Virtual Reality Tour of Gale Crater

Editing, art direction

I'm currently leading efforts to produce virtual reality content at the Los Angeles Times. Gale Crater was our first project and an attempt to discover how stories can be told on immersive platforms.

Date: October 2015

Awards: Society of News Design Award of Excellence

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How the Gale Crater VR Tour Was Made

Writing, editing

I co-wrote a story that explained why we have embarked on producing virtual reality content, the data and tools we used and the challenges we faced in building our tour of Gale Crater.

Date: October 2015

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Evolution of the California Drought

Editing, art direction

The majority of California is experiencing extreme to exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, and the state's condition isn't expected to improve in the near future. This feature illustrates the state's descent into deeper stages of drought

Date: October 2014 (updated weekly)

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Animated version

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Eating the Drought: How Much Water Goes into Your Meal

Editing, art direction, production

California's crippling drought has prompted conservation efforts, such as replacing grass lawns and minding how long you leave the tap water running. But what about the food on your plate? Agriculture uses 80% of California's water supply, and producing what you eat can require a surprising amount of water. This interactive data visualization communicates the amount of water needed to produce food in a way that is accessible and easy to understand.

Date: April 2015

Award: Society of News Design Award of Excellence

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Water Main Leaks Near You

Editing, art direction

About one-fifth of Los Angeles's water pipes were installed before 1931 and nearly all will reach the end of their useful lives in the next 15 years. They are responsible for close to half of all water main leaks, and replacing them is a looming, $1-billion problem for the city. This map, primarily targeted for mobile readers, utilizes geolocation services to load the most relevant leaks based on a users location.

Date: February 2015

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Rent or Own: Where Can You Afford to Live?

Editing, art direction

Buy? Rent? Move? How much house you can afford depends a lot on where you live. Enter your household income and other factors to see where you can afford the mortgage payment on a median-priced house or the rent on a typical two-bedroom apartment. This calculator leverages GIS and real estate sales data to illustrate for readers where they can afford to live.

Date: June 2014

Award: Society of News Design Award of Excellence

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Gardena Police Shooting: Competing Interpretations of 27 Seconds Before Gunfire

Editing, art direction, writing, production

Dashboard camera video is raising questions about a controversial Gardena police shooting that resulted in a $4.7-million payout by the city to settle a civil rights lawsuit. This breaking news project synchronizes the footage from three cruisers and makes it easy to forward and reverse so readers can come to their own conclusions. It pairs the video with conflicting interpretations from the district and plaintiffs' attorneys.

Date: July 2015

Award: Society of News Design Award of Excellence

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Where Are L.A. County’s Homeless?

Editing, art direction

The project illustrates how many homeless individuals, vehicles and encampments were counted in Los Angeles census tracts. Points are randomized within census tracts to avoid giving exact locations.

Date: June 2015

Award: Society of News Design Award of Excellence

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Print Map Maker: An Open Source Tool for Newsrooms

Development

Simple print locator maps are extremely effective storytelling tools that can take a long time to produce. Web Map Maker allows artists, designers, producers and editors to create quality maps quickly. The maps can be exported as an image for the Web or in vector format for use in print.

Date: April 2015

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Inside the Fight: Mayweather vs. Pacquiao

Editing, art direction

Project lets readers explore earlier fights to highlight Mayweather's precise punching and speedy defense and the aggressive attack of Pacquiao.

Date: May 2015

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6 Girl Scout Cookies You Thought You Were Getting But Aren't

Editing, art direction

When you bite into a Thin Mint, you probably aren't wondering where it comes from. But there are two bakers who make two very different Thin Mints. This project mined data from the Girl Scouts of America Web site to create the first-ever map of Girl Scout districts. This allows readers to search for the type of cookies sold where they live.

Date: March 2015

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How Oscar Votes Are Counted

Editing, art direction

This representation of how preferential voting works uses multiple animations to explain why a film with the most first-place votes may not win an Academy Award.

Date: February 2015

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Where are Syria’s Refugees Going?

Editing, art direction

The majority of those fleeing Syria are being sheltered in neighboring countries such as Turkey and Lebanon. From there, many embark on dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean to reach Europe.

Date: September 2015

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How Much Can a Longshoreman Make?

Editing, art direction

Wages for West Coast longshoremen vary widely depending on experience, skill and time of day worked. This project uses a "choose your own adventure" technique to illustrate the complex calculations that can lead to workers earning $100,000 or more.

Date: March 2015

Award: Society of News Design Award of Excellence

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Could You Live on L.A.'s New Minimum Wage?

Editing, art direction

Los Angeles County supervisors voted to increase the minimum wage from $9 to $15 an hour for the greater L.A. area, but is it a livable wage? We use the results from an MIT analysis to put the wage increase into perspective.

Date: July 2015

Award: Society of News Design Award of Excellence

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Ch-ch-changes: The Evolving Elements of Pop Music

Editing, art direction

Researchers in England recently analyzed almost all the singles that charted between 1960 and 2010 to reveal trends in the evolution of popular music—noting, among other things, that the biggest revolution to occur was the birth of rap in 1991. This series of interactives was produced the same day the data was released.

Date: May 2015

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The How to Be a Writer Game

Editing, art direction

Aspiring writers often ask established authors, "How did you do it?" The truth is that there is no single path to literary success. We sent a survey to writers participating in the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and presented the results in a game in an attempt to communicate the seeming randomness of a successful writing career.

