At work with… Jennifer Daniel, Bloomberg Businessweek
This morning we catch up with Jennifer Daniel, Graphics Editor at Bloomberg Businessweek.
Where are you today?
I'm sitting in the humble offices of Bloomberg Businessweek located at 731 Lexington, Floor 3, Midtown Manhattan.
What can you see from the window?
I said humble. Windows are for people who make the Bloomberg organization money—not for magazine makers. Even though the building is made out of windows I've managed to find the one corner that has none.
How many emails are waiting in your inbox?
20. Most are a couple of years old. More to the point: I have 899 saved drafts. I'll read your mail, replied to it, but often never go *all the way*. I guess that makes me a bit of an e-mail tease.
What's your favourite magazine this morning?
Whenever I am traveling I always pick up National Geographic. The photos, the graphics, the stories—it's the best. On a week to week basis I find myself reading New York and the New Yorker. On a daily basis I read The Morning News, The Verge, and Buzzfeed.
What's been a highlight about being a part of the BBW team?
I never thought I'd take a full time job outside of working for and by myself but Businessweek created a position that is as ADD as I am: one week I'll art direct a feature, the next I'll draw naked people for the cover, meanwhile I'm editing graphics on a day-to-day basis. Most of my time is spent researching and designing diagrams, maps, and charts. That research and design part is pretty essential.
Because ultimately what I'm supposed to do is turn this:
into this:
and I can’t do that unless I am both researching and creating the story because good design informs good journalism.
What's the next story you'll be explaining with infographics?
I'm always juggling a few stories at the same time. Right now I'm working on a series of visualizations that show the robot take over on the trading floor and the state of high frequency trading. Another graphic about all the human organs and senses that can be replaced with machinery—3D printing skulls, implants that can draw what you think, etc. (SHAMELESS PLUG) The graphics department has a tumblr where we post what we're up to.What was the last thing your creative director said to you?
“Be sure to mention how I am complex intellectual enigma...no wait, a 'dynamic thought adventurer'. Something like that.”
What do you do on a weekly basis?
Each assignment at Businessweek is a little different from the next but they all start out the same way... with a crazy amount of stress.
Most of this stress is completely unnecessary but can be a motivating factor when working on deadline.My creative director, Richard Turley, has described the Businessweek production cycle pretty accurately:
In addition to reporting, writing, designing, and illustrating I manage an amazing team of four graphics editors. We work pretty collaboratively—looking over one another's shoulders, fact checking each other's spreadsheets, and of course drinking together at the local bar. None of us have a background in making the internet but a few months ago we dipped our toes into interactivity. The five of us have a wide variety of backgrounds (From International Relations, Design, Engineering, and Comics) but the one thing that brings us together is that we're all interested in learning something we don't know how to do. So in addition to the week to week magazine graphics we create scrappy experiences online.
What are you most looking forward to this week?
What are you least looking forward to this week?
What will you be doing after this chat?
Check twitter. Sip my coffee. Tweet something about coffee. Go back to work.
See more of Bloomberg Businessweek here.