First Place
Larry Buchanan
Indiana Daily Student, Indiana Univ., Bloomington, Ind.

Judge's comments: Start with the nameplate. While smaller and non-traditional, it incorporates into the page very well. The alternative story form for the Little 500 was compelling visually, but it was the “need to know” information that sold that package. This is a paper that takes risks, has a strong identity and knows how to convey information without wasting any space. The secondary centerpiece (Life is a Party) sets a different tone from the rest of the page for a lighter topic. Typography, grid and color work very effectively.

Second Place
Renee Takara
The Daily, Univ. of Washington, Seattle, Wash.

Judge's comments: This is a paper that has structure and takes risks. I’ve kept my eye on it for a few years. Not every lead story needs to be an art-driven centerpiece. There’s a command of typography that is very strong. In addition, if you are going to do breakouts of information, make sure they deserve it, propel the story and are interesting. The Daily does this extremely well. The basketball promo is wonderfully written, a mix of conversational pared with a restrained design does wonders.

Third Place
Charlie Tan Lim
The Daily Illini, Univ. of Illinois, Champaign, Ill.

Judge's comments: Initially, I thought that this was a “pretty page” but it was under more scrutiny that I realized how deceptively well-done this paper is put together. A very eye-catching flag (love the simple whimsical weather icon), a centerpiece that incorporates a stylized graphic, an interesting mix of stories. This is a paper that makes good even on a slow news day.

Fourth Place
Danielle Kim
The Harvard Crimson, Harvard Univ., Cambridge, Mass.

Judge's comments: Let’s talk about tradition. The Harvard Crimson has all the reserved qualities of the great Northeastern metro dailies: a restrained grid, typography and color palette that serve a very strong structure. Like the great professional metros of the area, this is a reader’s newspaper. The graphics are also beautiful, simple and very effective.

Fifth Place
Kelly McHugh
The Daily Tar Heel, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, N.C.

Judge's comments: A strong centerpiece carries the page.

Honorable Mention
Justin Morrison
Golden Gate [X]Press, San Francisco State Univ., San Francisco, Calif.

Judge's comments: Wonderful packages within the design.

Honorable Mention
Jason Willis
The Oakland Post, Oakland Univ., Rochester, Mich.

Judge's comments: This is fun. There’s a lot of effort that went into executing that headline illustration and it is pulled off nearly flawlessly. The color is dynamic.

Honorable Mention
Nate Makuch
Oregon Daily Emerald, Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, Ore.

Judge's comments: I appreciate the efforts put into creating the centerpiece graphic. There’s a lot of little things I like - the promo writing and display, the Web encouragement, and the visual attempts.

Honorable Mention
Tony Gorder
Collegian, South Dakota State Univ., Brookings, S.D.

Judge's comments: Extremely bold design. A smart approach that I hope continued beyond the cover. This would stand out on a newsstand.

Honorable Mention
Staff
The Daily Universe, Brigham Young Univ., Provo, Utah

Judge's comments: Great typography, grid structure, color selection and identity.

First Place
Nicole E. Iacopetti
The Harvard Crimson, Harvard Univ., Cambridge, Mass.

Judge's comments: Intelligent design: elegant use of typography, use of space, illustration. Very clean and easy to digest.

Second Place
Carlos Calante
Eagle News, Florida Gulf Coast Univ., Fort Myers, Fla.

Judge's comments: Fun read with impact: nice use of silhouette, typography and information. Well organized with a “zing.”

Third Place
Claire Byun, Sean Greene
The Daily Bruin, Univ. of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif.

Judge's comments: Valuable information with great use of illustration and infographics. Beautifully executed.

Fourth Place
Susannah Brinkley
Technician, North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, N.C.

Judge's comments: Effective layout, use of typography and pie charts.

Fifth Place
Michael Auslen
Indiana Daily Student, Indiana Univ., Bloomington, Ind.

Judge's comments: Terrific headline treatment and illustration! Elegant design with fun and impact. Great color editing.

Honorable Mention
Malarie Schaffer
The Reflector, Mount Royal Univ., Calgary, Alberta

Judge's comments: Fun, festive arts calendar. Great use of color as guides.

Honorable Mention
Dariush Azmoudeh
The Advocate, Contra Costa College, San Pablo, Calif.

