Charles Apple

Here’s wishing the happiest of VizEds birthdays to Yuri Victor , media coordinator of The Times of Northwest Indiana. Yuri turns 26 today (Sunday).

Is that a good-lookin’ couple, or what? Yuri
and his wife, Kaitlin, pose right after their
wedding last September. Photo from Yuri’s
Facebook gallery.
—

“Media coordinator” sounds pretty fancy. Basically, Yuri is an online editor for the Times. This comes after years of solid work as a designer and an editor of Purdue’s student newspaper, The Exponent.

Yuri became active on the discussion boards at VizEds while he was at Purdue and attracted attention for his insight and his keen sense of design. Clearly, this guy wasn’t just a design geek. This guy is also a leader.

While the rest of can hope to be managers or AMEs one day, Yuri will be a publisher one day. You heard it here first.

The Times’ Matt Erickson says this about Yuri:

I’ve never seen someone put in the sick kinds of hours this kid puts in. He’s been very innovative in terms of taking The Times‘ Web site into the next stratosphere, and for that he’s certainly an irreplaceable part of our newsroom. And damn, the kid can dress, too!

Yuri’s Purdue classmate, Joey Marburger — now, a Web editor for The Indianapolis Star — says:

Yuri and I have been friends for a long time. Everything I know and love about journalism I learned from him.

I think this picture can say it all:

It’s from his wedding reception in September. He decided that being a newlywed required him to give everyone a piggy back ride. I was the only one who agreed.

Casandra Riddle, another of Yuri’s Purdue classmates — and, not coincidentally, Mr. Marburger’s fiancé — says:

I can’t remember if Yuri had pants on when I met him. I assume he did, since I met him at work, but honestly, it’s not like working has ever stopped him from dropping his pants and dancing around.

Casandra writes: Yuri and his lovely wife
Kaitlin at a Gary Railcats game. (I really
had to struggle to find a picture of Yuri
with his pants on.)
—

If you’re lucky enough to know Yuri, you know the man is a magnet. He has fantastic ideas, people, suggestions and pants orbiting around him at all times.

…Also, Yuri may have issues with nymphomania.

A few examples of Yuri’s stuff:

See more in his NewsPageDesigner portfolio.

Yuri shares a birthday with Jeff Schnick of The Dallas Morning News, Rob Bourdon — the drummer for Linkin Park — Paul Stanley of Kiss, TV host Bill Maher, directors David Lynch and Federico Fellini, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and fake astronaut DeForest Kelley, “Bones” from the original Star Trek.

Plus, today is National Buttercrunch Day. Seriously.

Best wishes for a happy 26th birthday, Yuri!

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 at 11:44 am and is filed under Happy birthday, News design, VizEds Blog, Web news design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.