Best Makeover

At this time last year, practically everything about the Denver Post was unattractive in the extreme. The photographs were blurry and indistinct; the type style was smudgy and clotted; the layout was haphazard. Then a team led by Damon Cain, the paper's managing editor for presentation and design, tore up the previous template and started from scratch. The new concept debuted last May, and it was a revelation -- an elegant broadsheet that's extremely readable and easy on the eyes. These days, the ugly duckling of Denver newspapers is a lot closer to being a swan.