SND Co-hosts the First Middle East News Design Conference
2012

This was the website for the 2012 1st Middle East News Design Conference. The two-day event began on Nov. 8, 2012. The conference had focus sessions on newspaper design and redesign, information graphics and platforms such as the web and tablet. It was organised by An-Nahar, the Lebanon-based newspaper, and the Society for News Design SND.

My company which sells wholesale vaporizer products was interested in the conference as a means to network with various Middle Eastern publications. We felt that with the high level of customer service we offer and our core values that shape the way we do business, we believed that our product could make inroads into the Middle Eastern marketplace. At the time of the conference many countries in the Middle East banned vaping devices, but we were looking at the long picture. As of 2015 a leading public-health expert called for the governments to reconsider their attitude towards e-cigarettes, claiming that the devices could be a lifesaver for smokers. Dr Derek Yach, a former cabinet director at the World Health Organization (WHO) spoke in favour of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), stating that they should be brought into the mainstream. Yet at the same time it emerged that Oman was considering banning e-cigarettes, with a senior Ministry of Health official questioning their safety.

They have not been approved by international health agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the WHO, and the safety of these cigarettes is yet to be proven, Dr Jawad Al Lawati of the Oman Ministry of Health™s National Tobacco Control Committee told Muscat Daily.

If a ban is enforced, Oman will join 25 other countries where e-cigarettes are completely prohibited by law. They include Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Still we are hopeful since the numbers for those who smoke cigarettes in the Middle East are rising. Time will tell if our initial foray pays off.

ABOUT the 2012 Middle East News Design Conference

The Society for News Design is honored to announce our 1st Middle East News Design Conference, which boasts an impressive roster of speakers and topics, all set in the gorgeous and vibrant cosmopolitan seaport of Beirut, the Pearl of the Middle East.

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As someone who helps organize large conferences and events, I was really impressed with the SND20Events.com site for the 1st Middle East News Design Conference in 2012. The amount of detail they provide about the speakers, sessions, and workshops is fantastic - it really gets me excited about the high caliber of this event.

I especially liked how they had separate tracks for the main conference presentations on Day 1 and then hands-on workshops on Day 2. That allows attendees to get both valuable insights from the speakers as well as practical training. The topics covered everything from redesigning for new formats and platforms, to Arabic typography, to infographics and data visualization. Clearly this was a comprehensive look at news design for the Middle East region.

One thing that caught my eye was the mention of preparing entries for major news design competitions like SND, IFRA and Malofiej. With my organization recently migrating away from Microsoft Access for our backend conference management, I'm very interested in finding a modern Microsoft Access replacement like this one. Having an integrated awards submission process would be extremely helpful for efficiently collecting, reviewing and submitting our award entries across multiple competitions each year. I'll definitely look into the platforms they are using and see if we can implement something similar. Overall, I'm really impressed with how substantive and professional this SND Middle East conference seems to have been organized. I wish I could have attended back in 2012! [Petriana Sovetti]

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EXHIBITION

The award-winning pages from the Middle East selected in the Society for News Design Creative competition this year in Syracuse (USA) will be a parallel event at the Beirut conference. It will be possible to study the work of the winners in both English and Arabic language newspapers.

Informational graphics, features, illustrations, news design pages and pictures are some of the categories that will be showcased.

The SND competition is an annual worldwide event and gets more than 14,000 entries from more than 24 countries

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DAY 1: CONFERENCE

The Evolution of Arabic design in the news

In the last few years, the level of design quality in Arabic language publications has become professional. This presentation will show the advances and innovation in some Arab newspapers in the Middle East.

It's an unique opportunity to know about the publications and their innovation.

Speaker: Stephen Komives

The challenge of changing format

Broadsheet is a traditional format in the region, but Gulf News, the leading English language newspaper, has become the first newspaper to adopt the Berliner format. Mohammed Almezel, manager editor of Gulf News, will talk about the evolution of the newspaper, not only in print, but as a powerhouse of media organisation in the Gulf region.

Speaker: Mohammed Almezel

Redesign and target audience

How Arabic newspapers are changing design and content. They are becoming easier to read through the use of more visual elements and less text. New strategies for printed newspapers and how to target the audience - old and young readers - without losing the serious and proper layout design.

