Another great article from RNZ

Last Friday New Zealand held a National Remembrance Service in Christchurch, in recognition of those affected by the mass shootings there just three weeks prior.

In recognition of those whose selfless intervention helped so many on that tragic day, RNZ published "Remember the Heroes", another of the longform web articles I have been helping to produce. It tells the incredible stories of so many great people and their spur of the moment actions that made such a difference on that day.

There was only a day to produce the piece and the art direction called for a look and feel that was respectful and subtly celebratory – these were wonderful people who exposed themselves to great risk, and we should give them thanks and celebrate their actions.

With such a tight deadline and photo assets that had come from various sources at different levels of quality, I sketched various ideas that could give these people the recognition they deserved. We managed to track down a photo of each of those named in the article, with the last portrait arriving minutes before publication. The art director picked up on the use of colour and the graphic "cut-out" of each portrait from my sketches. He also suggested adding a hand-drawn element and I explored capturing the essence of the mosque where most of the victims had fallen.

Once I'd produced all these graphic assets it was all hands on deck to assemble the article and push it up to the site in time. It was great to be collaborating in a trusted team on a piece of work we all believed in, and fantastic to see just how fast our digital tools can deliver. Layered files I'd created in PhotoShop could be shared with the AD, broken apart and adjusted while I continued working on other graphic elements.

"Remember the Heroes" can be seen here, and is recommended reading.