Judge's comments: Strong use of photography, design, color usage, and great attention to details - nice page anchor.

Honorable Mention
Danielle Delph
FSView & Florida Flambeau, Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, Fla.

Judge's comments: Elegant design and use of typography, texture and limited colors.

Honorable Mention
Danny Weilandt
The Daily Illini, Univ. of Illinois, Champaign, Ill.

Judge's comments: Busy but valuable info! Nice use of infographics, maps and background screens.

Honorable Mention
Tim Cook
Cardinal Points, State Univ. of New York at Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, N.Y.

Judge's comments: Strong concept, great use of screens.

First Place
Allison Maze
THINK, Drake Univ., Des Moines, Iowa

Judge's comments: This cover is a series of hand-drawn words that create a word cloud, with the publication name — THINK — being the most prominent word. That title invites you to study the rest of the words on the page. What is the significance of individual words? What is their relationship to one another? The colors really pop off the black background. It was a very eye-catching page that I kept coming back to as I looked through all of the entries.

Second Place
Lauren Stott, Matt Liparota
Northern Star, Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb, Ill.

Judge's comments: This was a truly clever concept: A summer orientation publication designed to evoke a Facebook friend request for new students. It's mostly words, but has many elements similar to the Facebook version. "You have a friend request." Buttons for "confirm" or "ignore." A line reading "You have 24,000 mutual friends" tells you the size of the student body. The text of the "request" introduces you to prominent people in the community and the topics covered in the section in an inviting, conversational manner. I definitely would confirm this friend request.

Third Place
Staff
El Don, Santa Ana College, Santa Ana, Calif.

Fourth Place
Rachel Steinhauser, Claudia Aguirre
Distraction, Univ. of Miami, Coral Gables, Fla.

Fifth Place
Michele Cleary, Jasper L. Clyatt, Hannah D'Apice
Daily Spectator, Columbia Univ., New York, N.Y.

Honorable Mention
Mariam Aldhahi
University Press, Florida Atlantic Univ., Boca Raton, Fla.

Honorable Mention
Allison Goodman
The Miami Hurricane, Univ. of Miami, Coral Gables, Fla.

Honorable Mention
Gary L. Norris, Maria Xia
The Harvard Crimson, Harvard Univ., Cambridge, Mass.

Honorable Mention
Mikaela Buck
The Standard, Missouri State Univ., Springfield, Mo.

Honorable Mention
James Gardner
The Daily Universe, Brigham Young Univ., Provo, Utah

First Place
Caila Brown, Katelan Cunningham
District, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Ga.

Judge's comments: This one is stunning. Just stunning. A masterpiece.

Second Place
Caitlin McCormick, Joi Ong
Reporter, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, N.Y.

Judge's comments: How do you turn a nude woman into something that's not sexy in the least? Like this. An arresting image. And one that matches the lead-in text very well. The lighting and photography is superb. Wonderful.

Third Place
Mark Ziemer, Barry Lee
SCAN, Savannah College of Art and Design-Atlanta, Atlanta, Ga.

Judge's comments: By far the best illustration of the entire field this year. Wonderfully rendered. I love the very subtle use of color. And it made me laugh. Nice.

Fourth Place
Lauren Jow
Flux, Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, Ore.

Judge's comments: A wonderful photo to illustrate "steampunk" and then the designer played off of it perfectly. Great typography and the use of color here is outstanding.

Fifth Place
Yasmin Marquez
Minero Magazine, Univ. of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas

Judge's comments: A great use of a dramatically-cropped photo. Those empty seats tell the story well.

Honorable Mention
Kenneth Garcia
Ibis, Univ. of Miami, Coral Gables, Fla.

Honorable Mention
Kourtney Salter, Adam Densmore, Olivia Montgomery
Savoir Faire, Bossier Parish CC, Bossier City, La.

Honorable Mention
Ryan Amos
Recensio, Miami Univ., Oxford, Ohio

First Place
Sara Gregory, Ryan Kurtzman, Jonathan Jones
The Daily Tar Heel, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, N.C.

Judge's comments: The "Connecting the Dots" piece is a masterful job of explaining a very complex story, showing the folks who are wrapped up in the mess and just where they currently stand in the investigation. These kinds of diagrams are difficult to pull off well. This example does it about as well as it can be done.