Speaker: Ziad El-Kassis

Switching channels - tips on cross-platform communication

Like any modern news provider, The Guardian publishes to a multitude of platforms. Delivering interactive content to all these readers can be a challenge. Every device has individual capabilities - what works on one may not look or feel appropriate to another. The delicate balance of design, data and storytelling at the heart of interactive news content can be hard to maintain in the face of cross-platform differences. This presentation covers some practical lessons learned whilst bringing our work to desktop, tablet & mobile users.

Speaker: Alastair Dant

Arabic typography and the cultural connections

Working on her master's degree at Central Saint Martins in London, Rana discovered the need to simplify Arabic script to non-native speakers. As a result she designed the font family Mirsaal in both Latin and Arabic and created the book Cultural Connectives, a tool where rules of Arabic script are applied to Latin. Rana will share her experience and design process, building on her passion for typography and design cultures.

Speaker:Rana Abou Rjeily

Arabic design is great!

Explore the creative possibilities of Arabic design. Language is not a barrier to creating great pages. Discover the new tendencies in design specific for Arabic audiences and surprise your readers with intelligent and creative design pages.

Speaker: Osama Aljawish

Branding and cross cultural visual identities

The Middle East has witnessed a boom of branding (and re-branding) in the last decade. A rising design culture rightly shifted the developments of visual identities towards design studios rather than advertising agencies- and prompted the search for the development of identities that are genuinely local and a result of a growing arabic graphic design practice.

Cross cultural design considerations remain the main challenge in branding in our region nowadays: Particularly when it comes to brand validity across several sub-cultures within the Arab world, or when it comes to the importance of creating visual identities for publication brands.

Netherlands based Lebanese-Dutch designer Tarek Atrissi will discuss such branding challenges as well as Arabic typography and communication design considerations that plays an important part in branding practice in the Middle East today.

Speaker: Tarek Atrissi

Infographics in the newsroom, a multilingual tool?

Certainly, images have an advantage over words to overpass cultural barriers; they appeal to our common nature as they have a heavy perceptual component that allow us to use them as a shortcut to knowledge. But there are certain limits to that. Specifically when talking about abstract concepts. You can be vague with words but rarely with images and that is why, in your everyday job, you must avoid the capital fails of an under-pressure newsroom: gratuitous visualization and "data-imagination".

Speaker: Luis Chumpitaz

Tips and tricks in the News Design competition

International competitions such as SND, IFRA and Malofiej are important opportunity to show what your creative staff are producing.In this session you will learn the tips on how your publications prepare their entries and increase the chances of winning. Times of Oman and Al Shabiba newspaper became award-winning publications in the Middle East in less than two years.

Speaker: Adonis Durado

The challenges in the design for Arab language publications

A step by step guide on how to organise and structure your design department to produce a better visually- oriented publication followed by a case study of recent Arab language newspapers redesigns.

Speaker: Douglas Okasaki

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DAY 2- WORKSHOP

WORKSHOP I/ DESIGN CRITICS for Arabic language publication

Participants will analyse their publication and discover what the best you can do to improve the design quality while respecting your audience .

In the workshop on day 2, participants will find the best design solution for all sections and learn to think visually, participants will analyse their product and work under the guidance of the trainer.

The workshop will give the participants a critique on their typography, color, layout and visual storytelling.

Workshop chairpersons: Adonis Durado and Osama Aljawish

WORKSHOP II/ INFOGRAPHICS

Making infographics, communicating through images Participants will work around certain topics to make a graphic, where they will recognize the different kinds of graphics, and how each of them is suitable or not to apply, according to the content. They will recognize the most common mistakes found not only in the world of the newspapers, but in information graphics in general.

Participants will be given a feedback of their work, regarding visual communication and its use in the newsroom.

Workshop trainer: Luis Chumpitaz

contact: design@luischumpitaz.com

All participants will receive a certificate.

LUIS CHUMPITAZ

Dubai Media Incorporate - UAE

Luis Chumpitaz is an intrepid explorer of multi-lingual design and journalism who, over the past 15 years, has worked for Spanish, English, Arabic, Indian and Chinese media companies. He is well know for his contribution at Comercio, Correo, Emirates 24|7, Emarat Al Youm and Al Bayan newspapers. His work has received several international awards from the Society of News Design (SND), the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and Malofiej, considered the Pulitzer Prize of the infographics industry.

Today, Luis combines a busy job as the head of graphics for several Dubai-based newspapers with teaching at universities and participating in media conferences around the world.

As an active member of SND and WAN-IFRA, Luis favours a collaborative approach and pursues the highest ethical and artistic standards in all aspects of his work.

