Mapping Corruption

Since becoming president, Trump has brought his brand of corruption to every federal government agency and it is hard for us to keep track of it all. In the cover story of the March/April 2020 issue of The American Prospect, Jim Lardner unlocks extensive dossiers of the activities happening inside 15 federal departments.

Last week, the magazine contracted me to create an online version of the story. After discussing with its creative director who was my advisor for my final thesis on Vietnamese Typography, I developed an interactive page based on a map illustrated by Peter and Maria Hoey. My initial impression was that I might have to create an image map, which I used to despise and hadn’t have to create one in years. Thankfully, I was able to export the illustration into an SVG, which allowed me access individual shapes of the building to create links and hover state. When users hover each department, the building moves a bit and turns dark. Another requirement was to have the dollar signs flying across the map to show corruptions.

The project turned out well. The illustration is beautiful and the dossiers are informative. I invite you to check out “Mapping Corruption: The Interactive Exhibit.”