News Design

Client: The Cedar Rapids Gazette

Year: 2006–2013

Role: Designer, Editorial Designer, Information Designer, Lead Workflow Coordinator

The Challenge

Over seven years at The Cedar Rapids Gazette, I produced more than 3,000 charts, maps, infographics, and pages across news, sports, and features. The pace ran from stretches of planning and coordination to hard sprints against press deadlines, often with multiple assignments shifting at once. That volume shaped how I approach information design: fast decisions, clear hierarchy, no wasted space.

The Kurt Warner infographic, produced for Super Bowl XLIII coverage in February 2009, is the piece that captures both the challenge and the approach. Warner had played college football at the University of Northern Iowa, which gave Gazette readers a direct personal connection to what was otherwise a national story. His career was genuinely unusual: undrafted out of college, working at a grocery store before breaking through with the St. Louis Rams, winning Super Bowl XXXIV and the MVP, cycling through two more franchises, and then coming full circle to lead the Arizona Cardinals back to the Super Bowl. That arc covered more than a decade of biographical and statistical material that needed to land as a single, readable print page.

The organizational challenge was just as real as the design one. A sports editor wanted to honor Warner’s Iowa ties, but a full-page centerspread in the Sports section was not a given. Space in a daily paper is contested, and the proposal required making a case to my supervisor before a single element got placed.

The Solution

My argument to my supervisor was simple: if we are going to honor a local star who has made it big, let’s go big. After some back and forth, content was moved around to free up the space, and we had our centerspread.

The design centered on a large image of Warner with a photo gallery timeline running beneath it and stats arranged around the central image. The layout gave casual readers the career arc at a glance while giving statistics-focused readers the detail they were looking for, all within a single spread that could be taken in without hunting across the page.

The same instincts carried through the broader work at The Gazette. I prototyped the Business 380 section format, designed the visual identity for the Iowa Hawkeye Football Preview special edition, contributed to a full newspaper redesign, and built a recurring system for Gameday covers and sports features. High-volume production at a daily paper requires design decisions that hold up under pressure and can be executed consistently. That means knowing when to push for something bigger and knowing when to work within the structure the story requires.

The Results

My supervisor was also skeptical about submitting the piece to the Iowa APME contest. He did not think it was strong enough or fit the categories. I pushed, we submitted, and it won third place in the news graphic category at the Iowa APME journalism awards in 2010.

That two-stage story, making the case for the space and then making the case for the submission, reflects how the work at The Gazette actually went. Good editorial design sometimes requires advocating for the piece before you can execute it.

The Kurt Warner piece was one of six Iowa APME and Iowa Newspaper Association awards the Gazette work earned between 2009 and 2013. The Year of the River online special package won 2nd place at Iowa APME the same year as the Kurt Warner piece. Other awards while at The Gazette included: A Broken Bridge, 9/11: I Remember, and Iowa’s Warship. The combination of volume, deadline discipline, and consistently recognized work across news graphics and online special packages built a foundation for information design and visual storytelling that carries through to current client work.

Recognition & Awards

Iowa Associated Press Managing Editors, News Graphics (Iowa's Warship): 2nd Place (2013)
Iowa APME, Online Special Package (9/11: I Remember): 2nd Place (2012)
Iowa Newspaper Association, Best Use of Graphics: 3rd Place (2011)
Iowa APME, Online Special Package (Year of the River): 2nd Place (2010)
Iowa APME, News Graphics (Kurt Warner centerspread): 3rd Place (2010)
Iowa APME, Online Special Package (A Broken Bridge): 3rd Place (2009)