Bill Gaspard, the LA Times news design director who resigned on Friday, was kind enough, amid the craziness, to elaborate on his decision and his plans for the future.

There aren't any easy ways to answer your question about why I'm leaving the Times. There are always a dozen reasons why people change jobs - some small, some big; some professional, some personal; some about the current job, some about the potential in a new role.

In this instance, there seems to be a lot of speculation about those reasons. And much of that speculation seems to have been tragically oversimplified. Some wonder whether I was forced to resign. Others try to read this as a protest resignation in response to the recent structural changes the new editor, Dean Baquet, made a little more than a week ago.

Both make for a more interesting conversation, but neither remotely reflects the truth.

Over the past several months I've had some casual conversations that have become increasingly serious with newspapers that are thinking through big changes with their design, their structure (or both) and looking for someone to help improve the visual journalism component of their paper.

These kinds of building situations have always interested me. It certainly was a strong part of the lure in coming to the Times nearly four years ago from the Union-Tribune.

And it's still a lure to me.

There are many talented individuals here who can maintain and continue to evolve a department that has had a lot of success in relatively short order. At the beginning of 2002 there was not a news design department at the Los Angeles Times. Under the guidance of DME Joe Hutchinson, the main architect of the design changes here and someone who has taught me so much, and with the strong support of then-editor John Carroll and then-managing editor Dean Baquet, we created that desk in early 2002. We staffed it by drawing upon the talents of many of the news editors scattered throughout the room. Those news editors are now called design editors and they, along with the department's deputies - Michael Whitley and Keith Thursby - can keep up with anyone on breaking news coverage. I'm very proud of that.

While those conversations with other papers were continuing, an opportunity to do some consulting work with the Las Vegas Sun came up. The Greenspun family renegotiated parts of the JOA with the Review-Journal and Managing Editor Mike Kelley needed to put together a very different kind of read - a paper within a paper that would be free from covering most breaking news developments. It's an interesting premise and project but more than having someone turn a design around, he needed someone to help with the launch. Because of the timeframe, I had to make a decision quickly. That was the catalyst to the timing.

The benefit of taking on the consulting work is that I'll get to do something interesting and rewarding while I take stock of my options. I feel very fortunate to find myself in a position to do this.

Still, it's very hard to leave the Times. While we have most of the same problems other papers do (in some areas it's to a much lesser degree while in others it's absolutely steroidal), the amazing stories and outstanding images we often work with make the design itself so much easier. One thing I'll miss in particular is working with Colin Crawford and our photo department. That's been like an incredible gift since I walked in the door.

I feel extremely privileged to have worked here.