The Star Tribune
News Designer
The Minnesota Star Tribune is a Pulitzer Prize winning newsroom and the state’s largest media company. At the end of 2018, I joined the design desk as a news designer.
2018 - 2022 | Minneapolis | Full Time
As a news designer, I was most often found at the helm of the daily front page. A typical day might involve drafting the front page in the afternoon, updating it as news broke or changed throughout the evening, as well as design other news, business, or features products.
I worked on deadline alongside newsroom editors, photographers, and writers to best distill a story into the final print package for production to begin that night. I also illustrated, art directed, and managed special projects for print and online.
Primary skills
Editorial Design | Copy Editing | Print Production | AP Style
Breaking News
As a front page designer, I worked fast to draft a layout for the largest topics of the day. And with a considerable number of large news days in 2020 and 2021, dense pages become more like single-topic posters.
Special Projects
Commemorative events, features, and larger new projects got space for more intensive treatment. I worked on projects ranging from 20th anniversary of 9/11 to pitching my own state fair special section.
Design Process
About the role
IDEATION
When planning print production for the 2020 election, I started with looking at the past. It’s important to ask what is most important to readers, what do they expect, and how you can serve that particular night’s story.
ITERATION
The front page always starts as a blank draft, tweaked through the night until the final call for updates. Election night one wasn’t called, and the story morphed into the long wait of tallying a pandemic election.
INTEGRATION
As this story continued each day, we maintained a consistent look and pattern leading up to the final vote count. Harder to box into such a large display, but with it being such a historic election it felt right.