Charles Apple

Let’s all take a moment to wish the happiest of VizEds birthdays to Steve Dorsey, AME of The Detroit Free Press. Steve turns 36 today.

Steve Dorsey last summer at Poynter.
Photo by Billy Kulpa.
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Dorsey has been at the Freep for nearly nine years. Previously, he had been presentation director of The Lexington Herald Leader for four years and director of photo, graphics and design at The York (Pa.) Daily Record for a year before that.

I tend to call him the impersonal-sounding “Dorsey,” rather than “Steve,” because of all the Steves that populate the Society for News Design. Dorsey edited the Society’s Design magazine for three years. He’s now the Society’s Publications Director.

You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone saying a harsh word about Dorsey. He’s one of the friendliest, most outgoing folks you’ll find. Young people find Dorsey very approachable for advice. Whenever I hear anyone complain about ‘cliques’ within the Society, I point ‘em toward Dorsey. He’s a one-man clique buster.

Dorsey rips apart the portfolio of the College
Designer of the Year, Travis Ricks of Michigan
State, as Darren Sanefski of the Syracuse Post-
Standard paper looks on. Photo by Robb
Montgomery.
—

All the good things I’ve ever heard about Dorsey hit home last fall when I was trying to find a job for my intern, Qi Ji. Dorsey hired her to work at the Freep for several weeks last fall and winter. She eventually landed a full-time gig with The Associated Press, but she reports that Steve was a very kind teacher and a fabulous boss:

I enjoyed the days I worked with Mr. Dorsey and wish him have a happy birthday!

Dorsey has my eternal thanks for helping Ji out. And, of course, Ji did some great work for Steve in return.

Just look what these other folks are saying about Dorsey:

Steve Cavendish of the Chicago Tribune:

Steve Dorsey is quite simply one of the finest Steves I’ve ever met. He’s a credit to the good name of Steve. If I could be any other Steve, it would be Steve Dorsey.

Matt Mansfield of The San Jose Mercury News:

There’s something just amazing about Steve’s ability to give and give to growing the profession, whether that’s at SND, Poynter, API or inside his “regular job” in Detroit. I’m inspired by how much he gets done any given week. Steve’s a pro and one heck of a nice guy … Here’s hoping Mr. D has fun plans for the big day!

Billy Kulpa of the Poynter Institute:

Steve Dorsey is the most amiable, considerate and caring person I’ve met in this industry. I owe a lot to him, and I’d bet there are many, many others who would say the same. His humility and willingness to help others, no matter where they’re at in their careers, is staggering. Dorsey is incomparable.

And the next time you go out to dinner with him, do not let him pick up the tab.

Freep sports design whiz Ryan Ford:

Dorsey is a whirling dervish of design help and interdepartmental-path-smoothing. It never fails to amaze me how he can spend 5 minutes looking at a page, graphic, headline, whatever, and come up with a way to improve it. And even if/when I tell him why it couldn’t ever, not once, in a million years possibly work, the dude comes up with an even better solution instead of telling me I’m an idiot. Plus, he’s a pretty good guy to hoist the occasional beer — or martini — with.

Bill Gaspard of The Las Vegas Sun:

My first cogent memories of Steve were from his days in Lexington, when he was making such an impression in the design community. I knew he was just out of college, but his design and managerial skills and the way he talked about the craft made me think of him as a seasoned pro.

He’s always been extremely gracious, generous with his time and knowledge. He’s a great teacher, a great colleague and a reliable friend and contributor. In addition to all he’s done with all his speaking gigs, he has to be acknowledged for the terrific job he did in his many years as editor of Design magazine and for his work with the annual design competition.

He’s passionate about the work we do, prolific like few others and a great guy to hang around. We spent a lot of late nights at the workshop in Copenhagen, talking about life and work (and threatening to get tattoos). We’ve been great friends ever since and I wish him the best on his birthday. I’ll get to make good on that when he and Mr. Mansfield show up in Vegas in a few days.

Paul Anger, editor of the Free Press:

Steve has many gifts that he gives this newsroom every day. He’s a calm influence even as he’s constantly challenging the way things are, not just visually but across the newsroom, always working to make things better in ways big and small. So thanks, Steve, for the gifts you give every day, and let this be our message back to you: Happy Birthday! We appreciate what you do, and we say THANKS!

At the moment, a lot of folks are having fun with the new mug shot Dorsey posted of himself recently on his Facebook page:

Separated at birth? That’s Dorsey’s latest
Facebook photo on the left; His long-lost
quadruplet brothers — Blue Man Group –
are on the right.
—

A few samples of Steve’s work:

See more of his work in Steve’s NewsPageDesigner portfolio.

Find photos Dorsey has taken at various SND events here.

Three from the Freep: Robert Huschka, Steve
Dorsey and Mauricio Gutierrez. Photo from
Dorsey’s own Flickr feed.
—

Steve shares a birthday with Billy Graham, Leon Trotsky, Madame Marie Curie and folk singer Joni Mitchell.

Plus, today is National Bittersweet Chocolate With Almonds Day. Seriously.

Best wishes, my friend, for a happy birthday!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 9:34 am and is filed under Happy birthday, News design, Newspapers, Visual Editors, VizEds Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.