Shorthorn racks up awards
Michael Currie named nation's top newspaper designer

Pick up The Shorthorn from any campus news rack and look closely at the front page, the features page or the sports page. Every day the paper is filled with examples of the best design work in collegiate publications.

Shorthorn designer Michael Currie.

Journalism senior Michael Currie heads the list of recent award-winning Shorthorn designers. In October he traveled to the Society of News Design convention in Phoenix, where he was named the top college newspaper designer in the country. The Shorthorn won 12 awards in the competition.

"My work was up there on huge screens on either side of the stage," Currie said. "It was really exciting for me, but the thing I liked most about the award is that it also brought recognition to The Shorthorn."

Thanks to the work of Currie and fellow designers Seth Schrock and Jeff Shaw, The Shorthorn has been collecting first-place awards at design contests across the country.

Student Publications Director Lloyd Goodman is proud of the newspaper staff and impressed by its accomplishments.

"We get to see students building their skills, trying new things and putting those skills together," he said. "Especially on the design side, we have students here who are doing great work."

At the National College Media Convention in New Orleans last fall, The Shorthorn was named Best of Show. The paper also received a third-place award in the special publications category for its coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Best of Collegiate Design Contest included entries from more than 80 U.S. colleges and universities. Winners were announced in the fall, and the work was published in a compilation book. UTA designers took first place in six of the 12 categories in which they were eligible and brought home 14 awards. First-place prizes went to Schrock in front page design and feature page design; Currie in sports page design; Currie and Shaw in headline presentation; Shaw in infographics; and Bevin Hoskins in ad design.

"Working on The Shorthorn is one of the best ways for students to gain important, hands-on experience," Goodman said.

That opportunity is what attracts some students to campus in the first place.

"The only reason I came from Richland College to UTA is The Shorthorn," Currie said. "When I got here I wanted to experience every facet of it. I tried everything, and when I got into design I liked it so well that I decided to stay with it."

- SWN