Posts Tagged: integrate

opinion / why — Comments Off
20
Jun 13

See how they all dance together

I saw two things on Twitter recently that got me very excited but that also might sound the death knell of my blog.

Telling Information came about through my desire to rationalise all the things that contribute to the making of good infographics today and give me more of a clue about where the future might be heading. (With hindsight I think that might have been more accurate written as ‘where my future might be heading’.)

These two things I’ve just seen on Twitter crystallise my take on those two questions. So maybe the blog’s job is done?

The making of good infographics

This was a tweet from GDS Head of Design Ben Terrett fresh off the back of winning their D&AD Black Pencil for doing exactly this.

It really chimes with what I was getting at by recently changing my Twitter bio to saying something about working to combine words, images and numbers in such a way that they help each other out. It runs the risk of sounding trite but this really is the essence of what I have learnt about how infographics can be best applied in journalism. It is the essence of a good infographic. It is what is lacking in infoguff. I’ve alluded to this previously on the blog in terms of ‘saying what you see’, integrated editorial design and the difference between infographics and illustration.

And I recognise that design and writing working together is a lesson that can be applied much more widely than just journalism. It’s something most people in most workplaces have to grapple with yet bizarrely it’s not a skillset our education system serves very well.

Where the my future might be heading
The second tweet I saw was Bret Victor’s most recent presentation at MIT’s Media Lab which – through my interpretation – takes this idea of design and writing working together and runs with it into the future.

His talk is fascinating, posing the challenge that we need a new way to think about systems. However it’s the demonstrations upon which he builds up his argument that have got me so excited. They provide solutions to problems I have come across as an infographic designer.

I’d recommend watching the full 40mins but if you’re short of time first hop to 3:20 and watch for 2 minutes to see ‘words and pictures very tightly intertwined’ such that you don’t have to construct a picture in your head, you can just see it. *Vigorous head nodding* (Spot the same the principle of using design and words to work together from earlier? That’s integrated design.)

Then hop to 16:45 and listen for another two minutes. He demonstrates five representations of the same system and you can see how they all dance together. In the past I have linked to data that sings and the magic of data. Let’s have it dancing now too. You see the system from so many different angles that you can feel your way around it. *Envious sigh* The importance of getting a feel for data and the value of getting users to interact with the data have long been pet themes of mine.

And if you’re a designer with some mathematical nouse who’s ever daydreamt of a more dynamic version of Illustrator that would allow you to manipulate visualisations once they’d been created rather than laboriously creating one-offs every time (quite possibly due to using AfterEffects’ much more intuitive, scrubbing interface, a blog post I nearly once wrote) watch from 29:30. This might be equally appealing for coders who find themselves working in an indirect, non-visual environment to create visuals? He showcases a tool for creating data driven pictures by direct manipulation of the picture itself. *Excited squeak*

This blog’s job done?
I had to write this blog post to explore why those two tweets got me so excited, and it’s only by doing so that I realise I am close to answering the two questions I posed way back when. This has quite surprised me. In truth I don’t recall writing them down thinking I’d ever find answers, more that they would serve as a point of reference for what I put on the blog. But having just been able to link to so many prior blog posts shows at least I have stuck to them, and done so to the extent that some answers have emerged.

Shit. It worked.

So now I understand why I got excited. It feels like it might all be coming together, pointing in a specific direction. Though hang on, I’m not ready, I’m busy over here doing these other things.

I guess it’s part of my ongoing journey, but what I’ve just had is a glimpse of a new and enticing horizon. Just need to think about building the right ship to get there…

BTW I don’t imagine the blog will be going anywhere. I enjoy a rant. And I find it to be a useful repository.

(And thanks to a wander around Bret’s website there’s one more of my blog posts I want to link to. I think I was too harsh on myself for stumbling at the first hurdle of trying to learn to code. Turns out it wasn’t necessarily my fault.)

example — Comments Off
13
Aug 11

All about Bloomberg Business Week

If I had a pound for every time someone’s recommended Bloomberg Business Week recently I’d be £5 better off. Which I could have put towards buying the latest issue of Eye in which Simon Esterson interviews BBW’s creative director Richard Turley. (Of course I bought it anyway.)

Graphic timeline for the rise of cloud computing, art directed by Jennifer Daniel

Bloomberg Business Week is another magazine that knows when and how to use an infographic. They completely absorb them into the layouts. They are the layout.

