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May. 2nd Celebrating World Press Freedom Day!

Update #2: Thursday, May 3, Tampa, FL, 10:32

TAKEAWAY: Today is World Press Freedom Day, as designated by the United Nations General Assembly.  What better way to celebrate it than with this collection of posters by Adonis Durado and his talented team at the Times of Oman and Al Shabiba.

Designer: Winie Ariany

 

Designer: Ralph Bagares

 

Designer: Isidore Vic Carloman

 

 

Designer: Adonis Durado

 

Designer: Quasiem Gamiet
  

 

Designer: Mohammed Qardan

 

Designer: Waleed Rabin
  

 

Designer: Srinivasa Rao
  

 

Designer: Sahir K.M.

 

Designer: Lucille Umali
  

I join the many who give thanks today, World Press Freedom Day,  for living in countries where press freedom is a right, never to be taken for granted.

I was recently in Chile, attending the WAN IFRA Latin America conference, and one of the most popular sessions involved a discussion of freedom of the press, in a continent where such freedom is not always respected.  In my own native country, Cuba, freedom of the press does not exist.

To celebrate this day of World Press Freedom, I am delighted to showcase the work of Adonis Durado and his award winning design team at the Times of Oman and Al Shabiba

I am sure you will feel, as I do, that the work of these designers is very moving, quite strong and communicates the importance of the message, and of this day, at a glance. Congratulations to the Times of Oman team!

This is how Adonis explained their project for World Press Freedom:

We call it “Any Given Sunday”, a weekly and informal gathering with my staff where we spend an hour discussing art and design, or reviewing works from international designers, or watching documentary films relating to visual arts and communication, or doing fun exercises using obstructions (like asking them to redesign the toilet signage while ruling out cliché symbolism).
 
The idea of this meeting is to motivate and inspire them, to churn out creativity other than making pages, to increase their visual vocabulary and teach them how to articulate their work, and of course to add fun in the office.
 
But this week, we’ve gotten a little serious in our creative exercise. When I learned from WAN-IFRA website about the World Press Freedom Day (May 3), I asked my team to come up with a poster commemorating the freedom of speech and a call to end impunity against media killing. I told my staff that in my country, corrupt politicians don’t sue reporters for their articles, they simply put bullets in their heads. Just imagine that in 2009 alone, 32 Filipino journalists and media workers were slain, as accounted by media organization Reporters Without Borders.
 
Working on the theme “Silence kills democracy, but a free press talks”, my staff (including myself) created these posters.
  

University of Oregon talk

Yesterday I had a chat via Skype with journalism students at the University of Oregon in Eugene.  Here is a transcript of that conversation:

Tablet Talk with Dr. Mario Garcia, founder of Garcia Media
http://ormagazine.tumblr.com/tagged/uotablettalk

 

 

Of special interest today

 

- USA: Christian Science Monitor sees traffic, revenues rising after 3 years of Web-first strategy
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/business-news/the-biz-blog/171833/christian-science-monitor-sees-traffic-revenues-rising-after-3-years-of-web-first-strategy/

- USA: A Twin Cities turnaround? The Star Tribune carves a path back through growing audience
http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/05/a-twin-cities-turnaround-the-star-tribune-carves-a-path-back-through-growing-audience/
- USA: Washington Post’s Sunday circulation drop not as steep as it appears
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/172440/washington-posts-circulation-numbers-not-as-bad-as-they-look/

 

Where in the world is Mario?

I am at home in Tampa all of this week: enjoying all that nature I have right outside my back door, with the Hillsborough River as a backdrop; some of the trees in my backyard at 400 years old, and sit on an environmentally protected area of Florida, a swamp, where sometimes the most beautiful birds appear, plus huge turtles, the occasional snake, and, on occasion, sleepy alligators.  But I have a deck that is 10” high so no danger of alligators approaching us!  It is a peaceful and serene setting that I am always happy to come home to.

At home in Tampa, Florida until May 7.

The iPad Design Lab: Storytelling in the Age of the Tablet

 

Video walkthrough of the iPad prototype of iPad Design Lab

 

TheMarioBlog post #1009

Posted by Dr. Mario R. Garcia on May 02, 2012