TAKEAWAY: At the Gulf News, a graphic takes the readers on an exclusive tour around what a proposed Expo 2020 site would be in Dubai.
It all began as another routine two-page project for the graphics team at the Gulf News in Dubai.
The United Arab Emirates is bidding to host the World Expo 2020 in Dubai the theme ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’.
Every five years and for a period of six months, World Expos attract millions of visitors. The World Expo has never been held in the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia in the history of the event.
So, for the Gulf News team, this is not just a great local story, but one with historical proportions if the UAE were to gain its bid.
That is why, what began as a possibly two-page project, soon developed into something bigger.
When Hugo Sanchez, of the Gulf News’ graphics team, realized the graphic potential of the story, he asked to contact the Expo 2020 office for more materials and details. By now, Hugo was thinking 3D possibilities.
Immediately, and with the support of the Gulf News editorial team, a meeting was planned with the organizers and there was even a session with the British architects in charge of the project. Everyone was highly motivated on what this story could be like. By then, the graphics team even had files of AutoCad and the master plan of the site.
Next the problem was to decide on how to present the information, a question of format, according to Miguel Gomez, design director at the Gulf News.
“It was so much information that we knew two pages would not be sufficient!,” Miguel said. “After much debate, we decided to go with four pages which the reader would have to put together to get the full effect. This, we knew, would require extra effort on the part of the reader, but we thought the information contained would make it worth it.”
For greater impact, the Gulf News team decided to publish the poster on the same day that the group of international delegates in charge of evaluating bidding cities would visit Dubai.
“For Hugo this meant a lot of long, sleepless nights and weekends, but the results could not have been better,” said Miguel. “The poster was beautifully received by the readers, not to mention that the Expo 2020 visitors took copies of the newspaper with them.”
I asked Miguel about a link to see this splendid graphic in all its animated possibilities. However, Miguel explains that the print edition of the graphic was done to coincide with the visit to Dubai of the Expo 2020 organizers. “Originally, this project was to run, both in print and digital, in November. Now we will run the digital version when the winning city is announced,” Miguel wrote.
Overall, this project is an example of the WED (Writing-Editing-Design) philosophy at work, and it was good to see that the byline of the story actually included the following:
By Hugo A. Sanchez, 3D Modeler and Infographic Artist;
Janice Ponce de Leon, Staff Reporter
A big endorsement for Dubai
British Prime Minister David Cameron endorses Dubai for Expo 2020
In what may be a sign of good things to come for Dubai, David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, in an exclusive interview with the Gulf News says that Dubai “deserves to host the Expo 2020”.
Other cities bidding to host the Expo 2020 are: Izmir, Turkey; Yekaterinburg, Russia and Sao Paulo, Brazil
Of related interest:
Official Dubai Expo 2020 website
http://expo2020dubai.ae/en/