amy o'kruk
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amyokruk.bsky.social
amy o'kruk
@amyokruk.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1.1K following 20 posts
visual journalist, CNN data & graphics
🇨🇦 she/her
amyokruk.github.io
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amyokruk.bsky.social
Chris Ware's new design for USPS is so good?? love the overall isometric illustration of a postwoman's day and how thoughtfully composed each stamp is
An illustration in an isometric style showing a day in the life of a USPS postwoman. The overall composition shows a city streetscape, with each individual stamp representing a small but visually compelling fragment.
July 24, 2025 at 9:33 PM
amyokruk.bsky.social
ever come across ESRI data and struggle to extract it?? my brilliant colleage @stiles.bsky.social created a super useful tool to help! github.com/stiles/ezesri
GitHub - stiles/ezesri: A lightweight Python package for extracting data from Esri REST API endpoints.
A lightweight Python package for extracting data from Esri REST API endpoints. - stiles/ezesri
github.com
July 15, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Reposted by amy o'kruk
thatsoph.bsky.social
Love this explainer of how conclave works edition.cnn.com/2025/04/28/w...
Conclave: A visual guide to the secretive process of choosing a new pope | CNN
The process of picking a new pope is filled with ancient rituals like a secret ballot and locked doors. See a visual guide to conclave.
edition.cnn.com
April 28, 2025 at 1:06 PM
amyokruk.bsky.social
so thrilled to be a part of this!
canadamediaawards.bsky.social National Media Awards Foundation @canadamediaawards.bsky.social · Apr 9
✨ Meet a National Magazine Awards Judge!

@amyokruk.bsky.social is a New York-based visual journalist who works as a Data & Graphics editor at @cnn.com . This is Amy's first time on the NMA jury.

Nominees announced May 1! 🗓️

Full jury here: zurl.co/RiJ63
April 9, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by amy o'kruk
alv9n.com
I LOVE this piece on animal sounds across languages.

pudding.cool/2025/03/lang...
How do animals sound across languages?
Analyzing animal onomatopoeia across languages can demystify how we shape sound into meaning.
pudding.cool
March 11, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by amy o'kruk
whetmoser.com
this is so good
February 27, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Reposted by amy o'kruk
jwyg.bsky.social
how to save stuff on the internet? short, sweet & useful zine on diy web archiving by @bitarchivist.net @ilya.webrecorder.net @quinnanya.me @akijas.bsky.social @literaturegeek.bsky.social ✨💾🐢 zinebakery.com/homemade-zin... #webarchiving
January 28, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Reposted by amy o'kruk
sarahedo.bsky.social
💥 I did an explainer about how Android rendering works!

This is part of a series on rendering, I’ll be showing how each platform renders so that people can learn and compare/contrast
Detailed diagram of Android Rendering, going from UI definition all the way to the display, with drawings of each stage
January 28, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by amy o'kruk
rsimmon.bsky.social
The graphics in this @reuters.com article on air tankers battling the fires in LA are astonishingly good.

www.reuters.com/graphics/CAL...

via @interactives.bsky.social
Map of flight paths around the Los Angeles fires. Flight paths are indicated by red lines, roads by gray lines, forested areas with muted green, and active fires with dark gray dots. The map is accented by hill shading. Annotated graphs of altitude and flight times for observation aircraft and tankers, showing coordination of the fleet. Hand-drawn illustration showing how helicopters and aircraft are used to dump water and flame retardant to help fight wildfires. High-resolution color satellite image showing red flame retardant laid in front of an advancing fire with copious smoke.
January 10, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Reposted by amy o'kruk
tylermw.com
Love the use of overhead isometric 3D in this @washingtonpost.com article, which shows how the "wind tunnel" effect of gaps in the mountains results in gusts of hot, dry air that increase the severity and spread of fires in the region.

www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025...
January 15, 2025 at 5:15 PM
amyokruk.bsky.social
🚨 NEW: Exceptional rain followed by drought set the scene for LA wildfires

New chart showing how abnormal precipitation patterns last year are contributing to the intensity of the LA fires. While wet season was supposed to begin in Oct, virtually no rain was recorded in the final months of 2024.
Chart headline: Exceptional rain followed by drought gave way to more vegetation, setting the scene for LA wildfires Chart subhead: The flip from extremely wet to dry set the stage for the Los Angeles-area wildfires. These moments of so-called weather whiplash are becoming more frequent and more impactful as the planet warms. Chart title: Monthly precipitation in 2024 recorded at UCLA weather station Chart description: Chart shows unusually high precipitation recorded in February at 19.3 inches, far above the 4.6-inch norm for the month. From April onward, very little rain is recorded throughout the year, despite wet season typically beginning in October. Chart source: Source: National Weather Service and National Centers for Environmental Information (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
January 10, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Reposted by amy o'kruk
rsimmon.bsky.social
I stumbled on the collection of the Smithsonian’s Biodiversity Heritage Library yesterday, and am completely blown away by some of these illustrations.

www.biodiversitylibrary.org

📊 #dataviz
Detailed scientific drawing of a coiled, red and black Helicops abacurus (mud snake). Detailed color scientific illustration of Glossina morsitans (a species of tsetse fly). Detailed illustration of a spumella et nassellaria (zooplankton) with rose-colored highlights in the center. Impressionistic and minimalist illustration of berries or flowers from Banshō zukan.
January 8, 2025 at 8:26 PM
amyokruk.bsky.social
comic-book-style illustrations can work really well in an investigative feature to make something kinda complex a lot more approachable and engaging (great example here from Propublica/The Connecticut Mirror showing how the Connecticut DMV can sell people's cars after 15 days)
An 3-pane example of the comic-book-style explanatory illustrations showing how the Connecticut DMV allows tow companies to sell people’s cars after 15 days.
January 7, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Reposted by amy o'kruk
explodingarrow.bsky.social
Happy New Year, pals.

