Splash · an open skill pack for newsrooms

Too much reporting ends up as text.
It should be seen.

Comparisons become paragraphs. Places are described instead of mapped. Change over time is written out instead of shown. The internet does not need another wall of words; it needs evidence readers can see.

Journalist install is Indicator Labs on Mac or Windows · source on GitHub

Fig. 1 EJC State of Data Journalism Survey, 2023
01 · The evidence

Visual journalism makes reporting easier to inspect.

In a survey of 768 people involved in data journalism, 70% said data journalism makes stories more reliable and 61% said it helps readers make sense of what they are reading.

Source: EJC State of Data Journalism Survey, 2023 ↗
02 · Trust

Good design helps readers trust the work.

Clear visual design can make the same work feel clearer, more rigorous and more engaging. Readers look for clarity, polish and credible sources when deciding whether to trust a visualisation.

Sources: Information Design Journal ↗ · ACM CHI, 2024–25 ↗
03 · The AI shift

When articles become inputs, visual form becomes identity.

AI turns fixed articles into “liquid information” that machines break apart and recompose. Visual journalism gives the reporting a distinctive form that still belongs to the publisher.

Source: Reuters Institute, 2025 ↗
04 · Discovery

Visuals create another way for the story to travel.

AI Search is multimodal and can use high-quality images and video alongside text. Visuals can become part of how reporting is found and understood.

Source: Google AI Search documentation ↗
Fig. 3 Rendered by code — Cesium + Remotion, no screen recording

3D Terrain Flythrough

Explore the skill →
Fig. 4 MapTiler + Remotion

2D Map Explainer

Explore the skill →

Fig. 2 · drawn live from Natural Earth + OpenStreetMap data — no screenshots

01 · Scrolly maps

Animate maps in scrollytelling and explorable form.

Maps that fly, reveal and annotate as the reader scrolls — then switch to interactive so the reader can explore. Two outputs of the same skill, one pipeline.

02 · Cut for social

…and the same map, cut for social.

The story you just scrolled, exported as MP4 by the same skill — one pipeline, every format your desk publishes.

What is Splash

Splash is an agent system for visual journalism

You install it into your AI assistant. Splash guides the agent through a research-informed process for understanding the story and data, choosing the right visual form, producing it, and asking for your approval before publication.

Produces

Charts
Cartography
Video
Scrollytelling
Web / iframe
Print

What Splash does

How Splash turns reporting into graphics

Splash guides the agent to understand the story and data, decide what the visual should communicate, and propose forms the evidence supports. You choose the direction. The agent produces a draft for review, then prepares the approved output for print, web, video or scrollytelling.

1

Understand

The agent reads the story and data.

2

Recommend

Splash guides it toward visual forms the evidence supports.

3

Decide

You choose the treatment and format.

4

Produce

The agent creates a visual for review.

5

Publish

You approve the final output.

Built over

Standing on Swiss shoulders

Remotion

Video written in React — every Splash motion render is a program, replayable frame for frame, not a screen capture.

Zurich, Switzerland

MapTiler

Basemaps, satellite imagery and 3D terrain — the geography under every map beat, from dataviz-dark to quantized-mesh.

Zug, Switzerland

…in good company

Datawrapper D3.js Observable Plot CesiumJS Natural Earth OpenStreetMap