VICE NEWSI was the Web Art Director at VICENews.com and was in charge of the typography, design, layout and user experience of the homepage and article pages. I worked closely with news editors to design and commission illustration for online feature stories and packages and also worked on art direction and animation for videos. I also had the opportunity to work on type and animation for our daily news show VICE News on HBO.
Background
In 2016, HBO and VICE relaunched VICE News as a daily news show with a website that served as an accompaniment with daily posts and long form features.
The Graphics
The role of the design served several purposes, but worked to help elevate the news content. We used LARGE TYPE to add EMPHASIS, infographic driven charts to bread down complex information, or seamless transitions to tie together how events affected each other. We also introduced illustration and animation to visualize and walk thru complex stories and topics.
The Website
We wanted the website to be an accompaniment to the daily news show. A place for people to get the latest news and also follow up real time on developing news stories from the show.
With the rebrand we had the opportunity to rethink how we wanted to structure what a news site could look like. Keeping in mind VICE’s early adult audience, we decided to create a site that served like a social news feed. Large hits of scrollable and engaging “covers” for each story, each with captivating imagery, illustration or animation.
Feature Stories
For long form feature stories we would package the stories with custom elements and include more layers of information. With the nature of these pieces being more extensively researched and reported, they would include elements such as infographics, maps, insider interviews and recordings, or more.
As an example, this is a story that took a year of reporting, called Shot by Cops and Forgotten. We commissioned Xia Gordon to illustrate the visual components to complement the research and writing by Allison McCann, Keegan Hamilton, Taylor Dolven, Kathleen Caulderwood, and Rob Arthur. Data graphics by Allison McCann.
Socials
For our most engaging and “clickiest” stories, we would create social friendly versions of the elements from the stories. Knowing our audience, we knew we had to create grabby images that were thumb stopping enough on their social feeds.
Videos
I also produced and animated videos, working on news elements or one off videos. Below is an example of a video franchise I helped to develop, produce and animate called My Dictatorship, where we had a celebrity describe what their country would look like if they were a dictator.
