Chris Courtney is leaving his job as design director for RedEye, the successful free Tribune tabloid in Chicago that he’s helped build into one of the country’s design standouts. Courtney will make the leap to interactive design, taking on a new gig at Tribune Interactive as a senior designer. He’ll also be an editorial consultant for Tribune Niche Products, which is the group that includes Hoy, Metromix and TribLocal, as well as RedEye. Update caught up with him over the weekend to ask a few questions about what it’s like to move away from print.
SND: What will you be doing in your new job?
Courtney: In the new position with Tribune Interactive, I’ll be focusing a lot of my energy on user experience design for Web, mobile and gaming projects.
They’ll be a time and place to worry about the shine and polish, but a significant portion of my job will be making sure we are coming up with optimum solutions for the products that we are building.
From there, really, I’ll be tackling anything and everything that they feel I can have an impact on. On the consultant side, I’ll be funneling ideas into the niche products to try to keep them moving forward.
SND: How do you feel about leaving print design and RedEye, the paper you helped build into a design powerhouse?
Courtney: I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little nervous.
But I also felt this way when I left a cozy job working in sports for the Chicago Tribune to go off and work at RedEye. No one gave it a chance in hell. Six-and-a-half years later, I feel pretty good about what we’ve managed to accomplish. I feel like my job was to help get the paper to this point—a place where the staff is liberated to take risks but smart enough to make those risks intelligent in nature.
Leaving RedEye is going to be bittersweet, but I think my work as design director is done here. We’ve hired well and let the team grow with the publication. I have no doubt they will be doing stellar work for quite some time.
It is time for me to move on and try to help he company while putting myself in a position to grow. I think the talented people in Tribune Interactive are the perfect fit for the goals that I am trying to achieve.
SND: What advice do you have for visual journalists making the leap from print to interactive design?
Courtney: There really isn’t a set manual for how to make a jump like this, but for me it was all about the ideas and being able to show people what those ideas would look like in action.
If you’re a print designer and you want to make the leap, don’t wait for someone to give you an invitation before you start thinking about how you can use your skill in the interactive realm. Ideas are the single best asset any company has and if you can show that you are a consistent source of them and you are willing to work hard, then the rest of it will work out.
Resources
Chris Courtney’s site: DesignHawg.com
Huzzah!
Keep up the great work, Chris!
Chris is a fantastic multi-talented designer and we’re very excited to have him as part of our team!
Tribune Interactive is getting a double-shot of energy and creativity, and I congratulate them on bringing Chris on board. He’s an idea machine. We’ll miss him in the newsroom, but I know he’ll keep in touch.
Congratulations!!! As always, Chris, this is impeccable career timing for you. The newsroom down here is abuzz with excitement to see what kind of crazy-awesome success you’ll take with you to Tribune Interactive.