The Society for News Design, which celebrates visual journalism, thinks we’re pretty alright at it.
The Grid has been named the world’s best-designed newspaper for our circulation size by the Society for News Design (UPDATE: and that’s not all!). Founded in 1979, the Society recognizes excellence in visual journalism, and so we couldn’t be more pleased that they like us so much. This is the first year that we’ve been eligible for the award.
Here’s what the panel of judges had to say about us:
“Good shit is happening — lots and lots and lots of it.” So say the editors of The Grid in their mission statement about Toronto. And so says the jury about The Grid itself.
The more time you spend with this guerrilla guide, the more “good shit” shows up. The engaged writing, smart editing and heavy research is done in a young, sophisticated voice and executed while obviously having great fun. The design is minimalistic and the cool, restrained and exclusive fonts are Tiempo for body copy, and the logo face and display fonts are Fakt.
What really makes this publication a different visual experience for the reader are the many tiny informative graphic details throughout the pages. It must be extremely time-consuming doing these pages, but it works so well for the reader. Specific keywords are highlighted with yellow; small locator maps show where to find the spot mentioned in the presentation; on one page appears a visual guide on how to dress “Dad-rock” style, supplemented with the ruthless caption “Facial hair is not necessary, but always appreciated.” Another fine detail is the hand-drawn portraits on the bylines. All these details could make the paper a mess — but it’s not. The overall look is perfectly consistent and clean.
The Grid also surprises with sparse but great inside photography on full spreads. Our favorite was the fantastic photo of a line at a hotdog stand — and the photo goes on through four straight pages. [This one; a gallery of more of our pages is just above.] This is a wonderful surprise for the reader.
This publication really catches you and it will not let you go. Any big city with respect for itself should get a “good shit” guerrilla guide like this. Right now.
There’s more about our win here. And we may or may not have celebrated earlier today by hastily drinking presecco from Tim Hortons cups.
UPDATE, FEBRUARY 21: Speaking of good shit, there’s even more of it to announce now that the Society of News Design’s full list of winners across all categories has come out. The Grid’s been honoured with five more awards: two awards of excellence in the “Features/Cover Story Design” magazine category, for our Parkdale and TIFF issues, respectively; one silver award for our redesign; and two more silver awards for News Design, one for our sperm donor issue and the other for our chef’s guide. Of 11,000 entries, only 38 silvers were handed out, and The Grid was one of only four publications—including the New York Times—to win more than two.
