Interactive: The National shines in global design awards

The UAE has established itself as a world leader in newspaper design by collecting 37 awards in the Society for News Design’s annual competition, an achievement that put the country in fourth place behind the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The National won 22 awards in the 30th annual Best of Newspaper Design competition, which attracted 346 entries from 43 countries. Eight other entrants won more honours than the paper’s tally of three silver medals and 19 awards of excellence. The judges recognised the overall design of four sections: Arts & Life, The Review, House & Home and the magazine.

Awards were also made for the Oasis pages in Arts & Life and for features pages, business, sport and news, including the paper’s coverage of the US presidential election.

Of 170 award-winning newspapers from 31 countries, the US led with 487 awards, followed by Canada (108), Mexico (46), the UAE (37), Germany (35), Spain (34), Sweden (33), Argentina (32), Turkey and Brazil (23 each), Portugal (19), China (17) and Denmark (11).

The National was launched in April last year, with Lucie Lacava as design consultant.

The designers honoured were: Laura Koot, the managing editor and art director; Nathan Estep, the deputy art director; Lee McGorie, the assistant art director; and the design team of Elysia Smith, Mathew Kurian, April Robinson, Kerri Abrams and Neil Vorano.