‘Tis the season of Christmas front pages. As many papers don’t publish on Christmas Day, I usually start this post on Christmas Eve and update.
Here is a selection from this year, starting with my two faves, though Politken is my runaway No. 1 this year. Het Parool is No. 2, before we get into Canada, we’re two papers continue their long traditions.
Both the Globe and Mail and National Post carry on their Christmas front page traditions.
And here are a couple more from Canada, the Edmonton Journal and Toronto Star.
If not for Canadian papers, this Christmas kitty would have been higher up. My daughter wanted it in the No. 2 slot.
And here are a few more from around the world. As per usual this is one of my favourite times of year on newspaper front pages.
U.S. President Joe Biden took himself out of the 2024 presidential election against Donald Trump, after weeks of calls to step down. After what many have called a brutal election debate performance, and many Democratic allies calling him out, he finally ended his run for a second term. It’s unprecedented in U.S. history. And it’s a hugely consequential election, in a time when America is deeply divided. So it was a resignation played on newspaper front pages around the world.
Most gave it the gravity is deserved. It’s a huge shakeup in what is probably still the most powerful country in the world (for how long remains to be seen and could depend on the outcome of this election). Some had some fun.
Here are 15 front pages. Most are from the U.S., but it got big play on front pages all over the world. It’s beyond the butterfly effect. What happens in the U.S. will have huge consequences everywhere, even with its closest ally and neighbour, Canada. So I will start with The Globe and Mail, before jumping into American papers.
And here is a selection from the U.S., including some of the biggest, starting with The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which as been all over big political coverage, with some of the finest front pages when there are big stories. AJC and the Star Tribune also used the same photo.
There were a lot of strong photo choices. Here are a few more from the U.S., including The News Journal (Delaware), The Jersey Journal (New Jersey), East Bay Times (California) and Daily News (New York).
But as mentioned, it wasn’t isolated to American newspaper front pages. Here are a number of international papers that gave the story a big splash. De Morgen (Belgium), Dagens Nyheter (Sweden), Daily Mail (U.K.), Het Financieele Dagblad (Netherlands) and Blick (Switzerland).
I can be pretty certain this American election cycle with provide more opportunities for big stories and big splashes on the front page. With U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris being the new likely democratic nominee, there are some big possible stories, with the biggest being the possibility of the U.S.’s first female president. Stay tuned to see how newspapers handle the next few months!
Guilty. Condenado. Coupable. No matter how you say, the guilty verdict against former U.S. president Donald Trump was splashed all over newspaper front pages around the world (depending on the time zone, as it came too late for some). With this Trump becomes the first U.S. president to be convicted of a felony crime. On days with big news, I like to look at how different newspapers treat the news from a design perspective, which includes headlines, picture play, and so on.
This the second post I’ve done on Trump’s legal issues, and it likely won’t be the last Trump post as the U.S. election nears. If I were a betting man, I’d predict there could be some Trump wins front pages come November. But I will try not to do too much on Trump, as I know that has long been a criticism of the media: too much coverage.
Today there were dozens of front pages that gave Trump huge play. I have selected 20, for various reasons. Some that look the same, some very different, different languages and regions. I will start with two of the bigger U.S. papers, The New York Times and Los Angeles Times.
The next two are two of my favourites from a design perspective. Classic big news front pages. Big headlines and photos, some explainers. They are The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Next up, a selection of papers in other languages, from other parts of the world.
Here are a few U.S. tabloids.
Highlighting the Tampa Bay Times for use of the largest headline on the day, at least in broadsheet.
And to wrap it up, a slideshow, starting with another Canadian paper, the Ottawa Sun, giving the story classic tabloid treatment.
World’s best designed newspaper. One could argue as the newspaper world contracts, the title of world’s best designed newspaper means less. I will argue the contrary. As print revenue is in decline, anyone in the newspaper world has heard about cuts or newspaper closures. There are fewer resources available. Yet some newspapers refuse to take their foot off the gas pedal. Some newspapers are still prioritizing the print reader experience. And in this post, I salute them.
For the third year in a row I have been fortunate enough to be a facilitator on the World’s Best Designed Newspaper team at the Society for News Design’s annual creative competition. This year’s was its 45th. My role is to help the judges with anything they need. I always feel so privileged to hear some of the world’s best designers debate what newspaper (or newspapers) should be declared World’s Best.