Second Place
Ko Kawazoe
Reporter, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, N.Y.

Judge's comments: "Frozen Sky" is elegant in its simplicity. The artist could have put in twice as many constellations. That would have made this piece unreadable. Brilliantly done.

Third Place
Liliana Oyarzun
Ibis, Univ. of Miami, Coral Gables, Fla.

Judge's comments: "Rolling through the Decade" is the old "word cloud" approach. Man, I'm tired of seeing these, because I've seen this done so many times. Rarely do I see it done in a fresh way and rarely do I see it done well. And then -- Boom! -- this piece comes along and does both. Masterful. And the use of color is just brilliant.

Fourth Place
Larry Buchanan
Indiana Daily Student, Indiana Univ., Bloomington, Ind.

Judge's comments: "How We've Changed" was one of several entries this year that are a collection of smaller graphs that tell a bigger story. You see these on the internet a lot these days, and most of them are either unreadable or they don't handle the numbers in an appropriate way. This graphic does handle the numbers well and it's very readable. The clean design helps a lot, too. Beautiful job.

Fifth Place
Jason Willis
The Oakland Post, Oakland Univ., Rochester, Mich.

Judge's comments: Typically, I don't go for the "data visualization" style that's so popular these days. But this piece is so well done, the information is entertaining. And I like the narrow focus: That's going on during one hour. A great read and well-told, visually.

Honorable Mention
Brian Pohuski
The Crimson White, Univ. of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Honorable Mention
Sarah Andrews
The Times-Delphic, Drake Univ., Des Moines, Iowa

Honorable Mention
Brandon Coley
News Argus, Winston-Salem State Univ., Winston-Salem, N.C.

Honorable Mention
Alexandra Notman
Ethos, Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, Ore.

Honorable Mention
Eric Wiegmann
The Badger Herald, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.

First Place
Larry Buchanan
Inside, Indiana Univ., Bloomington, Ind.

Judge's comments: A simple yet powerful solution. Good use of negative space for subhead. Rather than trying for a metaphor, the straight depiction of the author’s anecdote was a wise choice.

Second Place
Olivia Anthony
The Daily Bruin, Univ. of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif.

Judge's comments: Nice lyrical treatment of a classical motif. Good contrast of bold overall shape and smaller detail. Original style, palette and personality.

Third Place
Katy Jo Desantis
The State News, Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, Mich.

Judge's comments: A clear simple image like this is always successful. Photo works better than a drawing would have; smart choice. Sometimes reality and mere juxtaposition are all you need.

Fourth Place
Jeffrey Pallak
Wingspan, Laramie County CC, Cheyenne, Wyo.

Judge's comments: A fun idea well-executed. Worth the time on constructing the set and delicately superimposing drawings.

Fifth Place
Jeremy Nguyen
District, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Ga.

Judge's comments: Solid drawing and unique points of view. Very well coordinated text and images. Original and successful.

Honorable Mention
Adam Sheetz
University Press, Florida Atlantic Univ., Boca Raton, Fla.

Judge's comments: Very dynamic style. Good sense of humor. Created a consistent approach throughout.

Honorable Mention
Mike Ricci
Eagle News, Florida Gulf Coast Univ., Fort Myers, Fla.

Judge's comments: Nice cinematic mood. Good sense of detail to tell story. Well thought out merging of two separate photo shoots. The white image contrasting the black one is very successful.

Honorable Mention
Danny Weilandt
The Daily Illini, Univ. of Illinois, Champaign, Ill.

Judge's comments: Great page, held together by strong contrast or small figure and large sky. Well balanced text and smartly composed cover.

Honorable Mention
Tony Contini
The Nevada Sagebrush, Univ. of Nevada, Reno, Reno, Nev.

Judge's comments: Powerful. Composition and zoom-in on subject allowed this to go beyond a cliché and provide action and feelings. Black background sets the right tone.

Honorable Mention
Chris Alton
The Daily Tar Heel, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, N.C.

Judge's comments: Very well drawn. Clear detail that doesn’t distract from the overall strength of the larger image. Well art directed to allow integration of art and text. A strike page.