The Grid, a free weekly magazine in Toronto, has been named one of the five best designed newspapers in the world, along with Toronto-based daily National Post.

The two publications were named in the 33rd annual Best of Newspaper Design Creative Competition from the Society for News Design (SND), which calls itself an international organization for news media professionals and visual communicators.


The judge's statement for The Grid states what sets it apart visually is "many tiny informative graphic details throughout the pages." The judges also liked that keywords are highlighted in yellow, and "small locator maps show where to find the spot mentioned in the presentation."

The Grid also "surprises with sparse but great inside photography on full spreads" noted the judges.

The Grid is a reincarnation of Eye Weekly, which became The Grid in May 2011. Design Edge writer Cassie McDaniel talked to Laas Turnbull, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Grid, for Design Edge's  Jan/Feb 2012 print edition. "We had nothing in common with Eye Weekly — the way we approach the city, the tone of it, the way it looks," said Turnbull. "We felt like we really needed to make a clean break."

The Grid's logo, a black-and-white street map, is a clear reference to the city's grid structure. The design team envisions The Grid as a hybrid between a coffee-table magazine and a newspaper. Instead of cramming the cover with as many articles as possible, or giving disproportionate attention to a single must-read story (as done on magazine covers), The Grid has adopted a flexible, modular stance that allows each cover to be different. "We can put stuff almost anywhere. We don't have to go with the common trope of having the feature story be the biggest," said Turnbull.

Staying true to its name, it relies on a grid system applied to each layout. The typeface is Fakt, designed by Thomas Thiemich and inspired by Helvetica and Futura. To read the full article on The Grid in the Jan./Feb. 2012 issue, as well as a take a video tour of the publication, download Design Edge's iPad edition of the issue.


As for the National Post, the judges liked its "sultry beauty" that pulls readers into an "authoritative" read. "This newspaper — always elegant, always powerful — stands out as a World's Best this year for its excellence in, and devotion to, true visual storytelling." That includes "dramatic" use of illustration, to its combination of photos, graphics and text. "The Post utilizes every visual tool in its arsenal to perfection."

In October 2011, The Society for News Design handed its highest honour — a lifetime achievement award — to Gayle Grin, the Post's managing editor of design and graphics.

"Through her vision, imagination, enthusiasm and drive, she helps push all the staff to think visually as they put together every day's paper," said editor-in-chief Stephen Meurice in a Post story.

The other top-designed publications in the world named by SND include Excelsior from Mexico City, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung from Germany, and Politiken from Denmark.