A Murderous War on Drugs

To maximize the impact of this story, the digital design informed the editing of the text and the photos (quite the opposite of what’s generally the normal news editing process). Each of the photographs is more than ever a story by itself. As such, captions were designed and written with small headlines that readers can expand upon. That also respects the hierarchy of the core narrative.

The most important element of this design is the pacing. Images and videos emerge from the background as full sequences depicting brutality and desolation. Dead bodies were left abandoned on major roads and streets. Links to Google Street View give readers a stronger sense of actuality.

Other design details were added to feature the photos in the best possible way, like a smart media query to make them full viewport only when needed and an activity detector to feature them without overlapping UI.