After much back and forth, and some fascinating discussions, the judges pared the entry pool down to four finalists. This year, none of the finalists were from North America. They were: Die Zeit, La Nacion, Politiken and Weekendavisen.
Before I get to the winner (I will talk about and show pages from all finalists), I want to touch on the judging panel at SND45. The panel included Vanessa Wyse (Sudio Wyse), Wayne Kamdoi (The New York Times), Raju Narisetti (McKinsey & Company) and Kris Viesselman (consultant). Below is a little more about them, some taken from their SND bios. There is more to say about all of them as they have had and continue to have impressive careers.
Vanessa Wyse is the founder and creative director of Studio Wyse in Toronto. She has over 20 years’ experience working with some of the worlds’ largest media brands and institutions including Pinterest, The Globe and Mail, Fairfax Media, The University of Toronto and Air Canada. The Grid, a smaller but mighty now shuttered Canadian weekly publication, where she was the founding creative director, was the first publication to win three consecutive World’s Best Designed Newspaper awards.
Wayne Kamidoi is an art director for The New York Times, focusing on enterprise in its print hub. He was an art director in Sports for more than 20 years after joining The Times from the Detroit Free Press. He is also one of the few newspaper designers I’ve seen people come up to and talk about feeling lucky to be in their presence. He was a rock star at SND45.
Raju Narisetti is leader of global publishing at McKinsey & Company. Over a 35-year career, he has created, reimagined and managed major media organizations in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Raju spent 14 years at The Wall Street Journal where he went from a reporting intern to editor of WSJ Europe, and later managing editor, digital, of the global WSJ. Also, Raju has a Wikipedia entry, so that’s fun!
Kris Viesselman is a creative director, editor, designer and ring leader. She has been a top editor and top creative at a number of media companies and has worked as a consultant with a wide range of clients. Kris is a past president of SND and has consulted and presented in five continents.
Before I get to what judges were looking for a World’s Best Designed Newspaper, I feel like we need to see some pages! I will start with the runners up, which means I need to announce the winners. This year the judges selected two newspapers as World’s Best Designed. They are … Die Zeit (for the third year in a row!) and Weekendavisen (the second win in four years!). Which leaves us with La Nacion and Politiken. I will start with La Nacion, and the judges’ statement.
La Nacion
“La Nacion is a terrific example of how to build a 50- to 80-page daily newspaper, one that offers a cohesive reading experience with gravitas and dynamism, even on some of the biggest breaking news days. Its elegant information graphics, powerful blend of illustrations and robust news photography, coupled with consistently smart selection of typefaces poured into organic shapes, is sophisticated yet highly accessible, and makes for a very satisfying, complete offering.”
One of the things I loved about La Nacion was its inside spreads.
And a couple more, where they use nice graphics or photos to drive the pages.
Politiken
“Politiken’s dynamic design conveys a sense of urgency, while maintaining its overall elegance. Distinctive visual content is the foundation for storytelling that runs the spectrum from sober to edgy to delightful. Despite this range of tones, a cohesive report emerges, propelled by carefully selected — and deployed — typefaces and navigational devices. The result is a curated publication that is iconically Politiken — at once powerful, important and beautiful.”
I will start with a variety of pages, all done differently: big photo, nice illustration, typography. They use such a variety of design techniques, but still remain clearly Politiken. Anyone who follows my Instagram will know I am a fan of Politiken.
And a few more. I have shared more from both these publications in previous posts.
And now for the winners. Here is what the judges said they were looking for.
“We were seeking smart, lively publications that were cohesively designed. The ones that stood out had a clear vision and brand identity that was reflected in their typography and signature visuals. They had a strong sense of place and a clear focus on their target audiences. While we valued consistency, we were delighted to see surprises — places where extra planning, collaboration and innovative ideation was apparent. Maximizing the strengths of print presentation helped some rise above the rest. In our increasingly digital-first world, we applauded print’s ability to offer readers thoughtfully curated content that is both unique and rewarding.”
