Brian Williamson
Forward-thinking visual journalist skilled at designing, programming and producing data visualizations, animations and multimedia stories. Experienced illustrator equally comfortable working with dirty, real-world paint or the virtual equivalent to create conceptual illustrations, portraits and comics.
2016 - present
Interactive Designer and Illustrator | Voice of America
Developed interactive maps and graphics using HTML, SASS/CSS and JavaScript (including D3, Leaflet and MapLibre). Created static maps and graphics using Illustrator, QGIS and ai2html. Scripted, storyboarded, illustrated and coded responsive web-based comics. Created animations in Procreate and After Effects. Coordinated workflows and developed tools for simplifying the translation of graphics and web projects.
2012 - 2016
Senior UX Designer | Broadcasting Board of Governors
Led a team that redesigned the BBG’s .gov website, transforming it into a modern responsive website using the U.S. Web Design Standards. Illustrated and designed ebooks and print-on-demand books for Radio Free Asia. Led a team that developed an open source tool for journalists to create and edit web-based interactive videos. Helped run a series of iterative usability tests on mobile apps.
2011 - 2012
Designer and Illustrator | XPLANE / Dachis Group
Facilitated on-site discovery sessions with clients using live sketching to explore client needs and deliverable options. Conceptualized, designed and illustrated print graphics to communicate business strategies. Scripted, storyboarded, illustrated and animated videos to explain business processes.
2007 - 2010
Interactive Designer | St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Produced interactive and multimedia projects. Combined interactive data visualizations with audio and video. Designed and coded Flash templates for the newsroom staff to create their own quizzes and slideshows. Designed and developed a mobile web app using JavaScript, PHP and MySQL.
2004 - 2006
Page Designer and Illustrator | St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Designed A1, metro, business and feature section pages. Brainstormed, illustrated and designed special sections. Created illustrations using paint, scratchboard, ink and digital techniques.
Computer skills
- Comfortable hand-coding HTML, SASS/CSS and JavaScript
- Building static sites using Jekyll and Liquid templating
- Working knowledge of Node, PHP and QGIS
- Skilled Adobe CC user, including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and After Effects
Education
Graduate course work in visual journalism
Missouri School of Journalism
Columbia, Missouri
Visual Journalism Summer Fellowship
The Poynter Institute
St. Petersburg, Florida
BFA in Graphic Communications
Washington University
St. Louis, Missouri