Being a designer always means finding a solution. And being creative – even as a graphic designer – doesn't necessarily mean creating something visual.

When I was Head of the Graphic Department Print & Digital at the German newspaper Handelsblatt, and we were publishing poster-sized infographic dossier everyday, the digital world was heading towards Mobile-First.

We needed a solution, we needed help, especially since most members of our team came from the world of print. The complexity of the contents we were publishing on a daily basis would have required recruiting some developer-graphic-designer-hybrids, able to work full-time at an unimaginable pace. This is when I had to be creative in a more engineering way.

After creating the concept for the software, we needed to create a framework including a new perception for formats and sizes, thinking 'Mobile-First'.

The implementation took only one day of training per colleague. We were now producing infographic dossiers that were mobile-optimized, responsive to all devices, interactive and animated. And since it was digital, we had reached a new scale of information depth. The print-only members of the team had suddenly become 'Digital-First', using our unique tool that allowed us to create mobile infographic dossiers without coding skills and within an extremely competitive amount of time.

I can't help but being proud and the European Newspaper Award we received for best digital graphic content didn't make it less so. I am to this day still very grateful for this successful adventure.

CREDITS

Creative direction:

JP

Developer:

Michael Köllejan

Cologne

Employer/Client:

Handelsblatt

Düsseldorf