Weekendavisen
“Weekendavisen is a joy to read, with visual impact in all of the right places. The offspring of one of the oldest newspapers in the world, Berlinske Tidende, Weekendavisen offers its readers a contemporary feel, while adhering to its traditional roots. From front to back, Weekendavisen is a cohesive experience that is serious, evocative, innovative and playful. Its designers are not afraid to take risks. Restraint is the key to its success — nothing seems forced, always executed with purpose. Its many strengths include elegant typography, a carefully curated and restrained color palette, on-point illustrations and a sense of whimsy. The icing on the cake: Solve the puzzles on a smartly packaged spread.”
One of the similarities between the two winners is that they aren’t afraid to take chances. They make some very bold design choices, but one has to ask, are they taking chances if they succeed so often? Or do they just know it’s going to be great? These first to covers. Mind blown.
Both also use typography so well, in ways other papers might be afraid to try. You see a lot of that with Die Zeit, but here are a couple from Weekendavisen.
Here is an example of how to make a lot of text beautiful. I love this spread.
And of course the puzzles the judges loved so much! Image a puzzles pages being cited as a reason for a paper being chosen world’s best designed.
This is very much driven by the illustration, but this page caught my eye and I kept coming back to it. It’s one of my faves from Weekendavisen. A special shout out the illustrator, as I have used a portion of this as my feature image for this post.
And here are a few more. You can see such variety in the pages, but still a strong design voice shining through.
Screenshot
Screenshot
Die Zeit
Here is what the judges said about three-peat champion Die Zeit.
“This is print storytelling at its very best. Every move made by the team at Die Zeit is rooted in intentional decision-making, restraint and surprise. Die Zeit continues to captivate by balancing long-form journalism with exceptionally smart illustrations, impeccable photo editing and beautifully placed typographic touches. Each page reveals subtle, layered details, as Die Zeit’s talented team surfaces delightfully subtle design nuances that engage a busy reader. The real superstar of the newspaper is what isn’t immediately apparent — the strategic use of white space to amplify the content.”
This is a front page. So cool, what else can I say? It’s so smart. Great concept and well executed.
A smart use of the image and the play of the typography in the body copy make this page hard to look away from. It has a ton of copy. But it’s striking.
Nobody does bold and smart typography better than Die Zeit, in my opinion, and here are several examples of it.
This is such a strong infographic page.
This page does so much well. Not only does it have a strong illustration, it doesn’t rely solely on that to create a compelling package, as we often see. There is a lot of page design going on to complement the illustration. Brilliant.
And that’s another year of SND in the books. Again, it was a great privilege to be a part of it. I always find it so inspiring, both looking at all the incredible submissions, including all those that didn’t win, but also listening to the judges.
When it comes to the best newspaper designs in the world, the United States is always a leader. And at the Society for News Design’s 45th creative competition, that held true again. The U.S. has some incredibly strong contenders, usually led by The New York Times. Funny thing about the Times. If you have only ever seen the front page, it might surprise you to know they have mind-blowing, colourful, art-driven designs throughout. The often-not-so-grey lady led the competition again this year, with well over 150 awards, including nine gold medals (!!), which tied its gold total from last year.
Some of the other big players in terms of awards were the Star Tribune (Minneapolis), which finished second overall this year (!), The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. There are always solid entries from the Los Angeles Times and American City Business Journals as well.
Which leads me to my annual tradition before I get into the pages from the big winners. At SND’s competition, there are awards of excellence (three of five judges must agree an entry is truly excellent), silver medals (four of five judges must agree the work rises above excellence and stands above other AoEs), gold medals (all five judges must agree it stands out among silver winners and that it is nearly impossible to find a flaw), Best in Show (all golds can compete for this honour, and 75 per cent of judges agree it’s worthy), World’s Best Designed Newspaper (more on this in my next post) and finally Judge’s Special Recognition. This is for work that is outstanding in a particular respect not necessarily singled out in other areas of the competition.
This year I was again honoured to be a facilitator on the World’s Best team. As facilitator, I have no sway on the awards, nor can I participate in discussions. And let me tell you, it’s not easy as I have opinions! Which is why I created the Covers in a Dangerous Time Facilitator’s Special Recognition award!