Date: July 2014

Award: Society of News Design Award of Excellence

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Year of the Goat: Chinese Zodiac Matchmaking Guide

Chord diagram, editing, art direction

Within Chinese folklore, certain animals of the zodiac are better suited for one another while other pairings could lead to conflict. We created a data visualization to illustrate the connections.

Date: February 2015

Award: Society of News Design Award of Excellence

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Sandra Bland's Arrest Video: What It Shows

Editing, art direction

The video released in the confrontational arrest of Sandra Bland in Waller County, Texas – whom jail house officials found hanged in her cell three days later – backs up Texas State Trooper Brian T. Encinia's assertions that Bland, 28, refused to follow orders. But it also shows him demanding she exit her vehicle after she became upset over getting a ticket and refused his order to put out her cigarette. This project isolates important moments in the video.

Date: July 2015

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The Big Campaign: Prop 47 is Part of Larger Push

Data visualization, editing, art direction

A core group of five foundations set out to use California’s prison crowding crisis as a springboard for broad changes in criminal justice policy. They used partnerships and grants of at least $14 million to build a statewide network that now plays a key role in the Proposition 47 ballot drive to reduce criminal penalties for drug use and petty theft. Funding for most of that advocacy work – over and above a $9-million political campaign – did not have to be disclosed on campaign contribution reports. This interactive visualization illustrates the network of organizations the foundations used.

Date: October 2014

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Voting with Your Tweet Experiment

Data visualization, editing, art direction

Collaborated with Mark Huberty, a Ph.D candidate in Political Science at U.C. Berkeley, on a project that examined forecasting Congressional elections from Twitter traffic. I consulted with Huberty on data design and output and created interactive maps and graphics that published daily as “Voting With Your Tweet” as the research progressed.

Date: August-November 2012

Project no longer live

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Busiest Season on Record

Data visualization

Illustrates the timing and duration of tropical storms in the Atlantic Ocean in an intuitive and digestible way.

Date: October 2005

Award: Society of News Design Award of Excellence

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Signs of a Warmer Planet

Data visualization

This project uses 125 years of global temperature data from NASA to illustrate where and when the planet saw warmer temperatures.

Date: April 2006

Award: Society of News Design Award of Excellence

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The Artists Prince Ushered into the Spotlight

Editing, art direction

This breaking news visualization represents data organically. It's a non-traditional timeline that offers context as you scroll. And it's a tribute from people moved by his music. You may want to hover your mouse over the dove at the bottom.

Date: April 2016

Award: Society of News Design Award of Excellence

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Goldbot

Editing, art direction

What if you could send a message to L.A.'s top food critic on a whim and get a response? "Goldbot", the chatbot version of Jonathan Gold, uses data from Gold's 101 Best Restaurants, his reviews and weekly chat sessions to provide recommendations to users via Facebook Messenger.

Date: December 2016

Award: Society of News Design Award of Excellence

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Diary of Terror: Terror’s Daily Reality

Editing, art direction

To capture the toll of terror, the Los Angeles Times tracked every fatal act of terrorism around the world in April of 2016. By the end of the month, terror had struck 180 times, wounded 1,385 and killed 858. We illustrated a story for every death, broke down who was behind the attacks.

Date: June 2016

Award: Malofiej Bronze Medal

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How Donald Trump Really Won the White House

Production, editing, art direction

This breaking news graphic illustrates where Donald Trump made significant gains over Mitt Romney's 2012 vote totals and where Hillary Clinton underperformed compared to Barack Obama.

Date: November 2016

Award: Society of News Design Award of Excellence (portfolio)

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After decades of Republican victories, here’s how California Became a Blue State Again

Editing, art direction

California hasn’t always been a lock for the Democratic presidential nominee. Republicans won the state in nearly every presidential election between 1952 and 1988. Ahead of an election that could see more blue in the Golden State than ever before, The Times took a look at how Democrats gained, lost and won back California.

Date: October 2016

Award: Society of News Design Award of Excellence (portfolio)

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Presidential Debate Scorecards

Production, editing, art direction

At a meeting leading up to the debates, we asked what coverage would look like if we took an unconventional approach to storytelling. The result was our debate scorecards.

Our Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist created illustrations for each debate. A team of veteran political analysts contributed concise insights after each question. Front-end designer/developers built the pages and updated them throughout the night. Social images were made and shared for each round. Video was edited on the fly and copy editors made everyone look smart.

Date: September 2016

Award: Society of News Design Award of Excellence

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Pitch by Pitch: How Clayton Kershaw Dominates Hitters

Editing, art direction

This project uses MLB pitching data to explore Clayton Kershaw's pitching. We walk readers through key points and then let them explore. It uses Three.js to render 3D live in the browser so that one can examine Kershaw's individual pitches from multiple viewpoints. The batter's box adjusts programmatically to each batter's height.

Date: July 2016

Award: Society of News Design Award of Excellence, Malofiej Bronze Medal (2)

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Long Beach Grand Prix Formula D Track tour with Fredric Aasbø

Editing, art direction

What does a motion graphic look like in VR? We wanted to figure it out. So we attached a 360 camera to the hood of a drift car and another inside so that we could create a virtual dashboard to show speed and shifting. A champion driver then explained how to drift the course.

Date: April 2016

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