South China Morning Post strikes gold at prestigious international infographics awards
- The awards, handed out at the Malofiej Infographics World Summit, are popularly known as the ‘infographic Pulitzers’
- The Post’s infographics team has won more than 100 awards this year
The South China Morning Post’s infographics team has swept the board at the industry’s version of the Pulitzers, bagging 20 awards against competition from around the world.
Some 162 media outlets, including The New York Times and National Geographic, from 34 countries, submitted 1,000 entries for the Malofiej 28th International Infographics Awards (2020), which were finally announced on Wednesday.
Organised by the School of Communication at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, the awards were delayed for four months by the coronavirus.
The Post came second in the medal table, scooping up four golds, 11 silvers and five bronze.
“We’re feeling giddy” Darren Long, the Post’s creative director, said. “That our small team can win this many honours from our international peers is just incredibly heart-warming, especially after the past 18 months, which have been incredibly traumatic for anyone who calls Hong Kong home.
“Telegraphing your city’s challenges to the world is the sort of thing we dream about as journalists.”
The New York Times topped the awards, with three golds, 13 silvers and 18 bronze medals, while National Geographic was third with 15 medals overall.
The Endesa Best of Show for print went to NYT for its graphic, ‘What Path Takes You to Congress?’, and National Geographic’s ‘The Atlas of Moons’ for digital.
The Post’s spoils were shared among the team. Former senior designer, Pablo Robles struck gold with his digital portfolio and the graphic, ‘Key events from the past four months of Hong Kong’s anti-government protests’.
A combined effort from Robles, Long and designer Dennis Wong, ‘100 days of protests rock Hong Kong’, was also recognised with a gold medal, while the team’s compendium ‘Hong Kong protests: The full story in infographics’ rounded out the gold medal tally.
The team of seven consists of Long, deputy creative director, Adolfo Arranz, senior designers Marcelo Duhalde and Robles, designers Wong and Han Huang, as well as engineer Yaser Ibrahim.
The infographics team’s portfolios bagged two silver medals for digital and a third silver for print. Duhalde won silvers in the print and digital categories for his epic history of Cantonese opera, ‘Cantonese Performing Art’, and picked up a bronze for his individual digital portfolio.
“We’re a tight-knit group and by collaborating closely our multicultural team has proved it can punch above its weight,” Duhalde said. “Each story has a unique look and feel but we have an instantly recognisable voice because we have created an environment in which we are free to experiment and express our different perspectives.”
Arranz contributed illustrations and art direction to each entry, but his input was probably best exemplified in the silver-medal winning, ‘How Bruce Lee and street fighting in Hong Kong helped create MMA’.
“Our greatest virtue is the enthusiasm and harmony of the team,” Arranz said. “Whether working on individual or collective projects we always seek constructive criticism from each other.
“We try to tell our stories truthfully with the right dash of counter-intuitive design to drive the narrative and engage with our readers.”
The graphics team is on a roll this year having won more than 100 awards. Recognition has come from the Society of News Design, the Annual Webby Awards, Atlas of Design, Sigma, Wan-Ifra Asia, the Sigma Delta Chi Awards, Malofiej and the Newspaper Society of Hong Kong.
