Award Winners

Here is a list of every school that won an award at the 2012 College News Design Contest. The schools are listed alphabetically. Honorable mentions are included.

Judges’ special recognition- Coal: A Love Story

Judge’s Special Recognition for use of video, animated storytelling: Coal: A Love Story

The judges recognize the News21 student project, Coal: A Love Story, for its excellent use of video and motion graphics in this highly visual, explanatory, interactive package. The art direction is seamless, consistent and obsessively curated, on par with professional-level work. The motion graphics, while not terribly innovative, are playful and seeped with subtle animated details that enhance the audio and play off of both the stills and video. The research and reporting has real depth and gravitas. The imagery – both video and photographic – was beautifully observed and flawlessly edited, a standout in the package being Born into Coal. The judges applaud the contributing students and editors for their commitment, time and attention given to the production and design of the project, one that has set a new bar for future News21 projects.

Multimedia designer of the year

The judges decided not to award this category because the explanation wasn’t clear enough to attract enough entrants. They worry about awarding this to the one entrant who applied when they know there is more polished work out there. There were several prospects seen today that could have done well in this category but didn’t submit in this category.

Redesign of a news website

Third place:

Varsity, Sam Bowman, Patrick Lowe, Tom Cardoso, Cailen McQualtio, Josh Kelly, University of Toronto, The Varsity: The ability to change the content at the bottom is awesome. The article page is gorgeous. Great use of typography. Much improved over the old site.

News products appearing on other digital platforms, including iPad, Android and iPhone applications

First place: Salt, Kuan Luo, Syracuse- Pretty usable, filters are intuitive but challenges you’re thinking. Pretty clever and easy to use. The two-finger scroll wasn’t intuitive.

Honorable mention:

Bean and Leaf, UNC student group, University of North Carolina

Vox 5, Vox staff, University of Missouri

Bronco Mobile, Arbiter Staff, Boise State University, The Arbiter

Home page of a news website

Second place: Connector, Eric Beatty, SCAD Atlanta, The Connector- Really good, but some problems. Work on the cropping of photos. The carousal moves at a pace you can read. It’s not jam packed with headlines.

Honorable mention: Distraction, Rosa Orihuela, University of Miami, Distraction- The carousals are moving to fast. The carousals at the top aren’t that great. There is some cleverness to what’s going on.

Integration of social media

The judges decided not to award anything in the category because they felt that you should be placing the widgets in the site. There was nothing ground-breaking or out of the box in the category.

Video or multimedia project

It’s awesome how many student papers are using video when almost no professional papers are using video.

First place: Born into Coal, Catherine Orr, Catherine Spangler, University of North Carolina

World of Coal, Hadley Gustafson, Adrienne Wollman, Jeff Mittelstadt, University of North Carolina: Great timing, very impressive. Depth of reporting and knowledge of separating into separate pieces

Wyoming to Chicago, Hadley Gustafson, Adrienne Wollman, Catherin Orr, University of North Carolina

Coal & You, Kristen Long, Adrienne Wollman, University of North Carolina

From Coal Towns to Ghost Towns, Adrienne Wollman, Catherine Orr, University of North Carolina

All are beautifully composed, uses stills and motion, great art direction, stories that stands alone and supports the package. There’s an obsessive attention to detail and art direction. There was clearly someone paying attention to how they’ll all work together and how they would stand-alone. They were researched very well; they were humanized and gave a big picture.

Honorable mention:

Syracuse News21 Opener, Kuan Luo, Syracuse: Loved the pacing, beautifully done. It doesn’t necessarily work as a stand-alone, but better as part of the project.

Bear in Mind, Maverick Moore, Baylor: Didn’t like the pun.

SCAD, Skateboarding, Victor Makali, Danielle Austin, SCAD

Animated or Interactive Infographic

Honorable mentions:

UNC Basketball History, Pamela Tseng, University of North Carolina

Pick the Winning Shot, Evan Bell, Seth Wright, University of North Carolina

Interactive: Missouri men’s basketball season in review, Rachel Schallom, University of Missouri

Mini-site/special section of a news website

First place: Coal, UNC student group, University of North Carolina- It seemed beautifully put together, but long. The were some great pieces. This doesn’t use any conventional navigations, but you still know what to do. It’s all integrated. The pop-ups work for this project, even if some of the judges don’t like pop-ups in general. The main criticism is on usability, lots of Flash players.

Second place: American DreamX, UNC student group, University of North Carolina- Beautiful. Another seamless piece with excellent reporting. This one relies on pogo-sticking as well, but commenting and reacting is very easy.

Third place: Finding Uwharries, UNC student group, University of North Carolina- The landing page is intoxicating. Absolutely lovely. The navigation between stories is kind of hard to use.

Honorable mention:

Reframing Mexico, UNC student group, University of North Carolina

Ohio Primary 2012, Frank Yonkof, Rachel Kilroy, Kent State