Vahur Kalmre Newsdesign Blog

One very old infographic to look at

vahur — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:52:20 +0000

121 years ago this infographic – the game (General-Baker) appeared in a french newspaper Le Figaro. The newspaper uses irony to show that there are too many generals in France and the game illustrates how to become a general.:) It was found in a war museum in Paris. Thank you Liina-Jaanika Seisler.

Estonian newspapers use blank pages

vahur — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:43:54 +0000

National newspapers of Estonia use blank pages to protest against draft legislation on the protection of source information.

Six major national newspapers belonging to the Estonian Newspaper Association (ENA) published a blank page today in order to protest against the draft legislation on the protection of source information drawn up on the initiative of the Minister of Justice Rein Lang, which the Parliament of Estonia decided to send to the first reading.

Blank front page was today published by Postimees, Äripäev, and Õhtuleht. One blank page appeared inside Eesti Päevaleht, Eesti Ekspress, and Maaleht.

All of the six major national newspapers published the following text on the blank page: “This is the future of journalism if the Parliament of Estonia passes the so-called draft act on the protection of source information 656 SE introduced by the Minister of Justice Rein Lang. The draft legislation would enable to send journalists engaged in investigative journalism to prison, obligate them to disclose the names of the sources that have provided them with information, and to impose fines on publications just for a warning before the publication of revealing articles.”

ENA is of the opinion that the draft legislation must not be passed as a law. ENA has defended its positions in the Ministry of Justice at a discussion held past autumn as well as this Monday in the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliament of Estonia. In February, ENA organised a seminar on the topic of source information protection, in which Dirk Voorhoof – a professor of the Ghent University in Belgium and a media expert acknowledged in Europe who performed at the seminar – stated that the draft is in contradiction to the practice of Europe.

Svenska Dagbladet won the Best of Show

vahur — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:34:41 +0000

The online edition of the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (svd.se) won the Peter Sullivan Award / Best of Show during the 18th Malofiej International Infographics Awards.

The international jury decided to award unanimously with the Best of Show the online work titled “How did Europe vote last year Eurovision Song Contest 2008″.

Tartu Postimees has won an award

vahur — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:39:01 +0000

Tartu Postimees (Estonia) won yet again an award from a world newspaper design contest 2009, which is held by SND (Society for News Design) for the 31st time. This time the award was given to a front page from the 1st of September 2009 (The schoolyear begin), which was edited by Elina Randoja and Vahur Kalmre, graphics by Artur Kuus.

Sweden got most of the awards, 25, in comparison with other countries nearby (Svenska Dagbladet 8, Dagens Nyheter 4). 16 awards went to Denmark (all Politiken), Finland came out with 6 and Norway 2 awards (Bergens Tidende). Among other countries close to Estonia, one prize went to Russia (Moscow’s free weekly newspaper Moy Rayon). In the 2009 contest, the jury awarded 1101 awards.

Redesign for Südkurier in Germany

vahur — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:38:09 +0000

German daily Südkurier unveiled its redesign produced in conjunction with Garcia Media over a period of 18 months following extensive market research, writes editorsweblog.org.

The newspaper, now entirely in colour and compact Berliner format, also underwent a reorganisation of content flow, aiming to achieve a clearer layout and improved structure, which Garcia calls “a classic look inspired by German elegance” with a five-column grid.

Südkurier is primarily a subscription-based daily, based in Konstanz, and produced in 17 local editions. It has a largely consistent following of 132000 subscribers.

How to design a city district?

vahur — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:56:40 +0000

We started to make a double page series of Tartu city districts in Tartu Postimees (the local paper in Estonia). When it comes to double page series, there has to be always some kind of obligatory element and so we made up some ( for example city map as a rubric, the city district in a close-up, table of statistics, three or four interviews with people, picture quiz and etc). The first double page series have appeared in print.

When you design double page series, there is always one main question: How to design a powerful focus, what should you focus on?

This time we deliberately chose a different way, there is no one or clear high-powered focus, there are many equal units (stories, photos and graphics) and one still has to design it in the way that it becomes nice integral whole. There still should be something to construct the double page design around. In the first versions, we have tried to put the table of statistics in the centre of the background. The next ones probably will be different.

Some fine infographics to look

vahur — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:27:33 +0000

At Tartu Postimees we again designed a bigger infographics: winter fishing on the lake Peipsi. The idea came from our text editor Liina-Jaanika Seiser: How can we show, with the help of graphics, what is going on in the lake Peipsi during wintertime, above and also underneath the surface of the ice. Collecting information was rather difficult, as there is no data about how many fishermen there go on the lake. But all together we found some information and the result is as following.

This graphic made me think about other fine infographics that are made in Estonian newspapers. So I browsed through some newspapers from the beginning of the year and I found six fine graphics, in my opinion.

Let see what the neighbours are doing

vahur — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:12:16 +0000

For a change let’s look what the neighbours from South – Latvian and Lithuanian newspapers are doing. Here you can see only the front pages, which don’t give a all view, but they still show something.

I’ve heard that some Latvian and Lithuanian newspapers have used the help of foreign design consultants. For example, Latvian newspaper’s Diena sports extra is designed by Spanish Cases i Associats. Also, Danish designer Ole Munk helped to transfer Diena from large format to a compact one (he has also designed one of Latvian local newspaper – Zemgale Zinas). Jacek Utko – the head designer in Bonniers group has also advised both countries business newspapers. A few years ago me and Artur Kuus made a new design to a Lithuanian newspaper – Lietuvos rytas.

The papers show the best photos

vahur — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:17:25 +0000

Estonian newspapers show the best photos of the year 2009. Here you can see the photos of business paper Äripäev (news photos and feature photos), local paper Tartu Postimees (here) and national paper Postimees (here).

Let’s exchange infographics!

vahur — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:46:13 +0000

I uploaded some infographics which we used in Tartu Postimees (the local supplement of Postimees, the biggest newspaper in Estonia). The purpose is to exchange ideas and to discuss about the role of infographics in todays newspapers. Greetings, infographic artists from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Hungary etc, can you send me your works and I shall show these to other readers!

Äripäev, the Estonian business paper, sent some of their infographics. Look read more.