home and put these new ideas into practice.
Qingjun Zhang, Saturday, Oct. 1
By Bonnie Layton and Yanqin Lu
Chinese designer Qingjun Zhang’s calendar pages talk Saturday was a refreshing contrast in an era where most managers are cutting back on design resources. Zhang, who coordinates the design staff at the Liaoning Daily and its sister papers, said getting support from the Liaoning Newspaper Media Group allowed him and more than 30 designers to dedicate four months to the project. The six-page, doubletruck calendar package won the prestigious Society for News Design gold medal.
In bestowing the award, SND judges wrote, “The illustrations are amazing, possibly showcasing the state of the art in layout, illustration, tonal palettes, color palettes.”
Qingjun said he felt lucky that he could make full use of human as well as capital resources. American newspaper groups aren’t always able to dedicate as much to a single project.
