I waited three months for "Chronically Absent" to be ready for print, and boy was it worth it. This story is everything you could possibly want in a front page story: it is well written, relevant and deeply interesting to both students and staff. It also happens to be 2000+ words long, which is part of why it got to take up the entire front page and almost a quarter of page two. The real reason why it took up the whole page, though, is because I felt this story deserved to be read by anyone and everyone who picked up a paper: giving it the whole front page signals its importance and our pride in the story, which in theory should make more people want to read it.

As for the look of the page? I love the two-word main headline, followed by an in-depth deck: the words both set up the story and, as the font size decreases, draw you down into the body of the story. As for the art… well, sometimes you just have to give it to your artists and let them blow you away. Our artist made gorgeous art for this story, and when paired with statistics this page has a distinct and beautiful look, while still relating to the story and drawing you in.

This page was in our November print edition, which can be found here.

As with any good page, this one starts with the content: it features three very different kinds of story: an in-depth news feature, a sports story and a hard news article, all of which are well-written and relevant.

These are probably my proudest visuals, as well: they have a rather striking image, reminiscent of bubbles forming off the side of the page. They represent the contrast in data the story is about well, draw the eye and represent data in an easy-to understand way. The photo below adds some variation to the page, and highlights an outstanding performance from the game as well. This page is well balanced, diverse and tells some of my favorite stories of the year.

The issue this page appeared in won 6th place best in show at the fall 2023 NHSJC in Boston. An online copy can be found here. 

This news page was somewhat of a revelation for me: after being told that I needed a dominant element for all of last year, I decided to go without it on this page and was very pleased with the result. There isn't necessarily a story that catches the eye immediately, but for news two I think that's okay: this page is meant to reflect what happened in our school that wasn't quite big enough to make page one, and all of it has roughly equal weight both in terms of value and on the page. I also love the "continued from" column on the left, which nicely separates the continued from the new.

It isn't perfect, but I think this is a very solid news page and I'm very happy with the page.

This page was in our September 2023 issue, which can be found here. 

Our editorial pages pretty much look the same from month to month, so there usually isn't any reason to be super proud of a design. For this issue, though, we did something little different: we used to run our "Hawk Talk" block all the way across the bottom of the page, with a four-column corrctions block above it. I decided to shrink both of these blocks to two columns and run them side-by side.  This eliminated ugly white space, and gave us space to add another block for a readership survey or other additional content. 

This redesign wasn't the most complex thing ever, but I think there is a lot of power in even simple changes: the page looks much better now, more stuff can fit, all because of one small change I decided to make.

You can find our old editorial design here, and my new and improved one here.

This was my first true foray into graphic design: as I was writing a story about our soccer team's state championship, it dawned on my that just one photo couldn't truly encapsulate their season. For that reason, I set out to make a grid of photos on which to overlay a drawing of the state championship trophy, showcasing both the end result of their title chase and how they got there.

I don't love everything about this: we have some great photographers on our staff, but there are only so many good photos we can get, so not every photo is truly great or even good. I also wish that I had made the backdrop less of a grid and more of a collage, with the best photos I had available blown up larger so that they were more visible.

For a first  attempt, though? I'm proud of how this looks, proud of the story it tells, and proud of the work I put in.

This graphic ran in our November 2022 print issue, which can be found here, and online here.

Our school made some minor changes to our grading system at the beginning of this year, which were confusing for a lot of students because there were a lot of small changes that interlocked and were hard to keep track of. Essentially, we went from a "90% summative, 10% formative" model to a "90% evidence of learning, 10% practice" model, and what fit into the 90% category and what fit into the 10% category changed. The maximum score on a retake also changed, from an 80% to a 90%.

For such a muddled set of changes, I believe this graphic did a good job simplifying them into something understandable: the examples provided for both help clarify what a simple explanation would miss, and the comparison to summative and formative work helps returning students understand how the new system compares to the old. I also like the monochromatic look: there is a cohesive design and color scheme that makes a rather text-heavy graphic a little prettier. 

This graphic ran in our September 2023 print issue, which can be found here, and online here.

This graphic ran on its own, telling its story rather than supplementing another. There was a lot of talk in our school about AI use and honesty, so I decided to explore how honestly students are actually using AI: are they doing things our school defines as academically dishonest? Where do they think the line is for ethical use of AI?

I designed both the survey and the graphic itself, and I am proud of both. I believe the survey asks interesting and thought provoking questions, and that the graphic communicates the data gathered from the poll rather well. It is easy to understand and easy to read, and the circuit-board-like details on the graphic add some interesting visuals, even if this is another rather text heavy graphic.

This graphic ran in our November 2023 print issue, which can be found here.