Print news
Additionally, my complete work from the Alexandria Times can be viewed here and select examples of my work for The Diamondback, the University of Maryland's independent student newspaper, can be viewed here. Check back, as I hope to create a complete archive of my Diamondback front pages as a record of our transition from daily to weekly print editions. (The Diamondback ceased print publication in 2020.)
Inside news, sports and arts pages are available for free from the Alexandria Times at alextimes.com or by subscription for The Eagle. No copyright claim is made to any of the work herein. Top Tip: Click to expand any page.
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Hindsight 2020
As one decade came to a close and another began, Hindsight 2020 took a three-day look back at the biggest news, arts and sports stories of the past 10 years, then on New Year's Day 2020 jumped forward to imagine the Berkshires of 2030. I pitched this project to The Eagle's top editors, then managed its planning and production. I worked with section editors to organize core content for each day, and to brainstorm special features like memorable celebrity deaths and the decade's Boston sports championships. I connected with a photographer to source new art, and secured rights to a historic postcard imagining Pittsfield's future. I worked with copy editors to ensure the package was up to snuff before publication, and I scoured nearly ten years of microfilm for the 2010s' top front pages. Finally, I wrote incidental copy, including a list of historical anniversaries we'll mark in the '20s, and created a set of four illustrations that used relevant icons to depict the four days' topics.
Pictured at left is Day 2, the top arts stories of the decade.
Rest of River settlement coverage
In early 2020, the EPA, General Electric and several cities and towns along the Housatonic River reached an agreement to clean up PCBs in large portions of the river. Over a few days before the announcement, I worked with editors to plan how the A section would hold all of the important stories planned, as well as the full text of the agreement. I also built two infographics using embargoed details we had received ahead of time. It all came together, though, in less than 2 hours on deadline, when I had to ensure that all content fit while trying to present a cohesive narrative as readers navigated the section. Off the front, we began with top takeaways and a timeline, then went into the waste disposal plans, before finishing up with the financial angle.
I built small infographics and helped select photos, as well as planning the page shape and arguing successfully for arresting single-word headlines. We mirrored the beginning and end of President Trump's impeachment trial using a headline font and size reserved only for the most important news events of the year, or even decade.
COVID-19 response
When we look back in 10 or 100 years, the story of the COVID-19 pandemic will not be told in one front page, like a presidential election, an impeachment or a victory day after a war. This day had a poignant story and design, but the highlight is the well package at the lower left, displaying e-edition extra pages our subscribers have had access to since early in the outbreak. I quickly designed this package, as well as a suite of folios for the e-pages themselves. Additionally, I've adapted to working from a home office, as well as to increasingly tight page layouts as our paper and region weather this storm.
Illustrations and infographics
The most rewarding part of my job is working closely with reporters to create visual elements that help accentuate their stories in ways words can't, or at least can't do as effectively. In the case at left, with an illustration of Governor Charlie Baker hauling the statehouse westward, it alerted readers to the tongue-in-cheek nature of the story. In cases below, with maps and charts, it explained complex concepts or presented pages of data in visual ways far more accessible than a brick of numbers or set of paragraphs.
Alexandria Times work
From mid-May to mid-June 2017, as I wrapped up my junior year at Maryland, I filled in as interim designer at the Alexandria Times, a weekly newspaper in metropolitan Washington, D.C. I had to quickly learn the style and execute it for four editions before a new permanent designer arrived from her own college graduation. While I didn't have much time after getting my footing to be creative, I had fun with this front page centerpiece about "Taste of Del Ray," a community food festival. I also designed a logo for the paper's "Opioids in Alexandria" series, visible on the front page for June 15, below. After my design stint, I reported for the remainder of the summer, covering art, city affairs and summer league baseball. My news writing from the Times can be accessed here.
I designed the Times' front page after the horrific Congressional Baseball Shooting, which would define my news coverage that summer.
Selected student work
In collaboration with Maris Medina
In collaboration with Maris Medina.
The March For Our Lives was a watershed moment, the last (during my D.C.-area time) of a string of ever more desperate displays of activism on campus and on the National Mall that intensified after the 2016 election. Even though a family emergency took me to New York City for the weekend, I knew I had to try to capture that feeling in print. In the end, a cell phone photo by one of our roving reporters of the National Archives with demonstrators all around the blue sky above, was what did it. A structure oozing Neo-Classical permanence and an eternal sky as a movement gathered believing it would be the one to finally stick.
Unfortunately, between two designers in two states, wires got crossed and the ad box at lower right was unintentionally filled with a file photo. But still one of my favorite DBK fronts.
December 11, 2017
I used an American flag theme to present this feature story by Kyle Melnick about how — amid frequent athlete protests against police brutality at the professional level — Maryland athletes remained notably silent. We wove in photos of Maryland athletics alumni from various perspectives and continued the flag theme on the jump page as well.
