Emmet Smith

Emmet Smith, Creative Director at National Geographic, presented at the Sydney Semi Permanent Creativity and Design Festival in 2018, where the theme was "Creative Tension as Inspiration".

At National Geographic, Emmet leads a team of world-class designers, cartographers and infographics artists in producing a suite of rich visual narratives through in-depth research and reporting, all working in concert with the magazine’s iconic photo department.

Under his guidance, National Geographic has reasserted its leadership in visual storytelling, garnering multiple Gold Medals from The Society for Publications Designers, The Society for News Design, The British Cartographic Society, and the Malofiej World Infographics Awards, where his team took home this year's coveted Best of Show honours. In addition, National Geographic was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for the January 2017 “Gender Revolution” issue. 

Previously Emmet was a senior designer at The Washington Post, he helped lead the company’s group of 30 designers, establishing the Post as a preeminent destination for visual journalism. Before that he worked as an editor, designer and—of all things—pop music critic at The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. At The Plain Dealer, Smith helped chronicle everything from Northeast Ohio’s unemployment crisis to LeBron James’ infamous “Decision” to the oft-perplexing selections for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s annual induction classes.