Role

Digital Producer

Skills

Design Production, Digital Storytelling, Front-End Development

Background

Shape of Water is about the historical technique of wooden boatbuilding created in the Baltimore bay area. Baltimore Magazine follows the building crew on their daily reconstruction of one of the historic ships, the Ednea. Baltimore used this as an opportunity to bring this story to the digital world with an animated storytelling experience.

Goal

Transform the printed editorial into a multi-media story that elevates the original feature.

Exploration

I worked closely with the Editor, Photographer, and Art Director of the original story. We created an outline of the story and brainstormed its digital possibilities. I converted our outline into a wireframe that we could start filling in with content. The Photographer provided me with images and videos of the boat being restored that weren’t included in the original story. I wanted to add as much of that imagery into the story as possible.

Experimentation

I started this project by coding and developing the wireframe. I wanted the visuals to follow the flow of the story. I created more collages to show an array of photos conveying a “day in the life” of a boatbuilder. This helped me confirm visual placements and integrate design elements from the printed version. Once the positioning was perfected, I could begin editing and uploading images and videos.

Execution

Thanks to my earlier work I was able to finalize the digital story. I added small details like the tape to photos and integrated videos from the construction site. This created an immersive experience that the printed version couldn’t provide.

Our story was praised by Baltimore Magazine and its readers for this enhancement of the original story. This design was a finalist in the City & Regional Magazine Awards and won the Folio Award for Digital Storytelling.

Evaluation

Working with the original creators of this design helped inspire the storytelling aspect of this design. Pulling all our resources together to create a next-level solution. Creating a layout that worked with the story from scratch gave us complete control over the layout, and mobile-friendliness, and let us create edits quickly.