Gude spent 25 years visualizing information for various large news organizations including The Associated Press and Newsweek magazine. As a visual journalist, information designer and artist, Gude’s mission was to simplify, or “laymanize”, complex topics so that the average reader could understand them. When Chernobyl melted down, Gude diagrammed how a graphite nuclear reactor worked, how it failed and the dangers of the China Syndrome. He has mapped every war and diagrammed most new military technologies since the late 70s. Gude charted the fall of Enron and the rise of Apple computer and explained the World Trade Center attack. He has even shown how a garden can be planted so that flowers bloom throughout the day.

Gude was the Director of Information Graphics at Newsweek for nearly a decade before moving to academia three years ago. He now teaches information graphics and visual communication at the School of Journalism at Michigan State University. He gives frequent lectures on the subject of visualization and has conducted scores of workshops on diagramming, storyboarding, designing, graphing and mapping around the world and is a consultant for the CIA on visualization. His seminars have been attended by employees from Google, Ebay, Raytheon and other large companies. Gude understands that words alone can’t tell the whole story, and he enjoys inspiring artists and non-artists alike to show, don’t tell.

See all of Karl’s VizThinkU sessions