SINGAPORE - Have you ever thought about the colours that make up your neighbourhood?

Mandai, for example, would be mostly green, unless you were visiting the Penguin Cove at Bird Paradise, with its hues of blues and whites.

This digital project, called Singapore in Colour, showed readers the colours of the neighbourhoods around them. It was one of two digital projects by The Straits Times that bagged top awards at the annual Best of News Design Creative Competition.

Held by the US-based Society for News Design, the competition honours excellence in visual storytelling, design and journalism produced throughout the previous year.

The other project that won a gold award was an interactive piece that looked at how one of the largest penguin enclosures was built in Singapore.

The competition’s judging panel, comprised of 43 visual journalists from across more than 30 organisations worldwide, convened in Minneapolis between May 8 and May 10, where they deliberated over works from publications around the world, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, South China Morning Post and Reuters.

ST clinched a total of 60 awards, of which 51 were for its digital storytelling efforts.

On the digital front, ST got two golds, five silvers, 13 bronzes and 31 awards of ex...