Designer Spotlight: The Daily Taps into the Future of Design

The versatility of the tablet technology allows the design team unparalleled creative freedom to tell traditional news stories in the best and most interactive way possible. “We build custom experiences as we need them — if a story calls for a blown-out visual data element, that’s what we’ll do,” says Kilpatrick.

From ultra-interactive touch graphics, 360-degree photos that feel like you’re literally in the image, to HD video, audio, timelines, animations, and illustration, “experimentation is always front and center. We like to push new ideas and concepts every day,” Kilpatrick explains.

No stranger to interactive design, this former V.P. and Creative Director for AOL Media instantly loved The Daily’s concept and jumped right in. Along with overseeing the publication’s design and user experience, Kilpatrick personally handpicked The Daily’s design team drawing from creatives at the New York Times, AOL, Men’s Vogue, Frog Design, film production crews, and more.

Although the staff’s creative process is inspired by all aspects of media (print, broadcast, web), standard design and production rules are out the window. Forget typical lead times for newspaper and magazines. “There are times when we work on editorial features for a day, a week, or even a month,” says Kilpatrick.

And typographically speaking, gone and thankfully forgotten are the headache-inspired type issues designers so often encounter on the web. “One of the beauties of the app development environment is that we can just build typography right into the design.” And he admits, “We definitely have fun with it.”

With over one million downloads of The Daily, the publication is not only paving an exciting path for the future of journalism – it’s smashing the door wide open for new design opportunities. Of course with the merging of all these creative disciplines, designers will not only need to understand layout, type, digital usability issues, mobile, tablets, and video, they’ll need to grow four heads, four arms, and forgo sleep for the next twenty years. Ahh, technology…

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