Animation: How the Recovery Works

Design Challenge: In February 2009, debate over President Obama’s recovery plan was filled with a lot of confusion and misinformation about where the dollars would go. My colleagues were frustrated with the challenge of trying to communicate how economic stimulus investment could help create a dynamic for growth and recovery. My job was to help them do that visually.

Solution: Working with one of our senior economists, we talked about the idea of investment and “multiplier effects.” He described a scenario where a bridge builder gets a contract from the government and how he would in turn hire people and get contracts with vendors. I took that idea and wrote a script for how that hypothetical example could play out more fully, interjecting motion photography, and a little humor. The finished product became one of the most popular features on americanprogress.org, driving a lot of new traffic to the site and helping promote related eatures and reports.