Karl Gude

Karl Gude has been an artist and journalist for more than a quarter of a century, including more than a decade at Newsweek magazine. He helps readers understand complex news stories through visual storytelling, from how the Pope was shot to how a baby’s brain works.

Karl Gude is one of the few visual journalists who has worked for newspapers, news magazines, and wire services. He has served as the director of information graphics at Newsweek magazine, the Associated Press, and United Press International. In addition, he also directed the graphics departments at two large daily newspapers, the New York Daily News and the short-lived National Sports Daily.

During the course of his career of visual storytelling, Gude has covered seven presidential elections, a slew of wars, terrorist attacks and natural disasters, and countless medical and science discoveries. He diagramed what caused Mount St. Helens to explode and how the planes hit the World Trade Center. He mapped the route of British troops through the Falkland Islands and the progress of United States soldiers as they headed toward Baghdad. He also charted the ups and downs of the United States economy and used statistics to illustrate how Enron executives lied to their stockholders.

Gude currently teaches at Michigan State University and is creating an information graphics program at the university’s School of Journalism.