South China Morning Post scoops up 51 awards in huge win at global design competition
- Among medals are two silvers for pair of visual stories on Hong Kong’s reaction to a year of protests, and a third for a data visualisation on how the coronavirus first entered the city
- Deputy creative director Adolfo Arranz drew attention to Thailand’s use of coconut-harvesting monkeys, winning bronze for environment and science category
The South China Morning Post has bagged 51 medals at a prestigious international annual awards event that attracted thousands of entries from media organisations around the world.
For the second year in a row, the paper’s graphics team was among the contestants with the biggest awards haul at the United States-based Society of News Design’s (SND) digital competition.
The Post was also the only media agency from Asia listed among the top 10 news organisations with the most number of awards.
Post graphics team wins 80 awards at competitions in the US, Europe, Hong Kong
SND, which is an international organisation for news media professionals and visual communicators, was founded in 1979 in the US with around 1,500 members worldwide.
Forty-nine of the 51 awards the paper bagged were won by Post graphics team creative director Darren Long, deputy creative director Adolfo Arranz, senior designers Marcelo Duhalde and Pablo Robles, as well as designers Dennis Wong, Kaliz Lee and Han Huang.
Arranz took home two individual silvers, one bronze and 12 awards of excellence. The two silver awards were for his print infographics “Arrested Development” and “How Coronavirus Spread in Hong Kong”.
He said his graphic – charting the spread of the coronavirus – was “really a rather simple solution using a standard Sankei graph”.
“I then twisted the curves to make them look like virus tentacles gripping Hong Kong,” he added.
Arranz also won bronze for his digital feature “Coconut Harvesters or Slaves?” in the environment and science category.
Team head Long won five team awards for excellence, including staff portfolios under the special coverage category on the coronavirus pandemic.
He said the team’s awards for the print and digital medium were particularly gratifying. “To me, this recognises our roots in print and represents where we want to be with digital.”
Associate creative director Carl Jones and photo editor Yves Sieur picked up an excellence award for photo page design, while the video team rounded out the tally with a silver medal for the production China’s Rebel City – The Hong Kong Protests .
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China’s Rebel City: The Hong Kong Protests
Director of video Mat Booth said: “We wanted to make a film that gives viewers a full picture of the origins, evolution and legacy of the Hong Kong protests from both sides of the divide.
“We’re delighted to see it honoured as it represents the best of SCMP’s video journalism.”
Post editor-in-chief Tammy Tam congratulated the winners for the international recognition given to their “tremendous efforts and talent”.
“Once again, our award-winning designers and creative teams have demonstrated their commitment to excellence in journalism,” she said. “Their work is an inspiration to us all.”
