I often say that these are the best times to be a storyteller. We now have tools to tell stories through a variety of platforms. An audience leans forward and leans back to get news and information. It is a day-long cycle. Technology allows for news to come our way at all times.
In a way, creating products that cater to this type of audience has been Garcia Media’s specialty for a few years now.
While we are known globally as a design firm (of which we are proud), we do more than that. We are visual storytellers with vast experience and tremendous interest in assisting media companies around the world to become multiplatform in scope.
A majority of our projects today do just that: take newsrooms that tend to be print centric to look at stories first, platform second, but to guarantee that everyone involved in the crafting of news and information understands that each platform has a different potential. We don’t tell stories the same way on the Apple Watch as we do on the iPad, or the iPhone. We must, therefore, exploit the potential of each.
Learning those differences is essential and that is where product design and product development come into play. As we move forward, and as I rethink the needs of our clients, it’s key to assemble a team that understands how we get and process information today.
We need journalists with an eye for the visual and a focus on mobile/digital.
Welcome the new Garcia Media team
The three young designers joining Garcia Media this fall are just that:
–All three are journalism graduates who respect the words and who embrace content as key.
–All three are incredibly talented designers who can work across the media quintet: smartwatches, smartphones, online, tablet and print.
–All three are millenials who hardly remember life without the Internet.
–All three share my passion for storytelling.
They are my new copilots, and they join the seasoned team of Garcia Media veteran designers which include Mario Garcia Jr., Rodrigo Fino, Paula Ripoll, Christian Fortanet and Constantin Eberle (pictured below).
With the addition of three adjunct product designers, Garcia Media is solidly and uniquely qualified to work with news organizations globally to assist them with newsroom reorganization, the creation of new storytelling philosophies that embrace the media quintet, and, of course, create a visual presentation that begins with brand continuity across platforms and elevates storytelling visually.
Andy Rossback, Art Director/Product Designer.
Andy Rossback is an art director/product designer for García Media, specializing in digital media and editorial strategy.
His design work has appeared in The Virginian-Pilot, The New York Times and a handful of other major publications. Rossback currently writes code and designs graphics, interactives and product at The Marshall Project, an experimental investigative journalism outfit.
He is a graduate of the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communications where his focus was nonfiction narrative and investigative reporting.
While editor of the campus newspaper, the Daily Emerald, he developed new businesses to reduce reliance on print revenue and created one of the earliest digital-first college newsrooms. The paper’s efforts to innovate were described as “immense, frequent, and fearless” and covered by Bloomberg Businessweek, Nieman Lab and The New York Times.
David Ok, Art Director/Project Manager
David is a mobile/digital designer with additional duties as project manager for García Media. He began his career in journalism as a copy editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 2006 while completing his bachelor’s at the University of Texas at Arlington. After spending years in corporate communications and marketing, David chose to return to journalism, enrolling in Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism to learn the latest in digital news media. He was an honor student in my Multi-platform Design and Storytelling course, where he developed an interest in Web, mobile and tablet news design. It was in that class where I first discovered David’s design talents, which led to my asking him to join our team at Garcia Media.
Ian Robinson, multiplatform art director/product designer
Ian Francis Robinson is a recent graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University where he studied visual journalism and philosophy. He previously interned at The Washington Post as a graphics editor, and is currently living and working as a digital designer in New York City.
Adonis Durado, Project Senior Art Director
Adonis Durado has to be one of the most award winning news designers currently working. His work has received 447 awards in the past five years . Without a doubt, Adonis is one of the most talented news art directors of his generation.
As creative director of Times of Oman and its Arab-language sister newspaper, Al Shabiba, Adonis has transformed those two newspapers, built one of the most creative art departments in any newspaper globally, and produced stunningly-designed pages that never fail to impress. Flip through the pages of any recent SND Awards Book, and you will see abundant references to the work of Adonis and his team.
I first worked with Adonis at the Gulf News of Dubai, when Adonis served as the first art director collaborating with me and the Garcia Media team (with Jan Kny) on the creation of the X-Press News look.
So, when the opportunity came for us to engage in a total rethink of the Philippines Daily Inquirer, my first thought was to have Adonis work with me as a senior art director. Adonis is originally from the Philippines and worked previously with the Inquirer. We have kicked off that project and will continue working together in the months ahead.
Welcome to the Garcia Media team, Adonis. We are honored with your contributions.
Of related interest:
http://www.snd.org/2014/02/mario-garcia-chats-with-the-times/
Here are Garcia Media’s senior art directors
Garcia Media Senior Art Directors: Garcia Jr., Fino, Ripoll, Fortanet, Eberle
Join me in welcoming the new team as Garcia Media moves forward to serve the needs of newsrooms globally navigating the biggest revolution ever.