ADONIS DURADO
Al Shabiba and Times of Oman

Adonis Durado is the design director of Muscat Press and Publishing House, publisher of two major dailies in Oman - Times of Oman and Al Shabiba (in Arabic). In two years of working with the company, he has transformed its products from relatively unknown to the most awarded publications in the Middle East, winning more than 100 international accolades in the Society of News Design creative competition, Malofiej Infographic Awards, and the WAN-IFRA Asia Media Awards. Durado's work has also been awarded by the Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts Design Annual, CA Typographics Annual, Tabbie Awards, and FOLIO's Eddie Awards. He has helped launch more than a dozen magazine and newspaper titles in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

SAMA ALJAWISH
Al Shabiba and Times of Oman

Osama Aljawish is senior designer of Al Shabiba and Times of Oman newspapers in Muscat, Osama has received several awards from the SND Creative Competition, including a gold and a JSR (judges special recognition).
Born and raised in Syria, he received his BA degree from Damascus University. He is a member of Fine Artists Association of Syria

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SPEAKERS

STEPHEN KOMIVES
Society for News Design-USA
The president of Society for News Design works as a graphics editor at the Chicago Tribune. He has previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, Rocky Mountain News and The Times of Northwestern Indiana in various capacities, including art director, designer, graphics editor and artist.

ZIAD KASSIS
Art Director,
An Nahar Newspaper
Conference Chairman

He has over 17 years of experience in graphic design and ad consulting. He built a career with the Cooperative Printing Company (An-Nahar Group) from 1996 till 2010 and served as a graphic designer.

He was senior graphic designer and head of photo retouch department at Noun Magazine (An-Nahar Group), a monthly French women's magazine, from 1997 till 2005, art director for Nahar Ashabab and An-Nahar newspaper. Kassis has also conducted courses and training workshops related to professional photo retouching. He is member of the Lebanese Graphic Design syndicate and has worked as a consultant art director on several projects with Knowledge View, Al-Bustan Festival and K4 workflow, and for various newspapers such as Al Sharq Newspaper, Awan newspaper and l'Orient-Le-Jour newspaper.

ALASTAIR DANT

Lead Interactive Technologist - Guardian News & Media

Since joining the Guardian, Alastair has played games with the UK budget, created one of Steve Jobs' favorite iPad apps, visualised the Wikileaks war logs and played ball with Twitter. This builds on two decades of tinkering, encompassing early experiments with BASIC, architecting popular children's games and assembling art pieces like the Folk Songs Project.

Having won a few awards for his work at the Guardian, he has recently been given the chance to build a small team aimed at pushing the boundaries of interactive news development. This has led to a series of talks and workshops in Europe and the US.

MOHAMMED ALMEZEL

Managing Editor - Gulf News

Mohammed Almezel is the Managing Editor of Gulf News, the Dubai-based leading English language daily in the region. Mohammed joined Gulf News 11 years ago as the Gulf Regional Bureau Chief. Prior to that, he worked in other organizations including the Arabic daily Al Khaleej, based in Sharjah.

He leads both the print and online teams in the region™s best selling daily and most visited news website according to the latest reports from Forbes and the Arab Media Forum.

Gulf News has recently went into a landmark transformation in its prints edition. it has gone from eh traditional broadsheet size to the futuristic Berliner size, a process that involved not only the press and production parts of the business but required a whole change of mindset in the newsroom to come up with a completely integrated story-telling technique.

RANA ABOU RJEILY

Independent Designer

A Lebanese graphic and type designer based in Beirut, Rana graduated from Notre Dame University with a BA in Graphic Design and later acquired a Masters Degree in Visual Communication from Central Saint Martins, London. Rana is presently teaching typographic and design courses at Notre Dame University (NDU) since 2007. She is the author of Cultural Connectives, a typographic book bridging Arabic and Latin scripts.

TAREK ATRISSI

Tarek Atrissi Design - The Netherlands

Beirut born Tarek Atrissi runs his Netherlands based multi-disciplinary design studio, Tarek Atrissi Design (www.atrissi.com), specializing in Arabic design, branding, cross-cultural design and Arabic typography. Atrissi is one of the most recognized Arab designers in the world. His awards include the Adobe Design Achievement Awards; The Dutch Design award; and the Type Directors Club. His clients include Al-Ghad Newspaper in Jordan; the V&A Museum in London and "Mathaf" Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar. He lectures internationally about Arabic visual culture and he teaches at the department of Art, Media and Technology at the Utrecht School of the Arts in Holland.

