The past several weeks have been full of foreign news, and we have been producing lots of graphics to explain what’s happening. I have worked on these two graphics, one about the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan, and one that explains what is going on in Libya.
For a full explanation of the process of creating the Japan graphic, visit the new Innovations blog at the WP (excerpted below):
Friday morning, as news of the earthquake in Japan spread, we started pulling together an interactive map that would show readers where and how events unfolded. Over the next 36 hours, we would continually expand and improve the information, design and interactivity of the map as the news of the earthquake and tsunami came in. Read more »
For Libya, we combined an event tracker with audio and video from the ground. The reports from correspondents on the ground is my favorite part.
Both graphics are done using javascript and jquery, so check them out on your tablet devices!
Kat Downs
March 21, 2011
Information Graphics, Maps, Multimediaaudio, google maps api, graphics, javscript, Laris Karklis, Maps, Mary Kate Cannistra, Multimedia, Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso, news, The Washington Post, video, Work
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Check out my first motion graphics piece, created for part two of Top Secret America, an investigation from The Washington Post.
I worked with Dana Priest to write the script and I recorded the voiceover and did all the animation in After Effects. I created the graphic with maps made by Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso. I’ll write more later about the concept and execution. Let me know what you think!
Kat Downs
December 21, 2010
Motion GraphicsDesign and infographics, Information Graphics, interactive, investigations, Maps, motion graphics, Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso, The Washington Post, video, Work
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On Nov. 2, midterm election day, we put up these maps that tracked the results as they came in. For Senate and Governors we had state and county-level data, and we had House districts as well. This suite of maps was published in The Washington Post, as well as on Yahoo! News and the Telegraph (UK). The maps have balance of power charting and tabular results as well as zooming and deep linking features. Read more about how we built the maps »
Kat Downs
November 13, 2010
Mapsdemographics, Design and infographics, elections, fun, graphics, Maps, Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso, politics, The Washington Post, Work
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We published this graphic for Arbor Day, which was on April 30. It takes a look at all the trees that have been planted by the non-profit organization Casey Trees since 2003. They’ve planted thousands of trees in order to try to increase D.C.’s “urban canopy.” You can use this tool to see where they’ve planted trees in your neighborhood and what kind they are.
From a technical standpoint, this project was really interesting. It was executed in about two days, so it was a really quick turnaround, considering I haven’t done extensive development with the google maps api. Nathaniel and Gene worked up some cool custom tiles, and I designed and programmed a lot of it, and fit all the pieces together. Keep reading this post »
Kat Downs
May 17, 2010
Mapsenvironment, gene thorp, google maps api, Maps, Mary Kate Cannistra, Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso, nature, The Washington Post, Work
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These three new race maps (house, senate, and governors) launched today with the new PostPolitics section of The Washington Post. I worked with Karen Yourish and Dan Keating, who are absolutely amazing data whizzes, to get the data together for the project, and Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso gave me some great base maps to start with. We really wanted to give a complete picture of the 2010 races, so we have current race ratings (for house, we have state of the race), election history for each district or state, and demographic information that lets you see some cool patterns — like how states vote when they have a high percentage of seniors or high poverty rates. Keep reading this post »
Kat Downs
April 28, 2010
MapsDan Keating, Design and infographics, elections, graphics, interactive, Karen Yourish, Maps, Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso, politics, The Washington Post, Work
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After many months talking about how we wanted to produce a nationwide county map, we finally had a project come up that called for one with a quick turnaroud — one and a half days! With a great base map by Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso, I created this United States county map that shows unemployment from 2007-2009. This is an early version, so there’s a lot of improvements to make, but I think it’s a solid start, and I’m happy we turned it around as fast as we did. I used classes I created for the helicopters state map and the Virginia governor’s race map to make the build much easier.
D.C.’s unemployment rate was 12.1% in Oct. 2009 — really high. Macon County, where Franklin is, had an unemployment rate of 10.3%. We’ll keep adding to this map as time goes on, and I think it’ll be really interesting to see what happens with jobs and the economy over time.
Kat Downs
December 3, 2009
Maps, Workeconomy, Information Graphics, interactive, Maps, Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso, news, The Washington Post, Work
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