What started out as a two-day project became a deep dive over a six day-span. The story: how Scott Frost became the new football coach at Nebraska. We chose a "graphic novel" style, as many of the photos we would’ve used during the series had already been published. This was a massive undertaking for artist Matt Haney, but he knocked it out of the park. The first day was an eight-page special section that was preprinted in order to have full color for all eight pages. I wrote and/or edited most of the words in the graphic novel portion of the series.

For 15 years a Dutch painting once thought to be a Rembrandt hung out of sight in the basement of Omaha's Joslyn Art Museum. Then, in 2014, one of the world's foremost authorities on Rembrandt studied the painting, "Portrait of Dirck van Os," and determined it an authentic. Two weeks before its rebirth, World-Herald reporter Casey Logan, photographer Ryan Soderlin and I were allowed exclusive access to the painting's move from its basement home to its new location as the museum's star attraction.

2015 silver medal winner,
Society for News Design

Nebraska punter Sam Foltz died in a car accident the summer before his senior year. Following the football season, the World-Herald remembered him with a special section, publishing new articles detailing letters fans sent to Foltz's parents and the healing Husker players provided for the punter's family.

This project was a labor of love. We chose to use an illustration by Matt Haney on the cover and not display the publish date to give the page timelessness. The details were incredibly important with this section. We didn’t have access to the photo we wanted to use to model the cover art – Sam was known for his smile, but he had also recently grown a beard. In the end, we superimposed two images to get the right look.

The Foltz family was so touched by the artwork that they asked for the original painting.

2017 Gold medal winner,
Society for News Design

Everybody likes food, right? So we made that the theme of tthe 2017 annual football section. The football section was an important driver of revenue for the paper due to the popularity of Husker football in Nebraska, which also made the section a fan favorite each year. That made each year an exciting challenge, in terms of design.

The idea for the Big Ten pages came first. Cook a plate of food for each team – a steak dinner representing Ohio State, a slice of gas station pizza for Rutgers, etc. We did a five-page spread for the 14 Big Ten teams. The culinary department at Metropolitan Community College liked the idea as much as we did and took care of the cooking and food presentation. I had the opportunity to art direct the photoshoot from the balcony of the culinary school.

Each detail in the section was meticulously thought out. Nebraska's quarterback is from Louisiana, so we had a crawfish boil in the Husker helmet. We found two cookie decorators to make jerseys and school logos and had fun smashing them for the predictions page. We got the World-Herald's food reviewer involved, and she examined the evolution of tailgating. And we had our world-class illustrator, Matt Haney, put the coaches and players in the kitchen.

2018 Silver Medal Winner, 
Society for News Design

The World-Herald sent a reporter and photographer to Cuba for a week to present a clear-eyed picture of the country in 2016: the country's rapid change, its upside-down economy, its frustrated young adults, its newfound freedoms and the hope and fear of the future. A sampling of the series, which ran over eight days, showcase’s Ryan Soderlin’s photos.

The World-Herald's investigative reporter and columnist discovered that executive pay at Goodwill Omaha was higher than that at other Omaha nonprofits and most comparable Goodwills around the country. With little access and few options for engaging photographs, we chose to deploy vivid color illustrations by Matt Haney on covers and inside pages for all three days of the series.

We chose not to show the face of the Omaha Goodwill CEOuntil the final day of the series. He was fired the following day.

2017 Silver Medal Winner, 
Society for News Design

At age 86, Warren Buffett remains the face of Berkshire Hathaway and its 400-plus companies. Each company name was represented in the illustration of Buffett by Matt Haney. The second section examines who Buffett's successor might be. The second cover was illustrated by Michael Boehnlein on Page 13. On Page 14 we used the illustration from the first cover so Buffett's face would be slightly visible on Page 13 if held up to the light.

The World-Herald compared the two sides of the College World Series. The first section is about The Grand Game. The CWS is a bucket-list event for some fans. Changes to the baseball has increased scoring. It's a fan-friendly event, and attendance continues to grow. 

But ...

The second second discusses The Bland Game. Scoring is down the NCAA baseball, and it's hard to hit home runs at TD Ameritrade Park. Four-hour games hurt TV viewership and send fans to the exits early. And there's always a couple of days where Omaha's unpredictable weather can make the experience miserable. Illustrations by Matt Haney.

The third cover showcases the flags of the eight teams in the tournament.

The premise was that Nebraska is a football machine. What was running smoothly, and what needed a tune-up? To stay with the gritty machine theme, we chose to use all the photos and illustrations in black and white. Illustrations by Matt Haney.

2017 Silver medal winner,
Society for News Design

The Nebraska Cornhuskers hired a new football coach who is known in the business as a nice guy. But can Mike Riley be a nice guy and win at a major college program? The theme of the section evolved into the different emotional sides of the players and coaches. How do they respond in good times -- and in bad? We mixed art and illustration to show the differences, and used a spadea on the first cover to show the two sides of Riley. The features on the six players spread across four pages. Illustrations by Matt Haney.

2015 Silver Medal Winner,
Society for News Design

A sampling of news pages designed for the World-Herald.

A sampling of feature pages designed for the World-Herald.

A sampling of sports pages designed for the World-Herald.