Laying out a legacy for future designs

Members of the 1978 API Design seminar. For a print-quality (2.5MB) version of this picture with a caption, click here

It was the first industry-wide design and graphics seminar and helped to provide a focus for previously uncoordinated efforts by a variety of newspapers and organizations.

It helped launch and define careers.

It developed a generation of visual leaders.

And it led to the creation of the Society for News Design!

As SND celebrates its 25th anniversary this year and next, let's consider those four days in July, which the seminar's organizer and moderator, Frank Quine, today calls "truly revolutionary. "

Arguably, the seminar was the birthplace of the modern newspaper design movement. The speakers and participants are a who's who of design – Ed Arnold, Harold Evans, Robert Lockwood, Tony Majeri, Sara Giovanitti, Neal Pattison, Rolf Rehe, N. Christian Anderson, Rob Austin, Rob Covey, Johnny Maupin, Lou Silverstein, Richard Curtis and Dave Gray, among others.

It was the first time so many designers and others gathered to discuss their craft. The excitement created at the workshop led to a later meeting in Pennsylvania, and the founding of SND in May 1979.

Said Lockwood, then art director of the Allentown Call : "My most vivid impression is the enthusiasm of those of us who attended. "

Neal Pattison, then a copy and layout editor at the Roanoke (Va.) Times and World-News, recalls the passion in many of the discussions. "We were developing a theology. Different schools of thought were squaring off. "

API's Quine deserves much of the credit for pulling the whole thing off.

By 1978, newspaper designers were beginning to enjoy influence at their respective newspapers, yet most were toiling in isolation, under-respected by many of their counterparts in the industry. After all, this was B.M. – before Macs – and BUSAT – before USA Today.

Rob Covey (left), then art director at the The Arizona Daily Star, listens to a presenter at the Newspaper Design Seminar. Covey later became president of the Society for News Design, which was created by participants at the seminar, held 25 years ago this month.

API's staff and board of directors began to talk about the desirability of conducting a short seminar devoted to the art directors and graphics directors who were emerging at newspapers everywhere.

Enter Frank Quine, an API associate director since 1969 and former news editor at the design- and color-minded St. Petersburg Times, then considered among one of the best-presented newspapers in the world.

Quine had worked alongside Nelson Poynter, St. Pete's visionary owner; George Sweers, its talented director of illustrations; and Frank Peters, its groundbreaking news artist. Quine laid out the front page, and was exposed to a tradition of risk-taking and excellence in design and graphics. After all, this was a newspaper that once showcased a single-story page one with 23 color globes commemorating the orbit of the Earth by astronaut Gordon Cooper in May 1963.

"I was fascinated by the design process, " said Quine, who joined API in 1969. So, when the API executive staff decided to do a design seminar in 1978, it was logical to look to Quine to develop the content and serve as its moderator.

Newspaper consultant Edmund Arnold makes a point during the July 1978 newspaper design workshop at API.

Another was Hayward Blake, an Illinois designer who had worked on the titles and typography of the film "Bang the Drum Slowly. "

The seminar would be four days long, since it was new, significantly shorter than the two-week long seminars that comprised the rest of API's schedule.

When the seminar was announced, interest was broad and immediate. Thirty-five participants were registered. There was a waiting list of 50! It would take three years of API design seminars to clear up the waiting list.

No one was disappointed that sweltry July week. Discussions raged through the day – and into the evening over drinks and dinner.

"The seminar was very well-organized and the choice of speakers brilliant, " Lockwood said. "Harold Evans, Lou Silverstein and Hayward Blake brought information, insight and humanity to the discussions. "

Majeri called the week "an uninterrupted, continual learning experience. "

Participants bonded during those four days. Lifelong friendships were forged.

Bill McGrath (standing), graphic designer at the London (Ont.) Free Press, enjoys a light moment at the API Newspaper Design Seminar in 1978.

Said Majeri, "The week represented an amazing cultural shift. We suddenly discovered people like ourselves. We walked away not feeling alone. "

Other participants point to the fellowship created at the seminar.

"The most important thing for me was to connect with colleagues, other designers and journalists working at newspapers, " said Rolf Rehe, a speaker and participant, who writes and consults from his home in Vienna, Austria. "For most of us, there was little connection with each other before. "

Epilogue:

The idea for a news design organization that was conceived by Curtis, Lockwood and Giovanitti over breakfast one morning at the seminar quickly turned into reality.

In January 1979, 22 journalists and designers gathered in a snowstorm at the Buck Hill Inn in the Pocono Mountains to organize a group dedicated to the betterment of newspapers through good design principles. A steering committee was formed.

Then, in May 1979, SND became incorporated in the state of Pennsylvania. Founding directors included: Lockwood, Curtis, Giovanitti, Rehe, Roger Fidler of Knight Ridder Newspapers, and Gray, of The Providence Journal.

Leaders emerged. Lockwood became the group's first president, and Curtis its third. Giovanitti designed the organization's distinctive logo. Gray, an active member for 17 years, became the group's executive director in 1996. He still holds the post today.

Pattison, Austin and Covey later became presidents of SND.

Quine also went on to bigger things. Less than a year after he organized and facilitated the API design seminar, he became API's director, its highest post. He served in that role until 1987. Today he is assistant dean of the Philip Merrill School of Journalism at the University of Maryland and an admirer of designers who have gone on to improve today's newspapers.

API continues to be a think tank for designers. Arnold has been a discussion leader at API more than 225 times. The Institute has hosted design seminars every year since 1978, and twice (1988, 1999) conducted industry-wide symposiums about the future of visual journalism. Several alumni from the July 1978 seminar returned for these discussions.

Tony Majeri of the Chicago Tribune at the 1978 API design seminar.

"To me, this wasn't just the beginning of a society. It was the beginning of a brotherhood. That's what SND is all about, " Majeri said.

(Warren Watson has been an SND member since 1986. He is SND president for 2003. He also is vice president for operations and extended learning at API.)

The history of SND, with photos and additional information, can be viewed on the SND web site – www.snd.org