Few years ago, I was in Copenhagen to give a lecture at the “Danish School of Media and Journalism” and a workshop for the “Politiken” and “Ekstra Bladet” newspapers.
After the lecture, at the university, I met Lars Pryds, where I learned that he was the Editor-in-Chief of the SNDs magazine. I was amazed with the incredible contribution that Lars was doing for so many years for our industry, in Scandinavia, a region with so many newspapers and professionals that I admire.
I have been closely following the publication in the last years and this week I found out that Lars, after 11 years of an amazing work, decided to not lead the magazine anymore.
My first reaction was to write him, simply to say “thank you”.
For the great magazines. Publications in which we got to know fantastic newspapers, inspiring redesigns, highlights on coverage of special topics, new talented designers, and so many other aspects of our industry, where visual journalism makes a difference.
He answered me sharing his experience in these last 11 years:
“Working with SNDS Magazine for 11 years has been amazing – not least because of all the good people from all over the world, who unselfishly have shared their words, pictures, thoughts and ideas with our loyal readers.Without this great content, it would not have been possible.We have always tried to let the covers reflect one of the themes or stories within the mag. Sometimes the main story, at others the most visually appealing subject. Here are some of my personal favourites – a selection that also documents the diversity of the content.”
I asked Lars to select the 10 magazines that marked him the most. Here is what he says about each of them:
“An issue with two themes, really – a lot of great photography, and a look at modern typography. The latter urged me to photograph some old Roman Capital Letters, which I had carved in marble myself 20 years earlier in design school”
“A selfportrait of the Danish photographer Liv Carlé Mortensen (1970– ) with her sons – stark naked, but with her breasts removed and deep flesh cuts added in Photoshop – was blocked (twice!) from my Facebook profile as well as from SNDS Magazine’s issuu.com page. So much (or so little) respect for the freedom of speech in pictures. Liv was one of the great speakers at the 2008 SNDS conference”
“In 2010, I interviewed another Danish photographer: Mads Nissen (1979– ), who at the time was beginning to gain recognition for his work on an international level, peaking in 2015, when he won the World Press Photo “Picture of the Year” award. The cover shows a detail of his touching photo of Angela, a prostitute in a village near Eldorado do Juma, the enormous illegal gold mine in Brazil’s Amazone rainforest”
“Make a drawing,” Lisbeth said. The editor of my life – and also co-editor of SNDS Magazine since I took over as editor-in-chief from Jørgen Høg in 2010 – persuaded me to create an ink-and-brush drawing of Scandinavia for this cover. It seemed only natural that the logo/nameplate of the mag should also be hand-drawn – for the first and only time in the magazine’s history. The map shows all the different locations for 25 years of SNDS conferences”
“The world is blown away! No, not by terrorists or World War III, but by a single, old-style revolver. This fiberglass sculpture by Chinese artist A Shin (Chen Shih-Hung), which I photographed at the International Biennale of Art in Venice, Italy, is a strong statement in the borderland between news and art – a visual question to us all: What do we want to do with this world?”
”Gudrun Marie Schmidt, journalist at Danish newspaper Politiken, was the amazingly elegant and super charming Award Show host at the SPACE_2012 SNDS conference, held in the Royal Library (the Black Diamond) in Copenhagen. In this cover photo by Ditte valente, Gudrun applauds the winners in front of the biggest screen in town, showing my design for that year’s competition. This is also an example of the “themed conferences” for which SND Scandinavia has gained a reputation, but which sadly have been phased out in recent years”
“The blue arse” turned into a joke between me and the rest of the committee, when I suggested we use it on the cover of the catalogue of winners in the 2014 competition. We found another solution for the book, but I decided to run my snapshot from the jury work on the magazine instead. The entry – by Norwegian Dagens Næringsliv/D2 – won an Honourable Mention award”
”In recent years, the SNDS conference has been in October, so issue no. 4 of the magazine has traditionally been packed with images and reports from the event. On this cover, long time SNDS member Ingrid Meisingset, Design Director at Adresseavisen (N), tries on the then celebrated, now discontinued Google Glass. Photo by Søren Stidsholt Nielsen”
”With the first issue in 2015, we launched a discreet redesign of the mag, changing the grid system as well as replacing Myriad and Jenson with the more contemporary typefaces Museo Slab and Erik Spiekerman’s brand new Real Text. This year, we also introduced a new concept for the annual design conference – instead of a changing theme, the identity of the event was to focus on SNDS and the year. The new conference logo is seen here in one of our clean cut graphic covers”
“My best performance is always the next one,” said one of the dancers in a recent Copenhagen production of the Nutcracker. But as I will not be creating the next cover for SNDS Magazine, this last one is a favourite. It conveys the joy of winning, and it signals the importance of being a member of the unique global network formed by SNDS and SND. This simply could not be a better final cover – happy members Gunn Magni Galaaen and Annette Lysberg Gundersen from Trønder-Avisa (N) on stage in Malmoe, accepting a Gold Award. Another great photo by Søren Stidsholt Nielsen”
Lars Pryds is a Copenhagen based artist and designer, working with editorial design, publishing and fine art from Tolstrup Pryds Grafisk Tegnestue, which he shares since 1987 with his wife, designer and art critic Lisbeth Tolstrup. He holds a Master’s Degree in Design from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation. He has over 20 years of experience from some of Denmark’s largest daily newspapers and is a multiple SND and SNDS award winner.