How it all began
I’m Karsten Ivey, co-founder of KarBel Multimedia. I was introduced to the world of infographics when I became a graphic artist at the Florida Times-Union, my local newspaper. I was in awe of the work they were doing. I had a lot to learn, so my first couple of assignments were primarily illustrations, daily charts and maps. However, I was quickly given an assignment where I would have to research, report, write and design my first infographic. I produced a full page infographic on driving safety tips. Its been my passion ever since.
During my time at the Florida Times-Union, I began creating interactive graphics as well. I would take my static infographics a make them interactive for the online edition. This only enhanced my drive to learn more and find new ways to tell visual stories.
My experience at the Florida Times-Union led me to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel as a senior graphics reporter. This is where I would eventually meet my wife, Belinda Ivey. She was hired a couple of years after me in the graphics department as a graphics reporter. During my time there, I was able to continue to develop and improve my interactive and infographic storytelling skills. We created weekly full page infographics called News Illustrated. I was in infographic heaven. We also converted some of our News Illustrated pages into interactives for our infographics website called The Edge.
I became the assistant graphics director at the Sun Sentinel, then eventually the leader of our 5-person graphics department after the graphics director’s departure. While leading the department, we were able to incorporate motion graphics into our tools for visual storytelling. We also built our social media presence for our infographics to develop yet another way to reach a wider audience for our visual stories online.
Throughout my journalism career, I won numerous awards for my infographics, design and interactive infographic work. I was on the board of the Society for News Design as the Region 3 director. I also taught many interactive and infographic design classes for high school students, college students and professional journalists.
Starting a creative agency
All of the experiences I gained throughout the years of being a visual journalist led my wife and I to leave the Sun Sentinel to start our own creative agency, KarBel Multimedia. Our agency specializes in infographics, data visualizations, motion graphics and interactives. We now use our visual communication experience to help our clients reach their audiences on multiple platforms. We are also still committed to teaching and developing high school students, college students and professional journalists.