The die is cast. The thing is done. Sort of. The judge’s have made their final vote, edited the winning selections for The Best of Newspaper Design™ book, and crafted their explanatory statements about who won and why. So Monday afternoon (a holiday here in the U.S.) was spent traipsing around Syracuse University campus, shooting the video statement about the winners that the judges will release later this week.

The World’s Best-Designed judges are in their third day of review, deliberation and voting to arrive at the very best of the best. Judges Michael Keegan, Michael Crozier, Bobbie Roessner, Marco Grieco, and Mary Nesbitt are hard at work on determining what papers (if any) will be awarded the distinction of being a World’s Best-Designed Newspaper™.

When the judges arrived yesterday, 301 papers were in contention for SND30 World’s Best-Designed Newspaper bragging rights. By the end of the first round the field was reduced to just 45 papers. And now, only six remain. 1.9 percent of total entries in Category 1 will see the light of Round Three (a little something we at the SND International Web Desk like to call simply — The Finals).

The judges’ second day of review grinds on as the first round of the World’s Best-Designed category nears a close. The remaining papers have been whittled to just under 50. We’re eager to get some time with the judging team to hear more about what they’re seeing — and not seeing — in the 301 entries from around the world.

The five judges for The World’s Best-Designed Newspaper™ competition, also known as Category One, arrived safely in Syracuse after a couple of gnarly weather delays and rerouting — even though the weather in Syracuse itself was just fine, thank you. “It was nice here,” said C. Marshall Matlock, SND competition coordinator. The judges met this afternoon for lunch and to begin the task of culling the remaining 301 entries in the 30th Edition. So who’s who at the SND WB this year?

The World’s Best-Designed Newspaper category is comprised of 301 entries. The judges have arrived and are beginning to sort through the first round of this hefty category. Want to watch live? Check out live video during judging hours.

Chris Ross, design editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune, has been a longtime facilitator here in Syracuse. This is her first year judging the competition, so the SND International Web Desk asked her to keep a running diary. Keep up with Chris through the judging weekend…

In the last medal discussion of the day, the Features team awarded a gold to the National Post for an Avenue illustration. The doubletruck image, titled “Religious Extremists” was made up of 82,199 dots, each representing the Iraq Body Count organization’s estimate of Iraqi civilians who died at the hands of religious extremists.

Here’s a quick slideshow of a few of the breaking news entries that covered the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

We’re getting close to the end of the line. Here are two more winners from the magazine category.

With just a few hundred entries to go, the Long Form team awarded their first gold. That makes three gold medals for the competition so far. The Portuguese newspaper Expresso was honored for the redesign of their magazine Única. The redesigned magazine is titled Revista Única. Expresso was one of last year’s World’s Best Designed Newspapers™.

We talked to the students from Michigan State and Syracuse who are assisting with this year’s judging. Find out what they are interested in, their ambitions for the future, and how they see the Society helping them understand the evolving craft of news design.

The long-form team spent several hours on Sunday judging the Overall Newspaper Redesign category. It seemed to us at the SND International Web Desk that 2008 was the Year of the Redesign. But the judges didn’t vote in a way that allows us to declare this a great year for redesigns. Watch the video of the judges talking about what they saw.

The judges have finished work for the day. The top winners (by number of awards) so far in the competition, in no particular order are Clarin, The St. Petersburg Times, The National, the Boston Globe, The New York Times, the National Post, the Los Angeles Times, La Presse, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer and Zaman.

Take a look at our interactive map showing the location of judges and facilitators at this year’s competition. Each marker contains the person’s name, title and location. You can find it here…

The National, the new English language newspaper published in Abu Dhabi that launched in 2008, was being seen on judging tables for the first time in Syracuse. Consultant Lucie Lacava worked on the project. The SND International Web Desk gathered some pages in this quick slideshow so more people can check out the paper, but a word of caution: We don’t know if any of these pages won awards. We just thought it was nice to see a new newspaper.

We’ve got less than 2,000 entries to judge. Things have slowed a bit as we get into redesigns and portfolios, but the judges are having a great second day.

The judges are back at it following an eclectic lunch. More than 7,000 entries have been judged and a couple of the teams are in the home stretch.

Judges have gotten through more than 700 additional entries this morning. And things have tightened up a bit….

As judging gets rolling on this second day, here are a couple winners plucked off the top of the pile waiting to be entered into the database.

Judges and facilitators on the 5th and 6th floor of the Sheraton got an early wake-up call thanks to a fire alarm.

We’ve finished the first day of The Best of Newspaper Design™ judging here in Syracuse. The judges have given a little more than 500 awards, making their way through more than 5,000 entries so far. The top 10 winners in the competition so far, ranked in no particular order are Zaman, Excelsior, The National Post, the Los Angeles Times, El Universal, The Boston Globe, La Presse, The New York Times, The St. Petersburg Times, and The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. Congratulations to all the winners so far. We will see you again Sunday evening for second-day tallies.

The first two gold medals of the competition have been awarded to the National Post and The New York Times Magazine. Congratulations to the two newspapers on winning the coveted awards. The very first winner of the competition — the National Post’s Toronto section — was held back for a discussion by the judges and, in a nice piece of serendipity, also won the competition’s first gold medal. Stick with us on Sunday to see if any other publications bring home gold.

Many newspapers from China and other parts of Asia entered the categories for the Olympics. We talk in this video interview with Lily Lu, the director of SND Chinese, to get her perspective on the increasing influence of Asia and how papers in that region are embracing design in new ways.

The judges are back at it after lunch. We have judged just under 20% of our entries (not counting Category 1 — World’s Best Designed — which will be judged next weekend). We just plucked a couple of winners being delivered to the SND International Web Desk area. The first is from the Features Design — Lifestyle category and goes to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer titled “A Valentine to Seattle.” The second is from the Single Photo category and goes to the Beijing News and a photo titled “Aftershock in Wenchaun.”

Each of the judging groups are trying to squeeze in another category before lunch. The winners are flowing into the SND International Web Desk area, and we can announce a random winner that just got carted up from the Features group. The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina captures an Award of Excellence for their page titled “If you’re going to bake.”

The National Post was the first paper honored in the 30th Best of Newspaper Design™ Creative Competition.

The 27 judges for the general competition of The Best of Newspaper Design™ were announced on Saturday morning in Syracuse by Dennis Varney of the Lexington Herald-Leader, the coordinator for the 30th Edition judging. Here are biographies of the judges, sorted by team.

The 30th Annual Best of Newspaper Design™ judging has just gotten under way at Syracuse University. We’re coming to you live from Drumlins Country Club, the site for all the action. The first day involves judges getting their instructions from Dennis Varney, the 30th Edition coordinator.

We’re about to get started with wall-to-wall coverage of the Society’s Best of Newspaper Design™ Creative Competition, which recognizes work published in 2008. This year’s special categories include the financial crisis, elections around the world (and specifically the U.S. presidential campaign that resulted in the historic rise of Barack Obama), and the Summer Olympics from Beijing. Watch for updates on the judging from Syracuse University, starting on Friday with two programs about print and online design at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.