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TRUE CONFESSIONS — I WAS A JUDGING ASSISTANT
By Matt Erickson
First time judging assistant, 2002
Ecstatic. Thrilled. Overjoyed. Or as the kids say these days, "geeked.” I felt all of those emotions when I got word that I was officially a judging assistant for the SND competition.
More than anything, though, I felt a sense of pride knowing I’d get the opportunity to help out at the crown jewel of all SND events, this invite-only party that always seems so shrouded in secrecy to most members. Then I stepped back and realized the real reason I was completely stoked. I was going to see “The Book” winners before everyone else in the industry.
If you are reading, you know what The Book is — The Best of Newspaper Design™ yearly book that presents the winners in 272 pages. So I admit it, my motive for being an assistant was a selfish one. There was not much I would not do for the chance to see the thousands of amazing entries and the winners of the world’s most renowned design competition before the rest of the planet.
It is the newspaper equivalent of a pass to see next year’s Best Picture nominees eight months before they are released. And to top it off, I would get to rub elbows with some of the biggest design “celebrities” in our industry — the folks whose names we all see in The Book every year.
The names were a virtual who’s-who of newspaper design all-stars, and the way I looked at it, I was going to be like a bench warmer hanging out with Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds and Ichiro and A-Rod and Junior Griffey, ad infinitum. As intimidating as that seemed, it meant I could pick their brains and learn a ton while I was there. Or at least I could hang with them.
The three months leading up to the judging were spent daydreaming about what it would be like.
I picked the brain of my AME/visuals, Theresa Badovich, who served as a judge in 2001, to see what was in store for me.
She reinforced what I already assumed: That the trip was going to be just that… a trip. She told me how cool it would be to see so many incredible pages right in front of me. She told me how insightful it would be to hear the judges’ comments. She told me to pack comfortable shoes because I would be on my feet 14 hours a day.
I told her my feet would be just fine, and she laughed at me as I walked away on dogs that had never been exposed to SND competition judging.
I arrived in Syracuse the victim of a 6 a.m. flight, which meant I was up at 2 a.m. with an hour and a half of sleep.
I got there, all wound up and ready to go to work, and I immediately went to my room to sleep. Not a very sexy start to what I was banking on being the most exciting weekend of my professional career. And I still had an entire day to wait before we would go to the site to begin the actual judging.
“Take me to the freaking pages,” I said to myself. “That’s what I’m here for. That and the free food, of course.”
Finally, after months of waiting for the big day, we arrived at the judging site early Saturday morning. After a quick breakfast, I entered the main ballroom (which was to be the home for News and Features entries) for the first time.
You have seen movies where the main character has a life-altering moment and light shines down from the heavens and the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s “Messiah” plays. That is what happened to me when I walked into that room and saw those beautiful works of art on the tables in front of me. It was as if I had died and gone to newspaper heaven.
The last time the “Hallelujah Chorus” thing happened to me was when I pulled up to a Burger King drive-through and saw they had added Snickers pie to the dessert menu. I know… I’m a weird kid.
After regaining my composure, my first thought was to grab as many pages as I could get my hands on and head for the hills — The Grinch Who Stole SND. But I refrained.
I held a series of jobs over the next three days. I set entries out on tables to be judged. I put out red and blue cups for each entry (blue for “yes,” red for “no”). I picked up winning pages and sections for inclusion in The Book. And best of all, I sorted – by color – about a million color chips, which the judges drop into the cups when they vote on each entry.
These jobs were among the most mundane I’ve ever had. Not rocket science, to say the least. But it was a necessary adjunct to my task at hand, which was to see as many of the entries as possible.
I cannot describe how great it was to be in the presence of all that incredible work. Equally important was being in the presence of the greatest design minds in the world. I picked up more in three days in Syracuse than I had learned in the last year on the job.
The quality of work that actually wins awards is utterly stupendous. But the saddest part of the judging process is seeing the quality of work that does not win.
I saw pages at the competition that I would give up my mouse hand to have designed. Yet they did not make the cut.
And can I tell you for a second how surreal it is to be standing on the sidelines, knowing one of your own entries is being looked at by the judges and then watching them, one by one, drop their chips into the “no” cup?
The good news is, my entries got as many “yes” votes as some of the best work I’ve ever seen: None! And that just made me all the more pleased to have been a part of SND award-winning entries in the past few years.
My first goal for the weekend was to develop a photographic memory -- to look at as many pages possible and get as many ideas as I could.
My second goal was to actually hold a Rodrigo Sanchez Metropoli cover in my hands.
My third goal was to not let my dogs get sore over the course of 42 hours of standing for three days.
Two out of three ain’t bad.
Matt Erickson, when he wrote this article for Design magazine # 83, was the assistant sports editor for design and special projects at The Times of Northwest Indiana in Munster, Ind. This was Erickson’s first time at a judging and he continues to return as a judging assistant. Design is the official magazine for the SND. This article was edited for use on this Web site.
