In the past few years, NEWSWEEK has assembled one of the best news-graphics teams in the business and turned to them to convey the context and information our readers might otherwise miss. Last year, Director of Information Graphics Bonnie Scranton and her team illustrated everything from the explosion that downed TWA Flight 800, to the devastation of a small Bosnian village, to gymnast Kerri Strug’s astounding Olympic vault, to the way the AIDS virus infects a human cell.
Now NEWSWEEK’S graphics department has been honored with one of the most prestigious awards in the field: a gold medal for best magazine portfolio at the 1997 Society of Newspaper Design Malofiej Graphics Awards. The award is particularly significant because it is rarely given to a newsweekly. While other magazines often have weeks to work on their graphics, NEWSWEEK’S team of designers, researchers and illustrators typically report, design and draw their work in only a few days (or a few hours), usually under the pressure of shifting space and breaking news deadlines.
It’s never as easy as they make it look. To assemble a graphic that can be read and digested in a few minutes usually requires hours of discussion, drawing and redrawing. Subject matter complex enough to warrant a cover story has to be boiled down to a page or two, or often less. For last year’s cover story on the Olympic Park bombing, Senior Art Director Karl Gude used three quarters of a page to give readers a quick, comprehensive look at the tragedy: the events leading up to the bombing, the device used, the area hit and the people injured. We’re lucky to have a graphics team that can produce such outstanding work week after week-and so, more important, are our readers.