OSAMA ALJAWISH

Al Shabiba and Times of Oman

A Senior Designer of Al Shabiba and Times of Oman newspaper in Muscat . Osama has received several awards from the SND Creative Competition, including gold and a JSR (judge™s special recognition).

Born and raised in Syria, he received his bachelors of Arts degree from Damascus University. He is a member of Fine Artists Association of Syria.

LUIS CHUMPITAZ

Dubai Media Incorporate - UAE

Today, Luis combines a busy job as the head of graphics for several Dubai-based newspapers with teaching at universities and participating in media conferences around the world.

As an active member of SND and WAN-IFRA, Luis favours a collaborative approach and pursues the highest ethical and artistic standards in all aspects of his work

see interview.

ADONIS DURADO

Al Shabiba and Times of Oman

Adonis Durado is the design director of Muscat Press and Publishing House, publisher of two major dailies in Oman - Times of Oman and Al Shabiba (in Arabic). In two years of working with the company, he has transformed its products from relatively unknown to the most awarded publications in the Middle East, winning more than 100 international accolades in the Society of News Design creative competition, Malofiej Infographic Awards, and the WAN-IFRA Asia Media Awards. Durado's work has also been awarded by the Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts Design Annual, CA Typographics Annual, Tabbie Awards, and FOLIO's Eddie Awards. He has helped launch more than a dozen magazine and newspaper titles in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

DOUGLAS OKASAKI

Society for News Design's regional director for Middle East and Africa and Gulf News senior designer

He works at Gulf News, Dubai - the Middle East's largest English daily - and handles the design of the Sports section. With his acumen and innovation, he has given a new look to the sports pages and his design has been recognised internationally.

He has already worked in Tokyo and Brazil in publications such as Folha de S.Paulo and O Globo Newspaper.

More Background On SND20Events.com

SND20Events.com once served as an important digital hub for a major regional edition of the global Society for News Design (SND) conference series. Although the website is no longer active today, its archived purpose and structure illuminate a fascinating chapter in the evolution of visual journalism, especially within the Middle East. The site was most prominently associated with the First Middle East News Design Conference, held in 2012, which gathered designers, editors, educators, typographers, and media professionals from multiple countries for an immersive two-day event centered on the craft and future of news design.

What made SND20Events.com distinctive is that it was more than a conference listing. It functioned as a hybrid platform for event promotion, speaker profiles, workshop guidance, regional news-design philosophy, and cross-cultural media education. Its creation marked a defining moment in the spread of global design standards into Arabic-language and multilingual newsrooms.

This article reconstructs the full scope and significance of SND20Events.com — including its ownership partnerships, historical context, audience, goals, programming, workshops, cultural significance, and lasting impact on the news-design ecosystem.

Ownership, Partnerships, and Organizational Background

The Society for News Design (SND)

SND is a long-established global organization focused on elevating the standards of visual journalism. It is known for major international competitions, its annual “Best of News Design” awards, workshops, and conferences that emphasize excellence in layout, typography, infographics, digital storytelling, and multimedia design.

SND20Events.com aligned itself with SND’s mission by hosting and presenting a regional extension of the organization’s outreach. The “SND20” branding was associated with global initiatives intended to bring news-design education and recognition to regions outside the Western media matrix. The Middle East edition represented one of SND’s most ambitious expansions, introducing high-level design discourse to newspapers and media outlets navigating rapid technological and aesthetic transitions.

Partnership with An-Nahar Newspaper

The 2012 Middle East News Design Conference was co-organized with An-Nahar, one of Lebanon’s most historic and respected print institutions. An-Nahar’s involvement signaled a deep regional investment in the advancement of visual reporting and newsroom design standards. Beirut’s reputation as a cultural capital — often referred to as the “Pearl of the Middle East” — made it an ideal host.

This partnership also underscores how local media organizations were beginning to embrace international design methodologies, signaling a broader transformation occurring in the region’s journalism landscape.

Purpose and Goals of SND20Events.com

SND20Events.com operated with several interconnected goals:

1. Expanding Global Access to Professional News-Design Training

For a long time, major design conferences were concentrated in North America or Europe. SND20Events.com represented an effort to democratize geographic access by establishing a premier event specifically for Middle Eastern and African newsrooms.

