Long Lead is competing against established, legacy publications that have made large investments in producing journalism at high volumes. Long Lead operates very differently, painstakingly producing relatively few stories but with unrivaled depth. As a result, their stories’ designs must surprise and delight readers to capture and keep their attention.

To that end, we designed the site to open with a video — shot with an ultra high-speed camera — of a rubber bullet decimating a cantaloupe. We sliced the video into frames and made it responsive to user input, putting the power of less-lethal weapons at readers’ fingertips.

The site’s navigation is evocative of legal briefs and binders. Each of the six stories in this feature can be read independently or as part of the broader package.

To break up long runs of copy, we created “folios” that flip the text as well as image placements that alternate from one column to the other, keeping the reader fresh and engaged during this production.