How to explain the Corona Virus
About
This infographic project was developed in my internship in summer 2020 for the newspaper “Der Tagesspiegel”. My responsibility was to research and create infographics. In this project, I had to make various virus illustrations. The goal was to explain to the readers of the newspaper “Der Tagesspiegel” how the coronavirus makes us sick. This explanation had to be in an easily accessible way.
Challenges in this project were:
1. I started my internship right at the beginning of the corona lockdown in April 2020. Therefore I had to work remotely and it was difficult to meet the team of the Tagesspiegel Innovation Lab and having an inside look at their work processes.
2. It was my first internship and work experience at a daily newspaper.
3. When we started this project it had to be finished in only one month.
4. Because of the quick development in the research field about the virus we had to update our project daily.
2. It was my first internship and work experience at a daily newspaper.
3. When we started this project it had to be finished in only one month.
4. Because of the quick development in the research field about the virus we had to update our project daily.
Watch the published scrollytelling infographic
Storyboard
After consulting with the team I decided to tell the coronavirus story in a scrollytelling web technic. With the scrollytelling, the readers were able to discover the infection process of the virus. After the research process and coordination of the collected science information with Helena Wittlich, a member of the Innovation Lab by “Der Tagesspiegel”, I started with a complete storyboard of the virus infection process. I cut it into parts to work out the information details in consultation with Helena Wittlich and Hendrik Lehmann the head of the Information Lab. This is my greatest and most complex infographic yet.
view inside the human body. Hand drawn by me.
the virus docking process at the human cells.
view inside the human cells and infection process.
I started to draw all illustrations by hand for the organic impression of the graphics. After that, I rebuild them in Adobe Illustrator. The infographic was particularly complex and it had to be built in two sizes, mobile and desktop. The polishing process was supervised by the art director Manuel Kostrzynski and brought to life by David Meidinger.
Conclusion
Working at “Der Tagesspiegel” during the lockdown was not easy. The daily project deadlines were a great challenge especially in the home office situation for internships. Because the informal communication in the team during an office day was missing we needed much more time to finish.
Final Illustrations
Credits
Illustration & Research: Jens Ove Drößiger
Writing & Research: Helena Wittlich (Tagesspiegel)
Art Direction: Manuel Kostrzynski
Website Development: David Meidinger
Project Supervisor: Hendrik Lehmann
Writing & Research: Helena Wittlich (Tagesspiegel)
Art Direction: Manuel Kostrzynski
Website Development: David Meidinger
Project Supervisor: Hendrik Lehmann
Published Infographic by Tagesspiegel
https://interaktiv.tagesspiegel.de/lab/grafik-erklaerstueck-wie-das-coronavirus-den-koerper-befaellt/
https://interaktiv.tagesspiegel.de/lab/grafik-erklaerstueck-wie-das-coronavirus-den-koerper-befaellt/