MALOFIEJ 18 [AWARDS]
The Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet win the Peter Sullivan / Best of Show in Malofiej
The online edition of the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (svd.se) win the Peter Sullivan Award / Best of Show during the 18th Malofiej International Infographics Awards, organized by the Spanish Chapter of the Society of News Design (SNDE).
The international jury, which met in the School of Communication of the University of Navarra from March 7th to 10th, decided to award unanimously with the Best of Show the online work titled ‘How did Europe vote in last’s year Eurovision Song Contest 2008’, (http://www.svd.se/multimedia/archive/00470/S__r_stade_Europa_i_470153a.swf), which shows, interactively, the division in two blocs of countries participating in the Eurovision Song Contest –East and West- and the votes that these countries were granted between them.
Furthermore, the jury awarded 9 gold, 51 silver and 96 bronze medals both in printed media works as well as to online ones. 1.439 entries from 152 media from 30 countries were presented, increasing an 8% the participation registered last year. Malofiej Infographics Awards are unanimously known as the most important in the world, something like the ‘Pulitzer’ of the infographics.
The Miguel Urabayen Award to the Best Map went to National Geographic Magazine for the job ‘Venice: Flood Zone’. This Award was created in the honour of Miguel Urabayen, Visual Communication professor and movie critic, who was linked from the very beginning to journalist infographics and Malofiej Awards. In fact, Urabayen was the man who discovered in Argentina the cartographer Alejandro Malofiej (Buenos Aires, 1938-1987) and saw in him a pioneer of the genre who has definitely revolutionized the printed media during the last decade. In memoriam of Malofiej, the School of Communication of the University of Navarra created the awards as well as the Infographics World Summit, which is held every year in the Social Sciences Building. During a week, Pamplona turns into the world capital of infographics, putting together the most important professionals from the worldwide.
118 medals given from the jury were to printed entries (5 gold, 44 silver and 69 bronze medals), and 38 were to online entries (4 gold, 7 silver and 27 bronze medals).
The most awarded media was National Geographic Magazine (USA), who won 22 medals (2 gold, 10 silver and 10 bronze). Next is The New York Times (USA), which in both printed and online also won 22 medals (15 online: 3 gold, 4 silver and 8 bronze; and 7 printed: 2 silver and 5 bronze), and Público (Spain), with 20 medals (1 gold, 10 silver and 9 bronze). Also received gold medals jobs from Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden), Golden Section Graphics for Die Ziet (Germany) and Spanish illustrator Enric Jardí.
The jury, chaired by Svetlana Maximchenko, Russian weekly Akzia director and SND 17th region (Russia) director, included Kaitlin Yarnall (National Geographic Magazine, USA), Scott Byrne-Fraser (BBC News On Line, UK), Manuel Canales (La Nación, Costa Rica), Hannah Fairfield (The New York Times, USA), Stefan Fichtel (KircherBurkhardt, Germany), Francesco Franchi (Il Sole 24 Ore, Italia), Ivan Kemp (Sábado, Portugal), Connie Malamed (USA), Thomas Molén (Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden), Alejandro Rojas (El Tiempo, Colombia), Álvaro Valiño (Público, España) and Ramón Salaverría (University of Navarra, Spain).
The Awards were announced on Friday, 12th March, at the end of the 18th Infographics World Summit, which has put together 150 professionals from all around the world and that has served as well to present the Malofiej 17 book. The Summit ended on Friday afternoon with a tribute to Fernando Rubio, Head of Illustration at ABC, recently deceased. Also the attendants to the Summit could contemplate an exhibition of the best works of the illustrator born in Buenos Aires.
Malofiej next meeting, number 19th, will be held in Pamplona in March 2011. The exact date is still to be confirmed.