Facilitator’s Special Recognition
This year there is a tie! As the title of the this site implies, I tend to focus on covers (front pages). However, there were two non-related cover entries that stood out for me this year. The first is American City Business Journal inside spreads. They are stunning. Such a strong use of brilliant art/illustrations and beautiful page design. Here are a few.
A bar chart winning awards? Yes! Thanks to a great design overall.
And then there is this Washington Post headline. It just to happens to be on a wonderfully designed and conceptualized page, but the headline. I feel like the page was decided on after someone came up with this headline. As someone who has always been on both the design and editing sides of things, something that mixes both is going to catch my attention.
And now for some more pages, starting with the big winners, but please keep reading/viewing, or even just scroll down to look at some of the pages from those that didn’t finish the top 10 or so, but still produced some brilliant work. First, the always mighty New York Times.
The New York Times
I might as well jump straight to the kids’ section as it always garners a lot of discussion and always wins plenty of awards. It’s big, bold, busy and playful. Always. I have included slideshows showing full sections or a single story’s design.
Have you recovered? If so, let’s move on to something completely different. Here are some of the non-kids pages that I loved from The Times this year.
I could go on and on. But I will just add these to wrap up NYT.
Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
This paper has long been one of the finest designed in the world, thanks a commitment made from the top and some incredible talent to pull it off. They produce outstanding work on the regular, and especially with their very playful features sections. The state fair gives their creative minds design fodder every year. So first a few from there, starting with pickles, of course. Mmmmm, pickles.
And then … corn!
And while I could keep showing brilliant and fun fair pages, I am going to move to some other incredible designs, including some full story designs over multiple pages.
Animals are a common theme on Star Tribune pages, and the one nearly impaled goose on this page pushes it over the top (or very near the top in the goose’s case)!
The next two slideshows show brilliant covers and what happens when you get inside the paper, which is always telling. Does a paper just focus on the front, or does the design carry on. With the Star Tribune, I can assure you, the design keeps going. It’s a mix of beautiful, simple design, charts, illustrations. They really do it all here.
And a few more to wrap it up. You can’t have 2023 and now show something about Taylor Swift. And yes, I did sneak another fair page in here.
The Washington Post
I have already shown much from the Best in Show-winning entry on AR-15s in a previous post, so I will leave those out. But it was an incredibly powerful package, both print and online and is absolutely worth a look. So I will start here, with this gold-medal-winning illustration, followed by a few more illustration-driven pages.
These books pages come from a gold-medal-winning portfolio, the last gold awarded at this year’s competition!
And a few more to close off The Washington Post.
The rest
And now for the rest. Full competition results can be found here (you can filter for specific newspapers or categories). The Wall Street Journal also finished in the top 10, but more than half of the awards were for (strikingly beautiful and incredible) illustrations. I will show a couple, as well as many big and bold illustration-driven pages from other publications. I will also show some full stories that relied more on page design.
This illustration for the Wall Street Journal page won a silver medal.
The Los Angeles Times didn’t finish in the top 10 this year, but I’ve long been an LA Times stan, after they gave me the feels while I was volunteering with SND for the first time, for a Covid-inspired page, which you can see in this post (Will we ever kiss again?). Here is a selection, starting with some driven by the kinds of illustrations I have come to expect from the LA Times.
I almost gave this page a facilitator’s special recognition award. A letters page winning for design? Amazing. Creative. Also credit to illustrator Patrick Hruby, as I used a portion of the illustration as my feature image for this post.
And this is just some solid story design. A look inside, which you don’t see as much here. I appreciate the use of the rules between stories throughout. It’s a small but nice touch.
Barron’s had some very strong entries this year, led by this gold-medal-winning page. What a smart concept, and brilliant execution as well.
Gannett also had some amazing pages from different publications. The next two were my favourites, from the Star News (Wilmington, N.C.) and News Sentinel (Knoxville, Tenn.).
This concept, when executed well, makes for pages that give you so much to explore. You see the main image, but what are all the smaller ones? The Philadelphia Inquirer nails it here.
Hearst won a handful of entries for pages from the Houston Chronicle, including the two in the slideshow below (the first won a silver medal!). Hearst is a client of Pagemasters North America, the company I work for, though we don’t handle pages for Houston. But we do love working on their pages!
Anyone who has followed me for a while knows what I feel about the Villages Daily Sun. I did a feature on two of their designers, one of whom was the team lead on the World’s Best team this year, so I had the privilege of working with him again.
