Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Orange City - Sioux County Capital Democrat Entry Title: Pluim Publishing Best use of graphics Entry Credit: Dale Pluim, Doug Calsbeek, Sarah Weber Judge Comment: Your entry said "Our graphic designers create weekly layouts that draw readers right in to a story with cleaver use of graphics."
You absolutely delivered on this statement. All of the graphics were good -- the football story and the Habitat ones really pop, and the apple ladies graphic package really draws the reader in and makes him want to see what the story is about. These are all examples of creative, clever use of graphics to make the page more appealing, to draw the reader in -- I wish far more papers could do this. The only bad graphic was the Homecoming for the Dutch story. That looks like you ran out of type before running out of page and just slapped a graphic in the hole. I think we've all done that at some point. Otherwise, these are great -- well done.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: Mapleton - Mapleton Press Entry Title: Timeline of Under the Son Childcare Center Entry Credit: Jenna Comes Judge Comment: This was a nicely done graphic -- clear, clean, and easy to follow with a lot of good information. My only issue is there's no context -- was this graphic published in conjunction with a ribbon cutting, a grand opening, or some other significant event? Why is this important? After viewing the graphic, I know a fair bit about the time-line of the development, and that there will be an open house coming up,. but have no idea why this would be allowed to take up 2/3 of your front page -- a bit of context, maybe a tiny story telling me why you're publishing this would have been in order. Still, a well-constructed, clear graphic that imparts a lot of knowledge.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: Estherville - Estherville News Entry Title: Movies, cows and more Entry Credit: Taylor Nissen , Debbie Wilson Judge Comment: A couple of the graphics -- the city budget and the movie theater -- were well done and clean, and the budget graphic did a great job in disseminating information in an engaging way. However, that graphic was also easy to overlook -- it was plopped at the bottom of an interior page, looking for all the world like an ad at first glance. There was nothing to show it was connected to a budget story, or was meant as part of an editorial package. The pizza graphic was ambitious and good with the pizza shape text-wrap, but it looked as if something were missing in the circle at the bottom left corner.
