Update #6: To be updated throughout the day as I get information I have requested from various people important to the design scene in the Gulf region
TAKEAWAY: I will be reporting from Dubai all of this week, with emphasis on how the region has embraced visual journalism.
When I first came to the UAE with a Garcia Media team, I encountered an environment at the Gulf News where visual journalism was not a top priority and design was not a term that people in the newsroom used often. That was in 2003, and i am honored to have been retained by Editor in Chief Abdul Hamid to offer continuous consulting services and help his publications move along. With the arrival of Art Director Miguel Gomez, visual journalism has seen a tremendous boost,as he has shaped a graphics/design department that would be the envy of any newspaper anywhere in the world. Under the leadership of Miguel, the Gulf News has become a constant winner for design/illustration and infographics awards.
But something else happened: right after 2003, and the redesign of the Gulf News, other publications took notice. A blogger described the scene for design in the Gulf region as “effervescent”. Indeed, it is a drastic, favorable change, and the judges of the SND Awards have taken notice.
The Gulf News took home 43 awards in the recent SND contest; The National, the new arrival (designed by Lucie Lacava), and published in Abu Dhabi, 49 awards;Emirates Business 24/7 , 8 awards. Emarat Al Youm, a new product designed by the firm Innovation , 1
Of course, it is not about winning these coveted awards: the importance I attach to them is that readers in this area, who come from around the globe, are the real beneficiaries, profiting from the high level visual journalism presented to them daily.
“The Gulf News created an appetite for visual journalism in this region, which had not been there before. That, together with the high level competition of the media in the UAE, contributed to boost the quality of design across the titles. We now have a newsroom at the Gulf News, where designer/editor dialog is part of the routine, and not the exception,” says Miguel Gomez.
Case in point: recently the Gulf News carried a story about the process of putting together the graphic that won an SND Silver Award, which was a recap of the year of the economic meltdown, prepared for the Business section. In this case, says Miguel, the designer, Dwynn Trazo, drove the process, working closely with Gulf News DME Paul A. Stober
Designer Dwynn Trazo working closely with Gulf News DME Paul A. Stober
This is the Gulf News graphic about the Lehman Brothers year of the meltdown by Dwynn Trazo, awarded Silver by SND for 2009
According to Douglas Okasaki– regional director for the Society for News Design – Middle East and Africa
It is very important that newspapers in our region pay attention to design as a powerful tool to attract readers and make news more exciting. This is an investment and not an expenditure!
SND competition is a great opportunity to show the result of our creative work in design and I recommend other newspapers in our region to participle in it and showcase the talent of their staff. This can be a very healthy and productive exercise. There are many other newspapers in the region doing a great job in design and the world would want to see those!
Lucie Lacava on The National’s success
Lucie Lacava, design consultant to The National, has this to say about the newspaper’s success and awards:
It is very exciting to see this impressive performance by The National.
In less than two years The National has established itself among the leaders in the industry not only for the quality of its design which defines the paper, but also for the quality of its content. It has built a strong upmarket brand. Its editors, journalists and designers believe in the craft and trade of journalism, and the readers love it. It now has the 3rd highest readership in the UAE.
Lucie mentions that Laura Koot, managing editor and art director, ” is doing a superb job of leading and inspiring the team, producing fresh and visually stunning pages on a daily basis while solidly maintaining the design standards according to our style guide.”
I asked Lucie about the explosion of design and visual journalism in the Gulf region:
Design is alive and well among the papers in the UAE because there is commitment from up above to deliver quality at all levels. This will obviously attract the best in the field. Luckily, in the UAE, resources have not dried up as in other parts of the world.
Mosquitoes on Page One
When the major of Bucharest allegedly paid exorbitant amounts (28 times the going rate) to get mosquitoes eradicated from City Hall, Romania Libera took notice and carried the story on Page One, with an inside spread comparing the true price of exterminating mosquitoes as opposed to what the major decided to pay. Interesting treatment. Art director Catalin Dumitru came up with the idea. The headline: The Deluxe Mosquitoes of Bucharest
Newspapers and the iPad
Wonder why you don’t see any YouTube videos of newspapers anticipating how their editions will look in the new iPad come April 3?
Well, Joe Zeff takes a look at it in his blog today. We recommend it.
Go here:
http://joezeffdesign.com/blog/