Region 3 moving / shaking.

There have been several member moves in Region 3 lately!

This just in from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's design director, Paul Wallen:

I'm very excited to announce yet another terrific addition to our visuals team!

Nuri Ducassi will be joining us in mid-June as Features Design Director.

Nuri is currently the Design Director at the Montreal Gazette, where she's responsible for the overall presentation of the paper. She led a total redesign of the Gazette in 2006 and her staff to 33 SND awards over three years.

Widely recognized as one of the best designers, illustrators and teachers in the country, Nuri has an incredible track record of success at the San Jose Mercury News, Hartford Courant and Miami Herald. She has been a visiting faculty member at Northwestern University, Poynter Institute and American Press Institute. In 2006, she was an SND World's Best judge for the 28th edition.

In taking this position, Nuri returns to her "roots" in several ways. Professionally, she will get to focus on her first love - features design. Personally, she is coming home to South Florida, where she has family and many friends.

Nuri will be relocating from Quebec, along with her partner Nauret, three dogs (Barolo aka Pablit, Frederika aka Fritzi, Paco aka Puki aka Bebe) and two cats.

I expect Nuri's talent, energy and infectious personality to make a big impact and help us elevate even further what we do on a daily basis.

Please join me in giving Nuri a warm Sun-Sentinel welcome!

You can find some examples of Nuri's Miami work at NPD.

The Sun-Sentinel also recently hired Tim Ball as Sports Design Director. Catch the details here and his portfolio on NPD.

AND Kevin Wendt, an Assistant Managing Editor at the San Jose Mercury News, will become the editor of the Huntsville Times in Huntsville, Ala. You can read all about it at SND Update.

Congratulations to Nuri, Tim, the Sun-Sentinel, Kevin and the Huntsville Times on some exciting moves! Welcome to Region 3!

Story Forms Boot Camp in Region 3

A two-day Quick Course on alternative story forms is coming to Region 3 at the end of this month.

The schedule looks incredible: The case for doing alternative story forms, EyeTrack results, developing stories for a true "charticle" form, and how to dissect information so it's easier for readers to digest. All this, and get help brainstorming story ideas or even making an ASF with a story already in the works at your own paper.

Trainers include Josh Awtry of The Salt Lake Tribune, Stephen Komives of the Orlando Sentinel and Denise Reagan of the Florida Times-Union.

March 29-30
Freedom Forum
John Seigenthaler Center, Vanderbilt University
1207 18th Ave. S.
Nashville, Tenn.

Find information on how to register at SND.org.

Tiffany Hurt to the AJC

More member moves in Region 3 ... this time from one Region 3 paper to another! Tiffany Hurt will be joining The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a designer from the St. Petersburg Times.

Dee Dee D'Asaro, Print Senior Editor/Visuals at the AJC, said in a memo to the staff:

Tiffany Hurt joins The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's design team as a news designer starting in late April.
Tiffany comes to us from St. Petersburg Times, where she designed mostly A1 and local news fronts in addition to planning duties. Before that, she was a news designer at the The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla.
Tiffany brings her considerable skills to Atlanta at a critical time as we rethink our weekend paper and hone our digital objectives, among other initiatives. We are thrilled to have her with us!

You can check out Tiffany's NPD portfolio here.

Congratulations Tiffany and the AJC!

'Intern' finalist Bill Couch moves to USA Today

Bill Couch, a finalist in SNDOrlando's "The Intern" competition, is leaving the Orlando Sentinel for the nation's newspaper, USA Today. Bonita Burton, AME/Visuals at the Sentinel and SND Treasurer/Secretary, sums it up far better than I could in a memo to the staff:

“I’m sorry to announce that William Couch is leaving the Sentinel for a position at USA Today. At the nation’s newspaper, Bill will create online graphics, data-driven Flash applications and other new technologies exclusively for USAToday.com. His last day in Orlando is yet to be determined, but he will be starting work in McLean, VA on April 1st.

Bill’s time with us has been short but very sweet. He first came on our radar 18 months ago as one of 10 national finalists competing for design internships at SND’s annual workshop in Orlando. During this high-profile event, Bill distinguished himself as a media junkie well ahead of his time (see his video). His slick multimedia campaign won over the crowd and secured a coveted internship at the Arizona Republic. The Poynter Institute also took notice and offered Bill a prestigious 2007 summer fellowship. It was fresh out of that program that we snagged him for our new hybrid design & graphics team eight months ago.

While Bill never did get the benefit of that hard-won internship out west, he hit the ground running here defining a job that never existed before. Assignment No 1: our first newsroom-generated Flash graphic, an interactive map to accompany the UCF stadium opener. Determined to bring something new and useful to the report, Bill spent an entire afternoon timing the hot walk between each parking lot and the new stadium. He next teamed with Tory Hargro to tell the back story of Col. Mike McCoy through photos, videos and interactive animations. Then he really got cranking with quick-turn Flash graphics that explained how Odyssey Middle School was built on a controversial bombing range and how a deadly 70-car pileup unfolded on I-4. Up next: a rich interactive presentation on global warming’s impact on Florida’s sea levels. Bill has also regularly produced 2-D graphics for the paper and found technical shortcuts that cut production time of our TV grids in half.

We’ll miss Bill’s infectious energy, imagination and good humor. Most of all, we’ll miss the wacky noises he unconsciously makes when on the verge of a creative breakthrough. At least we still have his Twitter feed (297 followers), his Facebook page (780 friends) and Flickr albums (more than 8,000 pictures, including a set titled “Food Porn”). And there’s always something happening at WilliamCouch.com.

Please join me in wishing Bill well in his new adventure.”

Congratulations, Bill! We'll miss you in Region 3.

SND29 ... back from the Cuse

The SND gang is finished with judging for the 29th Annual Best of Newspaper Design competition in Syracuse, N.Y. In case you haven't seen the coverage, there is an incredible amount of videos, photos and blog updates at various places on the interwebs (including the newly-designed update.snd.org).

update.snd.org
flickr
designhawg and design monkey

The database will be updated soon, so we'll all know how papers in Region 3 did. For now, the St. Petersburg Times is in the top 10 for awards out of nearly 15,000 entries and about 1,100 winners.

Congratulations!

The World's Best Designed newspapers will be judged next weekend in Syracuse, and those results should be available by Tuesday, Feb. 19. The SND Update Blog will have live coverage of that judging, too.