Contributor

Karl Gude

Director of the Media Sandbox, Michigan State Univ. Instructor, School of Journalism. Previously, infographics director at Newsweek and The AP. All ideas my own.

Karl Gude is the Director of the Media Sandbox, an integrated media arts program of cinematic arts, game development, graphic design, web design, visual storytelling, 3D art and animation, in the College of Communications Arts and Sciences. Gude is the former Director of Information Graphics at Newsweek magazine, The Associated Press, United Press International and the New York Daily News. Gude left Newsweek after a decade to spearhead the first information graphics program at Michigan State University’s School of Journalism, and has been a faculty member since 2006. He also teaches a large, Media Sandbox class on creative thinking and problem solving.

Gude is a visual storyteller who has consulted with corporations, PR and news organizations, academic and scientific institutions and government agencies, including the CIA, to help them create understandable infographics. During his time working as an infographics journalist, Gude covered major news events including seven presidential elections, wars, sporting events, natural disasters, science, medical and technical advancements and breaking news, such as the attack on the World Trade Center.

Gude has presented at three TEDx talks and has spoken twice at the South by Southwest (SXSW) technology conference on the “Power of Visual Storytelling." Gude recently gave a talk at the "Political Analytics Conference" at Harvard University and is just wrapping up a National Science Foundation grant where he collaborated with several universities on an evolutionary biology project. In 2013, Gude was recognized with the Faculty Impact Award in his college. He is an avid sketch artist and painter and writes (or draws) a column for the Huffington Post.