Motion graphics
It has been many years since I last produced any motion / interactive graphics. Adobe Flash was the tool of choice then, now, equipped with Adobe After Effects, I am navigating a steep yet invigorating learning curve. Despite the constraints of a busy schedule, I am resolute in my commitment to honing my skills and pushing the boundaries of my creative capabilities.
Special stories
Auckland CBD’s dire state
This interactive took a long time to pull together. It began as a personal project to learn SketchUp, a 3D design tool. That experiment soon led me into Blender — another application that was completely new to me.
After many hours of fine-tuning, and more YouTube tutorials and chatbot queries than I’d like to admit, I ended up with a 3D model of Auckland that I was genuinely proud of.
From there, I teamed up with the New Zealand Herald’s property writer, Anne Gibson, to build a story around the model. The final stage was collaborating with developer Chris Know to turn it into an interactive experience that works seamlessly across the Herald’s mobile, desktop, and app platforms.
The Viva Top 50 Restaurants Awards
This is the first time we have attempted to announce the winners of this prestigious competition in such an interactive and immersive way. You can see the story here, however, it is behind a paywall!
Rainbow Warrior: A Forgotten History
Two bombs went off in Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour under the cover of darkness. By morning, the destruction of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior – used to protest nuclear testing in the Pacific – was plain for all to see.
Whenua: Our Land, Our History
Projects as big and as important as Whenua: Our Land, Our History don’t come along too often. So, it was an immense privilege to be given the design lead on this and have the opportunity to work with such a dedicated and talented team.
Mr Asia: A Forgotten History
This was a brilliant project to work and one that has proven to be very successful. The launch of Mr Asia: A Forgotten History, a six part podcast series, went straight to the top Apple’s true crime chart.
This single project gave me the opportunity to work across several aspects of digital design including motion graphics and interactives. I think the project has a really strong visual identity and it seems, our readers agree.
60 years of the Aotearoa Music Awards
It was fun looking back through the archives at 60 years worth of pop imagery and bringing it to life in this nostalgic round-up of the Aotearoa Music Awards, one of New Zealand’s most highly anticipated nights.
Heaven’s Helpline
There was a lot of design and illustration work in this holding page for another great podcast series. Heaven’s Helpline, an award winning investigation into the Mormon Church, and how far it has gone to cover up abuse.
Generate Your Own Pepeha
This Pepeha generator was a nice project to work on and a first for me in terms of designing an interactive with integrated video.
A pepeha is a way of introducing yourself in Māori. It tells people who you are by sharing your connections with the people and places that are important to you.
Using a set structure it identifies who you are, where you’re from and where you belong.
For Māori, pepeha points to whakapapa (ancestry). Whakapapa speaks to relationships and links with the land, the sea, the environment, our world and the universe.
Shorthand
Shorthand is an online application used to produce captivating, multi-media stories that work across all modern browsers and devices. Organisations currently using Shorthand include the BBC, The Telegraph.co.uk, ESPN and the Sydney Morning Herald.
For the past few years I have been pioneering dynamic, long-form digital story telling for the New Zealand Herald using Shorthand. From November 2019, I altered my role at NZME to focus on producing more Shorthand stories and spend less time on newspaper and magazine layout. Virtually all of the Shorthand pieces from now on will be considered to be Herald Premium Content. As such, they will sit behind the Herald‘s paywall.
NOTE: Non-subscribers to the Herald will not be able to view premium content through this website.
Please click on he images to view my most recent Shorthand presentations.
PART 2: Dame Valerie Adams
PART 3: Yvette Corlett
PART 4: Lisa Carrington
PART 5: Jack Lovelock
The Road Ahead
This was a massive project that brought together a series of stories from the length and breadth of New Zealand.
Reporter David Fisher and visual journalist Mike Scott spent three weeks on the road traveling north from Bluff to find out what we’re thinking ahead of the general election.
As well as a series of diaries we published seven stories focused on topics ranging from Tourism and the Economy to Youth and Maori. These were produced in Shorthand.
In a first for NZME, myself and data journalist Chris Knox designed and built an interactive graphic to help navigate all of the content. The project was given its own landing page on the NZ Herald where the interactive sits at the top of the page introducing the reader to the whole project. It was also embedded into each of the Shorthand stories to encourage the reader to continue to explore the series.
Christchurch: The Ripple Effect
This Sunday, March 15, 2020, marks one year since the Christchurch mosque shootings – the worst terror attack on New Zealand soil.
Christchurch-based Herald senior journalist Kurt Bayer has been investigating the tragedy and its aftermath for the past 12 months.
In a five-chapter series, he explores what happened at the two mosques that day, how the tight-knit Muslim community was torn apart, how the city and a nation responded, and where we are today.
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Slates Design 