Charles Apple

Here’s wishing the happiest of VizEds birthdays to one of my best friends in the world, Xinning Huang, the Director of Product Development at BrandWizard in New York. Xinning turns 30 today.

Xinning marvels over the fact that I
weigh three times as much as she does.
—

Xinning came to the U.S. from China several years ago to earn a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. Her specialty was infographics; therefore, her professor — my good friend Daryl Moen — sent her to me for her professional project in the fall of 2004. Think of it as an internship on steroids.

Xinning quickly charmed everyone at The Virginian-Pilot with her great work and her natural charisma. Everyone loved working with Xinning.

Xinning, Julie Elman — now a professor at Ohio University — and I rode the same plane from Dallas to San Jose to attend that year’s SND annual workshop. However, we were all separated by several rows. During the flight, I noticed some commotion up front, where Xinning was seated.

What happened? The nice gentleman sitting next to Xinning accidentally knocked Xinning’s cup of tomato juice all over Xinning, spilling juice into her purse. In the process of cleaning up the mess, the gentleman discovered Xinning worked at the Pilot. So he introduced himself.

Boy, was I surprised when I walked up the jetway to find Xinning, a huge grin on her face, chatting with Richard Curtis, managing editor of USA Today.

Richard, in turn, introduced Xinning to very bigwig in attendance in San Jose. Next thing I knew, my intern was having breakfast and lunch with Richard and Nigel Holmes and folks like that.

I figured she’d disappear with them and I’d never see her again.

I was wrong, though. She came back to complete her internship with us. She produced really fine work, in fact, even as she traveled to New York to interview folks at AP, Newsweek and The New York Times for her thesis on GIS and informational mapping.

The Pilot’s news graphics staff in early 2006:
Bob Voros, Ken Wright, yours truly, Xinning
Huang and John Earle.
—

We were all heartbroken when she left us that December. Xinning was fun to have around.

Which was why we brought her back in May 2005, as a full-time news artist.

Xinning had never really lived in an apartment of her own before, so my wife and daughter and I helped her move into her new place. Folks all over the newsroom donated furniture.

Sharon even gave Xinning our old Ford Escort and we taught her how to drive.

Sharon and Elizabeth take Xinning shopping
at the big outlet mall in Williamsburg.
—

In return, Xinning did exceptional work for the Pilot. I was happy to have someone I could send to meetings and cover for me during the day.

A few samples of Xinning’s work:

See more in Xinning’s NewsPageDesigner portfolio.

That winter, Xinning mentioned she had never experienced an American-style Christmas. We invited her over for the weekend. She drank hot chocolate, helped us decorate our tree, spent time hanging with Elizabeth and we all watched A Charlie Brown Christmas together.

Xinning helps Sharon and Elizabeth trim the
Apple Christmas tree in December 2005.
—

In January, Daryl sent another Chinese intern to us: Qi Ji. Ji, too, did fabulous work for us in the spring of 2006 — so fabulous that I offered her my summer internship as well. That spring, we invited both Xinning and Ji over to experience an American Easter: We dyed eggs and grilled out on our patio.

Xinning and Ji dye Easter Eggs in March 2006.
—

All this fun eventually came to an end, however.

Xinning married her boyfriend from her hometown in China, who was working as a college professor in New York City. She left the Pilot once again, this time taking a job in an internet branding company in Manhattan. She supervises a number of designers and programmers and travels the country on business. This very week, for example, Xinning is in Atlanta and San Antonio.

And she’s very successful. Which surprises no one who has ever met her.

Read more about the company Xinning works with, BrandWizard, here. You’ll be impressed with their list of clients.

(Our friend Ji is also living in New York and is also very successful: She’s an artist with the business news unit of the Associated Press.)

Xinning and her husband came back to visit us over the Labor Day weekend. We were glad to see her. I miss her very much, as do Sharon, Elizabeth and everyone in the newsroom of The Virginian-Pilot.

I present Xinning with a cartoon of herself at her
goodbye party in May 2006. The cartoon is below.

Xinning turns the big three-oh today. Because she’s on the road, I doubt she’ll see this. But even if she doesn’t, I wanted you all to know that today is her special day. And that Xinning is one very, very special lady.

Best wishes, Xinning!

生日快乐，新宁。我们爱你

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at 6:19 am and is filed under Charles Apple, Getting a life, Graphics, Happy birthday, Virginian-Pilot, VizEds Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.