2. Providing Region-Specific Visual-Journalism Education

The site emphasized topics critical to Arabic-language publications, including:

Arabic typography
Bilingual design challenges
Cross-platform visual storytelling
Infographics tailored to culturally diverse audiences
Redesign strategies for newspapers transitioning from traditional broadsheet formats to contemporary visual styles

3. Encouraging Regional Newspapers to Participate in Global Competitions

The event highlighted opportunities for organizations to submit their work to global design contests, including SND, IFRA, Malofiej, and WAN-IFRA awards. This positioned Middle Eastern newspapers on a competitive global stage for the first time.

4. Fostering Cross-Cultural Collaboration

Speakers and trainers came from Lebanon, Syria, the UAE, Oman, the UK, the U.S., the Netherlands, India, China, and other regions — reinforcing the site’s mission of bridging design philosophies across cultures.

5. Creating a Networking Platform for Designers

SND20Events.com enabled designers, editors, and digital storytellers to meet, collaborate, and cultivate long-term professional relationships that extended far beyond the conference dates.

Event Location and Proximity Significance

The 2012 conference took place in Beirut, a city with unique symbolic and strategic value:

It is a cosmopolitan hub with deep historical ties to journalism and publishing.
A large number of regional newspapers and television stations maintain editorial or creative offices in the city.
Beirut sits geographically at the crossroads of the Middle East, making it accessible to attendees from the Levant, the Gulf, North Africa, and beyond.
The city’s multicultural environment provided an ideal backdrop for discussions on cross-cultural design and multilingual typography.

By situating the event in Beirut, SND signaled its commitment to supporting Middle Eastern media ecosystems and acknowledging the region’s vibrant design community.

Popularity and Audience Profile

The SND20 conference drew a professional audience consisting of:

Newspaper art directors
Editors and newsroom leaders
Infographics specialists
Typography designers
Graphic design educators
Data journalists
Writers and digital storytellers
Students interested in entering the news-design field

What made this audience unique compared to Western SND conferences was the emphasis on:

Arabic script typography
Multilingual layout systems
Bicultural storytelling structures
Transitioning from print-first to digital-first newsrooms in developing media markets

The event resonated strongly because it addressed design problems that global conferences rarely focused on. Publications from Oman, Lebanon, the UAE, Jordan, Qatar, Syria, Egypt, and Morocco were particularly active participants.

Program Structure: A Deep Dive into Conference Content

Two-Day Format

SND20Events.com promoted a clear two-tier structure:

Day 1: Main Conference Presentations
This included keynote talks, practical sessions, and strategic discussions led by internationally recognized media designers and newsroom innovators.

Day 2: Intensive Workshops
Hands-on sessions allowed participants to analyze their own publications, apply new design techniques, and receive direct critique from world-class trainers.

This structure appealed to both senior editorial leaders interested in higher-level strategy and younger designers seeking actionable skill-building.

Highlights from Day 1: Conference Themes

Day 1 sessions covered an impressively broad range of topics.

The Evolution of Arabic News Design

Presenters explored how Arabic-language publications had undergone a major transformation in visual sophistication. Innovations included:

Cleaner typography
More responsive grid systems
Increased use of photography
Visual storytelling adapted for mobile platforms
Hybrid print-digital newsroom workflows

Changing Formats — From Broadsheet to Berliner

One of the most important case studies showcased Gulf News, which transitioned from a traditional broadsheet to a Berliner format. This shift required:

Rethinking production workflows
Rebuilding templates and grids
Retraining staff
Aligning visual storytelling across print and digital editions

Audience Targeting Through Design

Speakers discussed how newspapers balance:

Appealing to younger audiences
Retaining older readers
Integrating modern visual culture into traditional reporting
Using more imagery and less dense text to improve readability

Cross-Platform Storytelling

A significant portion of the conference addressed challenges arising from publishing the same story across desktop, mobile, tablet, and interactive platforms. Speakers examined topics such as:

Adapting visuals for smaller screens
Preserving design integrity across devices
Story pacing in interactive graphics
Maintaining accuracy during rapid digital updates

Arabic Typography & Cultural Connectives

Typographic innovators explained how Arabic and Latin scripts can be harmonized to create bilingual fonts that:

Maintain cultural identity
Improve accessibility for non-native speakers
Provide consistency across multilingual pages

Infographics & “Data-Imagination” Risks

Visual-journalism mentors emphasized ethical design, warning against:

Gratuitous visual embellishment
Infographics that distort meaning
Over-simplification of complex data

Preparing Submissions for Major Competitions

Participants were shown how to prepare award-ready pages and how to avoid common pitfalls that reduce scoring in international contests.

