Businessweek special issue
Data visualization and design
I worked with the Businessweek team to lead the research and design of a collection of visual news stories for a special issue marking the five-year anniversary of the financial meltdown that triggered the Great Recession.
Team
- Editor: Josh Tyrangiel
- Creative Director: Richard Turley
- Design Director: Cynthia Hoffman
- Designers and graphics editors: Rob Vargas, Allison McCann, Dorothy Gambrell, Chris Nosenzo, & Evan Applegate.
“Too Contagious to Fail”
A diagram showing the dangerous connections between major financial institutions on the eve of the collapse. Concentrations of longer arrows indicate more exposure to counterparty risk.
Key index timelines
The issue was divided into a section for each year since the collapse. Each year starts with a stack of graphs showing key economic indexes (GDP, household income, etc.). More of each index is revealed as the issue unfolds.
“World Leader Roulette”
Designed with Allison McCann
The purple in this heatmap shows drops in unemployment from 2007-2013, serving as the stage over which different world leaders come and go (marked by black dots). We figured eye-crops made for a more engaging set of headshots.
