The most challenging (and gratifying) digital pages I worked on at The Washington Post over the years were the ones that had alternative storytelling formats and/or included various forms of multimedia. These are projects that tested our ability to create clear visual storytelling with structures readers weren’t as familiar with. This included illustrated reporting, long-form video, animated explainers, audio components and other formats. The four examples in this post were some of my favorites and their success is a testament to the creative visual journalists and artists who built them. If you want to look closer, there are gift links to each page in my bio.
I learned a ton from designers over the years as an editor at The Washington Post but never more than when they were creating original art. Meticulous attention to detail. Intentional choices. No challenge was too difficult to accept. These are three highlights of many: @natvineberg for a preview of Diddy’s trial; @elizabethvonoehsen for a comic (gift link in bio) about bikes being a feminist symbol; and @laura.spadilla for a book review about the historical mystery of Jesus.
I teamed up with designers @chelsea_conrad (art direction) and @bycarsonterbush (development) to build a fun series of 7-minute workout videos for the Post’s wellness desk. The challenge was to make the videos feel distinctive (in a sea of workout videos online) and to make the videos easy to exercise to. Publishing full-length workout videos on the Post site was an experiment — and it was a hit with readers. At last count, the series had more than 1.5 million pageviews and 1,000 subscription starts. We got comments from readers wondering whether the animations were made with AI. They were not. They were meticulously created by @christajarrold.art , who spent hours upon hours making sure the workouts reflected real movements but in her unique style. After the first workout published, Will Lewis, the publisher at the time, said, “You’ve all managed to produce something that is artful, charming, easy to use, and understand.” I agree. I left a gift link to the first workout in my bio if you want to give it a shot.
I’m going to occasionally post about projects that I design edited over the years at The Washington Post. This one was a multi-story investigation about sexual exploitation of female bodybuilders. @jakecrump and @natvineberg were the designers and @timdrawsinink was the artist. We wanted to have illustrations that were as foreboding as the stories. The illos, which fully revealed themselves on scroll, were intended to be minimalistic on first arrival to reduce sensationalizing what was a serious problem. Gift link to first story of series in my bio.
Me and many members of the visuals teams at The Washington Post were laid off last week. Take a look at the link in my bio to see some of our best work in 2025. The page was designed by @em.wri and edited by me with the help of an army of other visual journalists.
Our welcome party at @rivertownhudson was an absolute love bomb. Thank you to our friends and family for making it so special, and shout out to @dunningsmarket for organizing it like a pro. Thank you for capturing the magic @saraswallach 💛