And last but not least, two more slideshows. I have to say, paring down the thousands of entries is not easy. And it’s painful. I hate to cut anything or any publication. In the first slideshow there are excellent pages from the San Diego Union-Tribune, San Antonio Express-News, The Boston Globe (a digital client of Pagemasters), Southern Poverty Law Center and the Seattle Times.
And just a little more from some of American City Business Journal titles, including one more inside spread. I couldn’t resist.
So there it is. Another very strong year by American newspapers. Even as newspapers find themselves in tumultuous times, there are so many still going all out. Thanks to all the designers, illustrators, headline writers, art directors and even executives are willing to allow their papers to do this. We are better for it.
Covers in a dangerous time. I chose this as the name of my blog to highlight that newspapers are going through a tumultuous time, but I wanted to make sure the great work still happening was recognized. Each year at the Society for News Design’s annual creative competition, I am reminded by how much more prevalent the tumult is in Canadian media.
Again this year there were only entries from three newspapers: the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and Le Devoir. Between them they won 33 total awards, including one silver medal (awarded for pages that are excellent, but even stand out among the excellence. This was given to the Globe and Mail for its climate coverage package) and 32 awards of excellence. For a page to receive this honour, three of five judges need to agree that this page shines. Overall, the numbers are down for Canadian outlets (The Globe had 32 on its own last year, and managed 26 this year). The Canadian total was 38 last year.
When I won, I submitted for the Guelph Mercury, a small paper that punched way above its weight. I would love to see a few more publications next year.
Alas, this site is meant to celebrate excellence in visual journalism, and despite there being fewer wins this year, Canadian media outlets produced some outstanding stuff.
As a little background, this is my fourth year assisting at SND’s Best of Newspaper Design competition. I have acted a facilitator (I am not a judge; I help the ensure the judges have everything they need, and help organize things for the SND team). I started on the news team and have been on the World’s Best team for the the past three years. It has been an honour to be involved. This year it was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the Star Tribune office.
Time to show off some brilliant newspaper design, the reason anyone comes to this site. These pages may or may not have won awards. I chose them because I liked them. I will start with Le Devoir, as they had one of my favourite pages.
Le Devoir (Montreal)
Often when doing newspaper design, designers need to find a way to illustrate things that can be tricky to illustrate. I appreciate the thought that goes into this. In this case it’s porn. Imagine being asked: we want to do a story about pornography, and it will be a section front. How will you illustrate this? Blurry bananas, naturally. Or at least one.
And here is another. A simple but smart photo. A good use of white space, as this paper is known for.
Toronto Star
I am always excited to see the Star do great things. I am proud to say I have worked on Star pages and created some I’m proud of. Though I didn’t have the opportunity to do any of this calibre in my time there. This first page, from a staff portfolio submission, has a bit of a Los Angeles Times vibe. It’s bright and fun. Bubble letters.
I have seen pages similar to this before. Little people making shapes. This is nicely done. Not only the image but the rest of the design.
This page created some controversy when it first ran. Many thought the photo was insulting to longtime Mississauga, Ontario, mayor Hazel McCallion. Others thought it should have been identified as being enhanced (it was desaturated, which isn’t normally something a newspaper would do with a photo, but rather a photo illustration). But even when it came out, I posted it on my Instagram. It’s striking as an image, and as a page.
One more from the staff portfolio entry. It’s driven by the illustration, but there is some fun text treatment.
And here are a few more from the Star.
Globe and Mail
And last, but definitely not least, Canada’s big winner, the Globe and Mail. The results are still being tallied, but looks like the Globe might have squeezed into the top 10 again this year, at number 10. Much of the design the Globe was recognized for was for coverage of serious and heavy topics. Special coverage on climate change won a silver medal. I get the Globe at home (and disclosure: PMNA, where I work, does page production for the Globe) and the next two pages were pages that really stood out for me. All the pages here are handled at the Globe and/or art directed at the Globe.
The Globe has also been a leader on coverage of the war in Gaza in Canadian media. It had some striking pages on that topic, like this cover (the Globe does a poster front on Saturdays) and the photo spread below. They do some beautiful photo spread pages.
