Three awards for room
Jack, Car, Exit and IKEA’s Room were among the winners at this year’s Magazine Design Awards.
The ceremony, sponsored by Press Gazette and Media Week and presented by TV presenter Mariella Frostrup, took place at the London Hilton, Park Lane last week.
Room swept the board and scooped three awards for best designed customer magazine, best redesign/ relaunch and best designed contents page. According to the judges, it was "IKEA at its best: irreverent, funny and piss-taking".
Commenting on the awards, Room acting editor Louise White said: "I really wanted us to get one because I thought we deserved it but to get three was just fantastic. Obviously IKEA has a very strong personality that really does lend itself to that kind of experimental design and fun which is a bonus."
Exit raised its profile and picked up two awards for consumer front cover of the year, described by the judges as "bold, minimalist and striking" and best use of photography. Viewpoint also collected two awards for best designed business magazine and best use of typography.
Car clinched the title of best designed consumer magazine, beating FHM, Glamour, Living Etc, Loaded Fashion and Maxim Fashion in the process. Car art director Andrew Thomas said: "Obviously it means a great deal to us – just looking at the other magazines in the category which were very big titles. We have been very close to winning for a couple of years and this time we finally swung it. We have always considered design and photography very highly."
Maxim Fashion also saw off stiff competition from Vogue, Glamour, Another Magazine, Bliss and Exit and picked up the award for the best designed fashion pages. The Guardian’s Weekend was named best designed newspaper supplement and John Brown Citrus Publishing’s M-Real was singled out for best use of illustration.
Financial Director was voted best front cover in the business-to-business category. The winning cover related to the Enron scandal and featured the simple coverline "Enwrong".
The award for best designed feature of the year went to Redwood’s One Life magazine. CMP’s new homes interiors title Intra won best designed news page.
Finally, Jack clinched the award for best designed launch of the year, beating finalists Another Magazine, Intersection, Maxim Fashion, Men’s Health Manual and Strada. The judges said it was the biggest launch in the men’s market this year with a "controversial and bold format" and "great fashion". The design was inspired by Simon Brown, voted PTC young designer of the year, and Jack’s creative director, Jon Link.
By Ruth Addicott
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