Nine Missouri Students Win Awards in National Design Contest
By Ana Adi
Columbia, Mo. (May 8, 2006) — Nine Missouri School of Journalism students were among the winners of the 18th annual contest of the Student Society for News Design awards, the college version of the Society for News Design‘s international competition. Hosted every year by the Missouri School of Journalism, this year’s competition numbered almost 800 entries from around the country and were judged by professional judges from newspapers around the country.
Missouri Journalism students fared well in the competition, earning five first-place finishes in the following categories: “Best Photo Spread,” “Best Special Section,” “Magazine/Tabloid Spread,” “Magazine Cover” and “Information Graphics.” Other awards included second-place finishes in the “Best News Front Page” and “Information Graphics” categories and third-place finishes in the “Magazine/Tabloid Spread” and “Information graphics” categories. Vox magazine earned an honorable mention for overall design of a magazine.
The SSND awards recognize the increasing importance the work students do in college news design.
“The purpose of design is to best tell a story and the Mizzou entries did that really well,” said Joy Mayer, design editor for the Columbia Missourian and SSND coordinator. “All winning entries show a mastery of the topics on the pages, meaning that the students understood that content draws the design.”
A list of winners is as follows:
Photo Page Design: Spread
- First Place: Yolanda Coleman, “At last, autumn” (Columbia Missourian).
Overall Design of a Special Section (Once a Semester or Less)
- First Place: Steve Kempf, “The Soul of Islam” (Columbia Missourian). Kempf, of St. Louis, will receive bachelor’s degrees in journalism and French at the May 12 graduation ceremony.
Special Section Cover
- First Place: Debbie Kim, “Is justice blind” (Vox magazine). Kim is a master’s student from Chicago, Ill., studying magazine design.
Information Graphics
- First Place: Robbie Ketcham, “Decoding 911” (Columbia Missourian).
- Second Place: Brian Hamman, “Sound of Sirens” (Columbia Missourian). Hamman, a master’s student, developed a series of graphics to show where new and relocated emergency sirens would be located around the city of Columbia if approved by voters. Hamman plans to work as the online managing editor for the Missourian upon graduation this spring. This was his first design contest entry.
- Third Place: Libby Roerig, “Snyder’s Wins and Losses” (Columbia Missourian).
Magazine Spread Design
- First Place: Michael Davin, “Fueling a Nation” (Columbia Missourian). Davin, a master’s student, will serve as a news editor and design instructor for the Missourian before returning to his native Minneapolis this fall.Third Place: Libby Roerig, “First Freedoms” (Columbia Missourian).
News Page Design: Cover
- Second Place: Alex Yalen, “Thou shall not…” (Columbia Missourian). Yalen, a December 2005 graduate, designed a NewSunday feature that explored homosexuality and its relationship with organized religion. He is now a copy editor and page designer for the Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News.
Overall Design of a Special Section (At Least Monthly)
- Honorable Mention: Elizabeth Neil and Debbie Kim, Vox magazine.
Updated: April 9, 2020