And one more, driven by this powerful, emotion-filled photo.
The next two were pages from art directors who each won individual portfolio awards. That’s a tricky category to win in, as it recognizes a body work. The first is from Brennan Higginbotham. The second is from Lauren Heintzman.
And now for some fun stuff. The Globe, and other Canadian media outlets, often turn to Kagan McLeod when they want a fun illustration. He’s a wizard (also credit to Kagan for the featured image I use with this post, as it’s a portion of one of the illustrations below). And he didn’t disappoint here.
Here are the last couple I will show from this year. They are both so playful and fun. And as has become norm for the Globe, they have fantastic headlines.
Fingers crossed we see more Canadian publications entering next year. Looking at you, Postmedia and Winnipeg Free Press, among others. Stand with print media and celebrate your great work.
Up next: Best from the United States, best from the rest of the world, and finally World’s Best Designed Newspaper. Watch for those sprinkled over the next week or so.
When tragedy strikes, or there are difficult and painful stories to tell, there is little like a newspaper to get the information out. At design competitions like the Society for News Design’s creative competition, playful and fun pages often dominate. But sometimes powerful and painful stories, partially told through thoughtful visual journalism make their mark on judges, and almost certainly on readers of these papers. One entry in particular left judges at SND45 talking and, in some cases, shaken.
I will look at a few tough topics here, including the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, but I will start with mass shootings and the now infamous AR-15, a weapon so deadly those who don’t live in the United States have a hard grasping how it can be so prevalent. Many Americans wonder the same.
I will get into the Washington Post entries that have provoked so much response, but first I wanted to share an incredibly powerful page that evokes emotion in a way I feel only a newspaper can. After a deadly shooting on campus (an AR-15 was not used in this shooting), The Daily Tar Heel, a university paper at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, ran with this cover. All text. Real words from texts and social media sent during the shooting. Here is more on how the page came to be.
This is a sample of some of the Washington’s Post powerful entry on the AR-15, including this digital presentation. I haven’t included all of it, and I have left out the most graphic pieces. What’s striking about this piece, after the front page, is the simplicity of it, the starkness. It is minimalist, letting the photos do the work. If you want to look at more from this powerful package, you can find it here. This entry went on to win Best in Show and SND45. It’s the first time this award has been handed out since I have been involved as it requires such a high threshold. Only awards that have been awarded gold medals are considered. To win a gold, a page or entry needs to be nearly flawless. State of the art, and pushing boundaries. And then at least 75 per cent of all judges must agree one entry deserves that title, over all the other gold medals.
This digital portion of the entry takes the above page and brings it to a new harrowing level. A warning, it is hard to look at, but it is so incredibly powerful. The print entry alone was next level, but the print and digital combo entry is what one Best in Show. Together this entry evoked so much emotion.
And here is one more page from a mass shooting, this time from the Los Angeles Times. An AR-15 wasn’t used in this shooting.
Wars and other tragedies
I expected to see more entries from both the Gaza and Ukraine wars. There were some powerful pages, many of them driven by bold photo choices. Before the war in Ukraine began, seeing dead bodies on newspaper pages wasn’t that common, but as the death toll started to rise, editors started to make the hard decisions to show the reality unfolding. This is war. As well, many photos that drove the pages show the raw emotion of people dealing with tragedy and loss, in some cases on both sides of war. The pages on Ukraine are by The New York Times and De Morgen (Belgium), followed by the war in Gaza, from Politiken and two from the Globe and Mail, which has been a leader on this coverage in Canada.
Not all of the powerful pages were driven by art. Some used text to convey the message and the gravity of the situation, such as The Daily Telegraph, from Britain, and Welt am Sontag, a German newspaper. Welt am Sontag lists the names of those killed in the October 7 attack by Hamas.
And here are a few other pages tackling hard topics. Included are pages from the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Each of these are driven by emotional art. While these pages can be difficult to look at, I feel they show the power of print journalism. Newspapers still play a vital role, and these pages are examples of this.
It’s the most wonderful newspaper time of the year. Where covers are shiny, no columnists whining, just all artists’ cheer! It’s the most wonderful newspaper time of the year! At least on the covers of some papers. And this year, I think the world needs a little cheer. It has been an exceptionally challenging year for many reasons, largely due to war. So these covers are meant to symbolize happiness and the dream of peace.