Day 2 Workshops: Practical, Hands-On Design Education

Workshop I: Design Critique for Arabic-Language Publications

This workshop offered participants:

Full critiques of their current designs
Personalized recommendations for improvement
Guidance on typography, color theory, photo usage, and layout
Training on structuring newsroom design workflows
Emphasis on respecting cultural expectations and reading patterns

Workshop II: Infographics Development

Participants created infographics from scratch with focus on:

Matching the right type of graphic to the story
Avoiding common visualization errors
Delivering information across language barriers
Balancing clarity and sophistication

Both workshops awarded certificates, an important professional credential within regional newsrooms where formal design training opportunities were still emerging.

Speakers and Their Influence

SND20Events.com featured an exceptionally diverse and accomplished roster of speakers. Although not reproduced here as a list, the group included:

Senior designers
Graphics editors
Arabic typography specialists
Professors of visual communication
Heads of infographics at major media organizations
Editors from top newspapers in the Middle East and Western newsrooms

Their combined experience covered:

American metropolitan newspapers
Leading Gulf-region news organizations
European design studios
Multi-language publishing houses
Award-winning multimedia teams

This diversity made the conference uniquely interdisciplinary, bridging design philosophies from multiple continents.

Cultural and Social Significance

1. Elevating Arabic-Language Visual Journalism

Before events like SND20, Arabic-language publications rarely received global attention for their design innovation. After the early 2010s, newspapers such as those in Oman, the UAE, and Lebanon began winning major international awards.

SND20 played a role in accelerating this transformation.

2. Encouraging Ethical Visual Storytelling

Sessions stressed the need for accuracy, cultural sensitivity, and responsible visual communication — essential values in a region navigating social, political, and linguistic diversity.

3. Strengthening Regional Professional Networks

The conference helped build long-term cross-border relationships among designers in Lebanon, Syria, the Gulf, North Africa, and beyond.

4. Supporting Modernization of Newsrooms

The early 2010s were a pivotal period when many Arab newspapers were rapidly shifting to digital platforms. SND20 helped guide that transition.

5. Empowering Emerging Designers

Younger participants gained exposure to international standards they might never have encountered otherwise.

Awards, Recognition, and Competitive Impact

The event celebrated and showcased:

Award-winning design pages from Middle Eastern newspapers
Infographics and illustrations created for Arabic-language audiences
Visual journalism pieces recognized by global judges

This provided regional publications with:

Benchmark comparisons
Inspiration for future redesigns
Motivation to submit work to international competitions

Newspapers from Oman and the UAE, in particular, later became some of the most award-recognized publications in the region.

Press & Media Coverage

Contemporary media outlets described the conference as:

A milestone for Arab visual journalism
A sign of Beirut’s growing role in regional media culture
A rare opportunity for Middle Eastern designers to receive training equal to that enjoyed by Western colleagues

Coverage consistently highlighted the event’s high-level professionalism and its relevance to the future of news design.

Long-Term Impact and Legacy

Although SND20Events.com itself is no longer active, its influence persists.

1. Lasting Influence on Regional Design Standards

Many newspapers that attended the conference subsequently redesigned their formats and strengthened their visual-journalism departments.

2. Continuing Momentum in Arabic Typography

Interest in Arabic type design, bilingual typefaces, and culturally responsive page architecture surged during the years following SND20.

3. Increased Participation in International Competitions

Publications across the Middle East now regularly appear in international design contest results.

4. Expansion of Regional Training

The success of the initial event inspired additional workshops and mini-conferences in the years that followed.

SND20Events.com represented a moment of convergence — where global visual-journalism expertise met the rapidly evolving media landscape of the Middle East. More than just a conference website, it was a platform that helped redefine how Arabic-language newspapers approached design, storytelling, and digital transformation. Its workshops, sessions, competitions, and speaker lineup demonstrated a high level of professionalism and foresight.

Today, even though the site no longer operates as an active hub, its legacy survives in the publications, designers, and newsrooms that grew more confident, sophisticated, and globally connected through the knowledge shared at the SND20 conference.

SND20Events.com

SND Co-hosts the First Middle East News Design Conference2012