National
school
walkout
FAQ

Editorial, Illustration, HTML/CSS/Javascript
Things to know before you go

Originally thought I had a couple days to work on this project only to realize that day was actually a Friday and the story was to publish on Sunday night (it was a very long day). The initial direction I was going to take would have involved more hand-drawn elements to evoke a more child-likeness since this story was written for a protest against gun violence after the Parkland school shooting. Upon realizing the deadline, it was around 4pm and so I came up with a plan B--which is what you see here.

View the full story here.

If you're a student who's thinking of taking part (or thet parent of one), you probably have lots of questions: Can the school retaliate? Will it hurt your chances of college? Can you just stay home for the day?

Panelist profiles:

Implemented story-level smooth scrolling navigation:

Float left and float right spot illustrations:

AR-15 Rifle
History

Editorial, Illustration, HTML/CSS, Data visualizations
How an 'ugly,' unwanted weapon became the most popular rifle in America

This story was published after the Sutherland Springs shooting in November 2017. I got looped into the project one morning and the visualizations took me a full 8-hourish or more work day to complete. The content became available on a rolling basis. First, I completed the diagrams and graphs. One of the data viz was more of a text-based 'big giant number' type viz so I have that viz breaking out as you would a pull quote — CNN really loves to do full-width graphics all the time and I have been trying to break up the text for easier legibility, and create heirachy among the graphics. When the editor realized I was able to create the floating left/right elements on the page, we talked about taking quotes or highlights from the story so I went through and dropped those in as well. If it weren't for the deadline, I likely would have added spot illustrations as well but there is enough going on visually by this point.

The illustration/graphic came last — with all the gun control talks as of late, the biggest challenge has been how to illustrate guns without glorifying or demonizing them. Photographs are one thing, but then doing a cutout of a gun almost seems too raw of a visual. Or maybe raw is what we need? For this particular illustration, I lean closer to the silhouette to follow the vector patterns and textures of the overall style.

View the full story here.