There is not much like Christmas front pages. Many newspapers go all out, with beautiful art taking up most or essentially all of the front page. There are some papers that always go big, and a few that use the same concept year after year (and they do it well).
Christmas front pages were spread over a couple of days this year as a lot of newspapers don’t publish on Sundays. Without further adieu (the most popular opening salvo in Wordle, but according the The New York Times not the best) …
The National Post always runs a stained glass window. It has since its first Christmas cover in 1998. And it’s always lovely.
The Globe and Mail is another paper that has long run with the same idea, a piece of art from the Art Gallery of Ontario. This year it’s a piece by Alfred Joseph Casson called Housetops in the Ward. Rumour has it the Globe was inspired to start doing something like this after the launch of the National Post, and seeing what they were doing.
Here are a few other front pages from Canada before we see some of the best from around the world. Included are Postmedia’s Montreal Gazette and Windsor Star, followed by the Toronto Star. I feel like the Toronto star normally looks for wide appeal, but went hyper local this year. It’s fully a Toronto Christmas wish. And you know what? That’s OK because unlike the Globe and the National Post, the Star really is about Toronto.
These next three are three of my favourites overall from 2023. The art is just striking and beautiful. they include the Knoxville News Sentinel, Het Parool (Amsterdam) and the Jackson Sun.
And here are a few more. Mostly from the U.S. but also one from Austria and another from Malaysia. The Jackson Sun makes a second appearance. Also there is a different take by the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Dear Santa …
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it. And a wish for peace for everyone.
This time of year is like Christmas for those who love print newspaper design. Newspapers who still take design seriously have submitted the work they consider their best to the Society of News Design. And for those of us who are lucky enough to be a part of the judging process in one way or another, as part of the planning committee, a facilitator or judge, it’s magical. We get to look through the best designs by the world’s best designers.
But to make this year even more special, after moving to a remote a competition because of COVID-19, it was back in person, and in New York. To make it even more exciting, it was in the New York Times building. I admit I got shivers as I saw the sign from a distance.
This year I had a bit of a hybrid role, part planning committee until life got in the way, part facilitator, part floater. For the second year in a row I got to be part of the team that chooses the World’s Best Newspaper (I wasn’t a judge, so not making the decision, just helping out).
This post is about the best in Canadian media. Sadly not as many papers submit. When I won, each of the three was for the Guelph Mercury, which had a circulation in the neighbourhood of 10,000. There is nothing close to that size anymore. This year in Canada, with Postmedia being out of the mix, only three media outlets submitted entries: The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and Le Devoir, which just so happens to make up two-thirds of the ownership group of Pagemasters/The Canadian Press, my employer (Globe and Torstar).
So while there were fewer entries overall, and fewer outlets, than in years past, the quality of work these publications submits is still right up there with the best in the world. In this post, I will look at the Canadian entries. I will follow up with posts on the best American papers as well as the best from around the world, and also on the winners of the World’s Best Designed, which will be announced later this week. It will be worth the wait.
In Canada, The Globe and Mail was far and away the top winner, followed by the Toronto Star and Le Devoir. The Globe finished in the top 10 overall, which I attribute largely to incredibly smart art direction.
As a bit of a legend, awards are broken down into a few categories. First, an award of excellence must get the support of three of five judges, and those judges must think this work is beyond good. It must be excellent. Work that rises above what you might expect to see normally. Then there are silver and gold medals. As the level of award goes up, so do the expectations. By the time judges reach a gold medal discussion, the entry must be essentially flawless, down to kerning, every bit of white space and so on. It should be hard to find a flaw. This year, there were no gold medals for Canadian publications.
The Globe and Mail
This year the Globe won all awards of excellence other than in photography, which is somewhat out of scope for the blog, so I will look at the AOEs. The Globe finished in the top 10 overall, with 32 awards, three of which were silver medals for photography.
As soon as I saw this page in production, I knew it would be contender. Interestingly, pages like this were raised by judges. Is this a great page or a great illustration, or both? To be a great page it needs to use the illustration as part of a total package. To be clear, this page is absolutely driven by this stunning illustration. And this is where the art direction comment comes in. The Globe consistently uses incredible illustrations to drive pages. At some point that moves beyond just incredible illustrations and into smart art direction. Not only are the illustrations beautiful, they work with the story, and elevate the page to another level. And that is precisely what happens here and in many of the pages the Globe won for.
