Services
Hire me to do work for you! Just shoot me an email at
ejfox@ejfox.com or
grab a spot on my calendar.
I make responsive infographics quickly. I started my career making
static infographics in Illustrator, and after a decade of client work it
still brings me a lot of pleasure. These static graphics are used to add
context to a written piece, and I love partnering with journalists to
help them tell their story. I like every step of the process, from
scraping and data gathering, exploratory analysis and visualization to
creating a beautiful responsive final product.
NBC News: Does America Need Another Prison?,
NBC News: Russian Twitter Trolls
Sometimes to tell a data story, it's easier to make understandable
through interactive graphics. I've spent the last 10 years working in D3
to create interactive data visualizations for mobile, desktop, and
broadcast.
WaPo: David Byler Post Opinions 2020 Democratic Primary Simulator,
Mother Jones: A Map of the Dark-Money Universe,
NBC News: Post Bail
I primarily use QGIS, Mapbox, and Cinema 4D to create maps for both
personal projects and commissioned work. I enjoy making maps with
election data, and exploring alternatives to choropleths.
I pride myself in getting up to speed in new systems and making things
exist quickly. These prototypes might be little scripts, Observable
notebooks, or pitch decks. But I pride myself in creating focused and
comprehensive minimum viable products from design and documentation to
code.
CMU: CovidCast, CBS:
Democratic Primary Big Board
For the past year, I have been working more to create motion graphics
for explanation and data visualization. Videos are a really cool
opportunity to combine lots of different skills towards one goal:
scriptwriting, data visualization, animation, data sonification. It is
really challenging and rewarding, and a place I would like to continue
to practice and grow.
I co-host the livecoding stream Coding With Fire with
my friend Ian Johnson
on his Twitch. I really enjoy
the entire process of livestream production, from creating graphics and
scenes in OBS to helping produce segments and prepare guests.
Data Visualization Design
Interactive Development
Cartography
Prototyping
Video Production & Motion Graphics
Livestream Production
I call myself a hacker-journalist. I am a hacker in the sense that much of my time is spent convincing various computers to do my bidding, and I am a journalist in the sense that my bidding is often to discover, explore, or tell truthful stories about the world. Not all of my work pulls from these backgrounds equally, and there are times where I am mostly journalist or mostly hacker.
My favorite moments are when someone says "I am not sure this is possible, but..." and then I can dive into the puzzle of unlocking the thing they don't totally believe can be done.
I like creating things from nothing, making things exist. I love the challenge of making things exist on a deadline. I love the inherent deadlines in news, the need for speed and pragmatism and hard choices.
A lot of people hire me to take an idea they have and make it exist with code. Because of this, and because every project is different, I find myself working up and down the stack, depending on the team and infrastructure I am working with. I am comfortable spinning up my own servers or SSH'ing into yours. I am comfortable hand-coding my own static webpages from scratch, or hacking your CMS to get everything working perfectly.
I like working with teams of all sizes and disciplines. I really enjoy the process of learning new things and working with unique and diverse collaborators.