The Washington Post has been on quite the hiring spree lately, hasn’t it?
The latest recruit is sports design guru Brian Gross of the Boston Globe.
Washington Post visual leaders Justin Ferrell (news design director), Greg Manifold (senior news designer) and Dennis Brack (design director) announced this evening:
Staff News: Expanding the Leadership Team in Sports Design
We’re thrilled to announce that Brian Gross will join the News Design department later this month.
In his more than 15 years in journalism, Brian has distinguished himself as one of the preeminent sports designers in the country: whether it’s a live event, special section or championship run, his work tells stories that surprise and delight. In his eight years as the sports design supervisor at The Boston Globe, Brian has deftly handled two Red Sox World Series titles, three Patriots Super Bowls and a Celtics NBA championship — encouraging news for D.C.’s 19-year drought.
Brian has won more than 30 awards from Society for News Design, including the competition’s individual portfolio honor an incredible seven consecutive years, to date.
Brian’s experience and leadership allow us to reorient the sports design team into a multi-platform powerhouse; he’ll become our lead designer for print, while Chris Rukan, who has excelled in both print and online since joining The Post in 2006, will become our lead designer for online. Both Brian and Chris will work across mediums, but this co-lead structure will enable designers to tackle more projects in tandem, to increase speed and efficiency.
Before joining The Globe, Brian worked at The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Savannah Morning News and The Kinston (N.C.) Free-Press. He is a graduate of Southern Illinois University.
Please join us in welcoming Brian, his wife, Jill; and their two children, Alex and Lauren; to The Post.
A sampling of Brian’s work (click any for a larger view):
Brian’s last day at the Globe will be May 20.
In his own staff announcement last week, Dan Zedek of the Boston Globe wrote, in part:
It’ll be hard to say goodbye to someone who’s such a talented designer and generous colleague, but I have nothing but appreciation for the incredible job Brian has done in his time here. I’d list some of the highlights, but honestly there have been so many that I’m not sure where I would start. Instead I’ll say that he combined a sense of dramatic presentation with a unparalleled skill at presenting charts, stats, matchups, and graphics. In bringing those two things together, he captured both ends of the sports spectrum: the big moment as well as the back story. We’ll miss him.
Brian is just the latest high-profile visual hire for the Post. The Post hired sports designer Tim Ball away from the Huntsville Times last October, artist Alberto Cuadra from the Houston Chronicle in March and features designer Tippi Thole from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch last month.