It's time for the (hopefully annual) comic critics mini grant.

My family and I are giving four mini grants of $250 to comics critics.

Apply here:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
2025 Comics Criticism Mini Grant
This project will be awarding four mini grants of $250 to comics critics. To apply, please provide 3 links to comics criticism work of at least 500 words published in the last year (blogs and Youtube ...
docs.google.com
January 6, 2025 at 2:51 AM
amyokruk.bsky.social
it’s not much in nyc, but it warms the cockles of my canadian heart
A paltry layer of wet snow coats a New York street. It still slaps though
January 6, 2025 at 6:59 PM
amyokruk.bsky.social
absolutely love this effort to show the impact of NYC congestion pricing using real time data!
shaw.al Al Shaw @shaw.al · Jan 6
Screenshots here from the very cool www.congestion-pricing-tracker.com app
robinsonmeyer.bsky.social Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social · Jan 6
The way, way too early signal from www.congestion-pricing-tracker.com is that all the anti-congestion benefits are accruing to New Jersey drivers, which is hands down the funniest outcome.

(That’s still a good trade for New Yorkers, who get a larger & more reliable stream of MTA revenue.)
January 6, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by amy o'kruk
treelet.bsky.social
Crossed Wires. 👁️💧 Comic excerpts from my personal diary, circa 2021.
A comic page titled: "Crossed Wires Layer 01" featuring several abstract panels. The largest is of a human figure with glasses and large twined wires emerging tangled from their head. A caption reads: "personality disorder, borderline, avoidant." Next to it are panels of bonsai trees, a figure standing on a pier, and personal belongings lined up neatly. At the bottom are two panels; the first is of two separate hands with a disconnected thread tied to their pinkies. The second has a human figure with glasses crying. The caption reads: "mute, block, remove, report." A digital comic page with 9 panels with the following imagery: a pair of feet standing in shallow water, a figure in a windy field, an eroded carving of the Buddha, a two-story house, a human figure with glasses and plant growth, several abstract blobs of light, a pair of hands clasped in soto zen posture, a vague abstract of flesh, and a small flowing plant. The last panel on the bottom reads: "People with Borderline traits tend to lack a sense of emotional permanence. They believe, with all their hearts, that they will always be abandoned one day, and they will wait, with the vigilance and the discipline of the chronically wounded, for the signs that they should excise themselves from the situation immediately. Not because they doubt your love for them, but because they believe in the intense and unalienable truth that they are in fact unlovable." A digitally inked comic page with four panels. The first panel shows a roiling black sea, the second and third show a nautilus shell, from both the outer side and the inner "empty" side. The last shows a desolate ocean floor, devoid of life. The captions read: "It is much easier for us to cope with binaries. One day I loved this person, the next day, my love is gone, as if it were never there to begin with." A digitally inked comic page with four rectangular panels. The first panel is a pair of hands overlaid over a second pair of ghostly shadow hands. The second panel shows stylized human figures linked in a circular dance formation. The third panel shows a hand lighting a piece of paper, the flame in the dark giving off sparks. The last panel shows a scorch mark. The captions read: "Fear keeps us distant but safe, without this former love that was so easy to put down, so easy to light a fire to it, and to be satisfied with its absence, denoted only by the scorch marks where our love once lay."
September 25, 2024 at 10:07 PM
amyokruk.bsky.social
🥹🥹🥹
cpsc.gov U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission @cpsc.gov · Dec 30
Our NEISS data has never looked so good.

bsky.app/profile/amyo...
amyokruk.bsky.social amy o'kruk @amyokruk.bsky.social · Dec 29
i used illustration to highlight some of the accident reports logged by the CPSC since 2004. Pets and toddlers can wreak a lot of holiday havoc..
December 30, 2024 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by amy o'kruk
cchurchili.bsky.social
A map I produced for a story focusing on the harrowing route Haitians take to flee a gang-ravaged Port-au-Prince, read the story here:

www.wsj.com/world/americ...
December 29, 2024 at 4:58 PM
amyokruk.bsky.social
with Christmas over, decor is starting to come down, and hopefully *carefully* 🎄🎄🎄

👉 accidents related to Christmas trees, lights and ornaments send thousands of Americans to emergency departments each year
Chart headline: Classic Christmas decor is linked to the most hospital trips Chart subtitle: An average of 16,035 patients are admitted to emergency departments for decor-related injuries each year, with nonelectric Christmas decor typically representing about half of all injuries. Chart title: Estimated annual US Christmas-decor-related hospital visits, Christmas 2004 to 2022 Chart description: A streamgraph styled as a Christmas tree show the number of Christmas-decor-related hospital trips since 2004, e.g. there were 20,015 estimated trips in 2022 and the majority of trips were caused by nonelectric Christmas decor. Chart source: Consumer Product Safety Commission (National Electronic Injury Surveillance System)
December 29, 2024 at 5:59 PM
amyokruk.bsky.social
alrighty, hello bluesky! 🤠
December 29, 2024 at 5:57 PM
Reposted by amy o'kruk
thatsoph.bsky.social
Great illustrations in this Christmas accidents story by the excellent @amyokruk.bsky.social edition.cnn.com/2024/12/21/h...
Deck the halls (extra carefully): Common Christmas injuries, illustrated | CNN
Every year, an estimated 16,000 people head to the hospital for holiday-decor-related injuries across the United States.
edition.cnn.com
December 23, 2024 at 4:26 PM