Top Secret America interactive

Top Secret America investigation by the Washington Post

Today, the third installment of the Washington Post's investigation into the growth of top-secret government work after Sept. 11, 2001, takes readers to the capital of Top Secret America. Fort Meade, anchors the largest of a dozen clusters of top-secret government organizations and the companies that do work for them.

They are in otherwise ordinary suburbs where hotels rent eavesdrop-proof rooms, road signs advertise job fairs for workers with top-secret clearances, and even the manhole covers are not what you might expect

ALL shown and can be viewed in print and online

A great interactive reference for ALL journalists

Click here for the intro video

Click here to read the stories

Click here to view the map

Click here to explore the connections

Click here to search the companies

Inside the NYT graphics department

Inside the New York Times graphics department with Gestalten

Gestalten.tv in Berlin, have produced THE MUST SEE interview with Steve Duenes, Graphics Director and Archie Tse, Graphics Editor of the NYT. The graphic department at the NYT have won countless awards for their ground-braking and peerless graphic journalism. This video podcast offers an incredible insight into the minds of two leaders of the most successful graphics team in journalism

In extracts from the interview Duenes states the core requirement of his team philosophy:

It is our job to edit, to reduce and determine what it is about a story that someone wants to know, needs to know and try to convey a hierarchy of things that are really important and things that are a little less important, just interesting

And on relations with the newsroom:

There are plenty of word editors in our newsroom who have really terrific ideas about what might make a good graphic, and we actually owe these editors a lot because... we can't pay attention to everything and they like point out opportunities for us that turn out to be really exceptional graphics and we probably would never have done them if it weren't for word editors saying... "there's a clear visual angle and maybe you should get plugged in..."

Tse also comments on the newsroom and a usual graphic editor's role:

In the news room editors are people who sort of take content that has been created and then edit it, but in the graphics department, the graphic editors actually create a lot of content also, they do the reporting, they do the distilling of the information, we could also be called graphics reporters, or graphics journalists but editing is one part of our job

Later, Tse reveals the secret of the most successful infographic style book in the world, and what they do:

We don't, and we've made some attempts to create one in the past but, but its difficult because of the principles that we sort of follow are fluid and depend on the situation and they depend on the material that you have... I feel like what we should try to do is find a story that is uniquely visual that will give our readers a better understanding of what has happened

Duenes adds:

There's a visual language at the [New York] Times... that there is no law that governs what that visual language is... just a sought of an agreement between the designers about what works well and is clear

This interview was conducted in relation with the release of Gestalten's latest book Turning Pages: Editorial Design for Print Media

Enjoy!

Telegraph Media Group: Infographics vacancy

Daily and Sunday Telegraph: Infographics vacancy

Senior Graphics position
Telegraph Media Group
London

Job Description
Telegraph Media Group are offering this exciting and unique opportunity for a Senior Graphics position in the production of daily and weekend graphics of our two newspaper titles and expanding online empire

You will work closely with Editors, reporters and Design Directors to help them decide on suitable subjects for news coverage, and should be aware of news stories developing around the world. You will be responsible for creating, editing and producing ground-breaking graphics of the highest quality, in a news orientated environment

This position is crucial in our news, business and sporting coverage. You will need to be an experienced graphic artist, have a broad understanding of illustration and typography, have the talent to understand complex events and develop ideas with succinct visual explanations through hand drawn and conventional computer rendering. You should be able to develop creativity, professionalism and innovation within the team and ensure your continuous personal development

5-10 years experience or equivalent, and spoken English is required

All applications by July 30

To apply please email resume and five examples of information graphics in pdf format to:

Michael Agar
Head of Graphics TMG
michael.agar@telegraph.co.uk

King Carles of Spain

King Carles of Spain ready to rule the world

Spain pay homage to Catalonia (i couldn't resist) with the special "Barca" relationship between Puyol and Xavi

Look at Carles Puyol's eye contact with Xavi Hernandez i Cruz on the back page of today's Independent

Great photojournalism

Xavi supplied the cross from the corner that was met by the skull of Puyol

This moment needs no words – they have playing together as men and boys for Barcelona together for 34 years

How fitting that Vicente del Bosque, the old Real Madrid boss, decided to trust even more in the cult of the Nou Camp and make history for Spain

Ian Chadband for the Telegraph writes a superb homage to the Catalans:

One goal was a paltry reflection of their complete command, even if teams who show some ambition against them – only Chile had previously done so – are liable, like Germany, to be barbecued. For a moment, the fear was that they would not be rewarded, that Germany might snatch victory just as a patient Inter had finally snared Barcelona in the Champions League.

But if the world can see just one more command performance from Spain, if they can bamboozle Holland in the same grand manner on Sunday, and if Van Marwijk doesn’t turn out to be Jose Mourinho, won’t winning the World Cup final sweep away all that Barca angst about losing their Champions League crown?

For by sticking to Barca's glorious principles and showing that, yes, their style can beat the world again, what a triumph for the game that would be. We would then be able to hail the finest champions since the Brazil of 1970

World Cup innovation

World Cup infographic innovation

In a series for each country of the 24 who started the finals in South Africa, Luis Chumpitaz, Graphics Director for Al Bayan (designed by Innovation) in the Emirates, and his team have created wonderful infographics, like this example of Germany

But here's the beef...

The total supplement and each infographic are in Arabic and English

Is this a first in the world of visual reporting?

And infographics that have driven syndication (cash paid to your publisher) throughout the Arabian nations

Chumpitaz says:

This project was challenging because is the first time that, an Arabic newspaper recognizes that in Dubai the big population of expat like football, for this reason I suggested to make this supplement in two languages. After the approval my surprise was the reaction of the sport media in GCC, newspapers like Al Shabeeba in Oman, Al Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Al Sharaq in Qatar, and others in the rest of GCC countries took the decision acquire and print the supplement in their own countries. This was really good news!

Total football, total infographic caviar