Photo by Lars Pryds
Oulu Finland was the site of SNDScandinavia’s annual workshop - Oulu24 from May 14 to 16. Why the 24? A whole lot of sun! It was light almost around the clock. Oulu is located in the northern part of Finland, about 75 miles south of the polar Circle. Oulu is also the northern biggest town in the Nordic Countries with 140,000 inhabitants. The town is well known as a Technology Center, with a well reputed Technical University, and Nokia has a also a big developing center in the town.
In mid-May the sun is up almost 20 hours a day, lending a strange feeling with bright light almost the entire day through. That also meant that many of the 160 attendees didn’t sleep much during the workshop, although we got black blinders to use in case of a nap.
The schedule was packed with inspiring lectures, many issues related to the future in our business. Additionally, the best shouting choir in the world took the stage on Thursday May 22. That was Mieskou Huutajat – The Shouting Men’s Choir.
A whole lot of fun! A kind of wonderful and very Finnish melancholic, and little black humor, embedded the workshop this weekend.
Among all the speakers and topics many of them were looking to the future. Here’s a selection, that shows the breadth of themes:
Tony Manninen, The Game Man, CEO and Lead Designer at Ludo Craft, was speaking about computer game design and how art challenges technology and technology inspires art. A recipe for good content.
Martin Gee, art director at Oregon Business Magazine, gave a very inspiring session under the headline A Kick in The Pants. And he gave a whole lot of hands on tips on how to be continuous creative in the daily work. He also showed many examples of what he’s being inspired of.
Creativity in news and feature design was the topic for Ari Kinnari, Art Director at The Finnish newspaper Amulehti, who has been rewarded several times at SND:s and SNDScandinavias News Design Awards.
New narrative techniques and tools was the name of Javier Errea’s lecture. Javier Errea is head of Errea Communication and also regional director of SND/Spain.
Lily Lu,regional director of SND Chinese, showed many examples of good design from chinese speaking newspapers. “The crisis in not a limitation, it is an opportunity”, she said, and showed that the chinese sign for crisis is the same as for opportunity.
Color palettes in South American and European newspapers was the name on Cristóbal Edwards’ lecture. Cristóbal also invited everyone in Oulu to come to SND:s annual workshop in Buenos Aires September 22–24.
Anna Thurfjell, AD at Svenska Dagbladet, was talking about how “Standing still is going backwards”. She also showed some examples from the present redesign of the newspaper, that is going to be launched this fall.
Melanie Shah, Business development manager at Ifra, spoked about “How to build the newsrooms of the future.”
And then of course there was the highlight: The Big Gala Dinner when the Best of Scandinavian News Design Awards were given out.
The final results were 70 Awards this year: 1 Gold, 16 Silver, 17 Bronze and 36 Awards of Excellence. The total number of participating media houses was 71, and that’s more than the year before. Total number of entries was 807.
The only Gold Medal went to Dagens Nyheter for the redesign of it’s weekend supplement “På Stan” in a new miniformat.
For the first time The Online Competition presented a completley new concept with a range of new categories. It was a succes, the number of entries in the Online competition was three times more than last year.
And a tips for all collegues in Europe: SND Scandinavia also has a competition since a few years back that you can attend: Best European Front Pages and Best European Feature Pages.
Next year’s SNDScandinavia workshop will be in Oslo, Norway. The hosting newspaper is Aftenposten – the second biggest in Norway. The theme is Opera, to salute the new fantastic Opera House in The Norwegian Capital. We are going to stay at Hotel Opera, just a stone’s throw from The blending white marbled house at the waterfront.
You are of course very welcome to join us April 22 to 24, 2010.
You can also see the Opera House in the marvelous promotion video, a true thriller, at:
Carrie Hoover and Martin Gee in deep concentration. Photo by Jukka-Pekka Moilanen.
Javier Errea talking about New narrative techniques and tools. Photo by Jukka-Pekka Moilanen.
Lotta Ek, AD at Dagens Nyheter, won the only Gold Medal this year: For the redesign of “På Stan.” In the background: the chairman of Best of Scandinavian News Design competition: Flemming Hvidtfeldt. Photo by Jukka-Pekka Moilanen.
Lilly Liu presenting on design trends in China. Photo by Jukka-Pekka Moilanen.
The Theater Group Minimi gave an oddysey over Finlands history. Photo by Jukka-Pekka Moilanen.
Mieskou Huutajat – The faboulus Shouting Men’s Choir – gave a fantastic show at Oulu City Theathre. Photo by Jukka-Pekka Moilanen.
Anders Tapola is the President Society for News Design Scandinavia
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