When something goes wrong, people notice. When it succeeds, it is usually taken for granted. This is especially true of newspaper design.
Getting that fine balance between the written word and visual elements every day, while working with the changing world of news, is hard work. And for Gulf News, the visual elements have always been a key driver.
So, it is a moment of great pride for the newspaper to have won 43 awards from the Society for News Design (SND) for 2009.
In pictures: Award-winning pages
Dr Mario R. Garcia, CEO and founder of Garcia Media, told Gulf News: "The SND awards are the Oscars of the industry: they reward exceptional work, talent and uniqueness. As a former judge in this contest, I know it is not easy to catch the attention of the jury."
SND is an international organisation for news media professionals and visual communicators — specifically those who create print/web/mobile publications and products. It was founded in 1979 with around 1,500 members globally. They host the annual Best of News Design competition, which is open to newspapers and magazines from around the world.
If design is an expression of purpose, then for the newspaper it is to give readers the very best. Garcia re-designed Gulf News over half a decade ago.
"As someone who watches carefully the visual evolution of Gulf News, I have seen its transformation from a well-designed newspaper to one where visual storytelling receives top attention," he said.
Efficient design
Miguel Angel Gomez, Gulf News Design Director, who is at the helm of the award-winning team emphasises this shift towards efficient design.
"We are focusing on the storytelling, trying to present news in innovative ways that are appealing to readers ... always focus on the news and avoid decoration if it is not facilitating the understanding of the story."
Garcia agreed that the selling point for Gulf News design is the attention paid to storytelling.
He said: "The graphics are meant to explain and to enhance stories, not to decorate. The newspaper uses space well, and is not given to flights of fancy with gratuitous big photos or illustrations. When Gulf News goes big, the story deserves to be big. This is the key point."
The newspaper is in the fifth position for overall tally of awards, along with newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post from the US. There were more than 10,000 entries in various categories for 2009.
"We have quadrupled our awards this year ... this is a big achievement for us as a whole. This means that we are doing things in a way that is up to global standards, pushing the boundaries and serving our readers and advertisers with a quality product," explained Gomez.
Team effort
However, at its core good design is about collaboration, innovation and the process of asking tough questions to achieve that moment of clarity.
Gomez said: "All the people in the newsroom are working more and more as one, taking advantage of the different skill of each member of the team, we are also planning more and working on more stories in advance; and this pays. We are also not afraid to try new ideas if they serve to communicate."
Garcia concluded that each year, the SND competition gets tougher, but that just serves to push the quality higher.
"The bar is high, but such are the standards that the Gulf News design team has set for itself, under Gomez' direction and the support of the Editor-in-Chief Abdul Hamid Ahmad. Together, they create the incentive for the excellence that SND has noted, and that readers appreciate daily."
Gulf News has been awarded by the Society for News Design for excellence in bringing together content and visual journalism, creating a complete reader experience. With 43 prizes, the number is four times over the 2008 win. We present the pages that garnered us the recognition and hope to convey some measure of the thought, effort, initiative and work that goes into bringing together the newspaper each day. Read on and discover the very best.
Path of excellence
Mr Abdul Hamid Ahmad, Editor-in-Chief, Gulf News
Nearly a decade ago, when we introduced international design in Gulf News, we were the first to do so in the region. We brought in global standards and launched visual journalism here. We are happy that we have kept up our standards of qualitative and ethical journalism. The awards from the Society for News Design (2009) are recognition of what we are doing. It encourages us to maintain our success, keep pushing and challenging ourselves and never to be complacent.
Dr Mario R. Garcia, CEO and founder, Garcia Media
Gulf News awards have quadrupled this year. Your thoughts on this.
The awards from the Society for News Design have quadrupled because so has the level of expertise and the attention paid to visuals, not to mention one of the best design/graphics departments anywhere.
How has newspaper design changed from five years ago? Are there any key global trends?
Design is in constant evolution, not just for newspapers, but for fashion, furniture, books and technical gadgets. We live in perhaps one of the most dramatically experimental ages for everything in design. Go see coffeemakers on display, and you will get the point. In terms of newspapers, we see a trend for smaller formats, perhaps fewer pages, better packaging, more fluent and utilitarian navigation, and, whether we accept it or not, greater influence of internet user behaviour for print. Gulf News has done well to adapt, without losing its purpose and DNA in the process. Bravo.
What is the role design plays when a reader picks up a newspaper?
Design continues to play the same role as when I began my career 40 years ago: make it easy to read, make it easy to find, make it attractive. Except that now we get less time from readers to present all of the above. That is the challenge for designers and editors alike.
Mr Miguel Angel Gomez, Design Director, Gulf News
How many awards has Gulf News won this year?
We won 43 SND awards, 42 Awards of Excellence and one Silver Medal.
The latest in newspaper design.
Newspapers are supposed to look as newspapers, not as magazines. They must focus more on storytelling and less on decoration, they must respect a good read.
How different does today's newspaper look?
Earlier, we had a graphic system that was clean, organised and easy to produce. We have now moved from a template-driven system to one that is focused on each story and select the visual tools that can tell the story in the best way.
Could Gulf News be easily called the best in the region?
For the emphasis we put into presenting news in a visual way, wherein real people read about real people, the experience and knowledge accumulated over the years and the integration between the different areas of the company, I think Gulf News can be called the best in the region. But we need to keep on doing a good job and growing to maintain our place.