As often is the case with Kagan McLeod illustrations, the illustration drives this page. And I always know, regardless of the paper it appears in, at a glance that it is a McLeod special. He has a distinctive style. He has been helping Canadian newspapers elevate their front pages for years, from the Globe to the Star to the National Post. And I’m sure they are grateful.
This page was part of a staff portfolio award package. I often don’t like when newspapers use different fonts for headlines, but this page works. Nice symmetry, cute illustrations, and the typography is playful and works.
Not much to say about this other than it is visually magnificent. It’s a beautiful page, smartly conceptualized and executed. This and the next three pages are from the great Brennan Higginbotham, who won an award of excellence for his portfolio or work. I won three awards, one of which was for a portfolio of work. That is the award I am most proud of as it’s for a body of work. And as Higgenbotham shows here he is far from a one-page wonder. Some beautiful work.
Using the maple leaf in a creative way in an illustration is not novel, but I am always impressed by how many amazing ways newspapers use it. To the world, Canada likely seems like a peaceful place, full of people saying excuse me and sorry. Especially sorry. But things are changing. As populism politics take hold in other countries, very much emboldened by Donald Trump’s presidency, Canada is following suit. The country is more divided than ever. And this illustration politely shows (so Canadian) that things are heating up. A great and smart illustration, nice use of white space and a witty main headline.
Just a lovely illustration, used well on a front page. NBD.
When I looked at the paper this Saturday morning I knew I’d be seeing this page in the competition. It’s one of my faves from year from the Globe. Is the song in your head yet? It makes for a very bold and colourful front page. As for the Globe entries for this post … that’s all folks.
Toronto Star
The Star submits significantly fewer entries than the Globe, and less than it used to. It’s great to see that it is still being recognized when it swings for the fences. It won four awards in total. Here are a few.
This is an example of a page with a great illustration that helps drive the story, but also a great design. The illustration needs smart typography to work, and it works.
Anyone who follows me here or Instagram would have seen this page already. It was one of the sharpest pages around the Queen’s death. Great photo choice, very simple headline in terms of content and design.
As a counter to the very simple Queen page, this is a busy page. There is a lot going on. Yet the focus of the story is clear. It does some things I might not normally like, but manages to pull it all together to make a very compelling design.
Le Devoir
Le Devoir submitted very few entries, but did a heck of job curating those entries. It won two awards in total. Here is one of the winners and one I liked that didn’t win.
Something about this illustration speaks to me. It didn’t win an award, so this is a facilitator’s special recognition, I guess. I dig it. It really draws me in, and even without knowing French well enough to read this, I feel like I really want to know what it’s about.
This page looks very much like many of the European newspaper design powerhouses. The rules, the simplicity and the attention to very small details, like the illustration around the drop cap. Love it.
I know there is other great design happening around the country. The Winnipeg Free Press, Postmedia and elsewhere have some strong designs, even in this new and more challenging newspaper world. Sadly for judges and Canadian media loves, they don’t submit.
A huge kudos to those who do, and those behind the designs, from an art direction standpoint. You all put your work out there into the world to be judged by some of the world’s best. You open it up for critiquing. And sometimes you win. All of these papers had more entries and winners than I have shown. This is merely a selection of the incredible work they produced in 2022. As the Globe page above said, what a year.
So bravo to the Canadian designers who won awards and submitted their work.
When word came out yesterday that former U.S. president Donald Trump was indicted, it was pretty obvious it was going to be the lead story on many newspaper front pages, particularly across the United States. It was the first time anyone who has held that position had been charged with a crime, though others have certainly committed some.
Nor was it surprising to see one headline splashed across more papers than anything else. While some papers carried a version of this headline, most papers went simply with: Trump indicted.
Here is a selection of 10 newspapers that used that headline. Most used the headline very similarly: big, bold and all capitals. The design that follows the head is similar in some cases, but it’s also very different in others. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is my favourite from today. It is often a design leader on big news days. Take a look.
Covers in a dangerous time 