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The best magazines in the world?

The new D&AD Annual was launched last night, featuring the creative work judged to be the best by the teams of jurors last Spring.

I was one of the jurors in this year’s Magazine and Newspaper category and seeing it all together in the book I’m generally happy with what we selected. The judging process really is as rigorous as D&AD claim, with secret ballots through several rounds to decide what wins what. The upside of their process is individual jurors can vote with their own mind rather than under pressure from fellow jurors. But there’s a downside too, with the votes sometimes leading to the ‘safe’ projects being selected while more contentious items split the jurors and disappear.

Basically, though, it’s a good reflection of whats was entered. But there’s plenty more stuff out there that could/should have been entered. Maybe next year? Watch out for the entry announcements later this year. The Annuals are key records of each year’s creative output. Shouldn’t your magazine be there?

If you’re interested in finding out more about the judging and what won, I’ll be running through these in more detail at the Printed Matters day at the Design Museum, Saturday 15 September.

Meanwhile, here’s the Magazine & Newspaper Design section of the new Annual. Have a look and let me know which titles you think should have been there but aren’t.

The single Gold Pencil winner Draft; Entertainment Weekly.

Wallpaper‘s tenth anniversary subs covers; Metropoli‘s covers

The tenth of Wallpaper‘s anniversary covers; independent film title Little White Lies; D&AD’s own Ampersand members magazine.

Draft again; 33thoughts (one of only two customer magazines this year); satirical fashion mag Rubbish; Vince Frost’s one-off edition of Pol Oxygen.

Illustration magazine Varoom; German customer magazine 217; Werk.

ISTD’s magazine TypoGraphic; the redesigned New Statesman; Intersection; the one newspaper in this year’s book, the Belgian De Morgen.