How do they do it? Editorial and design staff sit together, they talk, they share. It helps being well resourced too. Richard Turley uses all the words that you hear when people involved with good infographics elaborate on their approach: integration, narration, collaboration as well as strength of ideas.

They seem to have jumped headlong into motion graphics too. Their stated aim is a good one: “It’s one thing to stay up to date with news, data and information. It’s another entirely to dig past the surface, make meaningful connections and generate insights. Let us show you what others miss.” However they’ve still some way to go before cracking this medium in the same way they have done in the magazine. Judge for yourself.

PS It’s rumoured next EDO event is Richard Turley. Watch out for it here.

event / example — 4 Comments
5
Jul 11

Infographics in an editorial world

It’s one thing wanting an infographic and quite another knowing how to use them.

That’s me paraphrasing – and agreeing with – illustrator-cum-infografista Nathalie Lees, someone who knows what makes for a good editorial infographic. Talking at the EDO’s infographic event last Thursday her take on infographics was fresh, inspiring and made good sense.

Illustration from 'Eureka'

With a background working on books, magazines and newspapers and talented enough to be able to turn her hand to illustrations or infographics, small or large, conceptual or technical, she was quick to acknowledge the role of the editorial staff in the process.

She listed three reasons as to why editors like infographics: they look good, they can provide a change of pace and they can exist in their own right.

But crucially she also mentioned two other prerequisites for the best results: working with editorial staff who have an appreciation of when and how to use an infographic as well as with a good art director.

I would add another critical factor to the list, that of working with an extremely talented illustrator with the ability to get her head around complex issues.

Wonders of the Solar System, infographics by Nathalie Lees, art directed by Studio8 Design

And when it all comes together you get beautiful results, what I previously (and rather dull-ly) called ‘integrated’ infographics: integrated into the page, into the copy, into the journalism.

This is something I have admired The Times’ monthly scientific supplement Eureka for doing so well. And it turns out Nathalie has worked on lots of them too.

Lots more please!

example — Comments Off
4
May 11

Factual visuals

Amongst all the rush, speculation and invention in trying to cover the capture of Osama Bin Laden, Público stand out for working with facts, keeping it simple and, as always, integrating the visuals and words so well.

example / opinion — 4 Comments
23
Jan 11

Eureka: Integrated infographics

I went back to my parents for Christmas and an unexpected delight was to find – stacked tidily in the corner of my bedroom – a pile of ‘Eureka’, The Times’ monthly supplement about Science. Life. The Planet.

It launched in autumn 2009, and amid rumours of abundant infographics, exciting editorial design and content dedicated to science – all factors which have played an integral part in my background – I needed to get hold of a copy.

Unsure of the exact launch date but knowing my parents read The Times, I’d asked them to look out for, and put aside, the first issue for me. Little did I realise they were still doing it. (I did visit home on many other occasions between autumn 2009 and last Christmas I hasten to add, it’s just the magazines must have been accumulating somewhere out of my line of vision until recently!)

I like it for lots of reasons, but why I mention it here is because of its design. If you want a good example of editorial design, this is one. It has pace, character and confidence. It’s original, playful and surprising. And while I have a bias to any publication that champions infographics, Eureka is better than others being a showcase of how to integrate them both into the page and the flow of the whole publication whether they fill a whole spread or just add a small illustrated detail. It all hangs together as one beautiful, successful, flowing, coherent, whole. This is tough to achieve and a rare pleasure. (And the more frequent lack of it is a pet annoyance of mine).

You can see some of their work in the first issue here, though now it’s behind the paywall. It’s published on the first Thursday of every month.

I believe the original team were design editor Jon Hill, art director Matt Curtis, deputy design editor Matt Brown, graphics by Matt Swift and designer/illustrator David Lowe.

opinion — Comments Off
14
Apr 10

Integrate word and pictures

So often a graphic is commissioned, a piece written, and the first time the two are seen together is when they are published. Both designer and journalist think they have done their job, but neither has looked at what the other has done.

I don’t like to point a finger at any one example but you don’t have to look far to find them. And the whole piece of journalism can work so much harder if graphic(s) and article support each another, not only in the detail of terminology and labelling, but also in the story being told.

Two previous blog posts feature more and less successful examples of this.

example — Comments Off
1
Oct 07

High speed rail link summary

A successful layman’s version of some of the engineering challenges faced by the high speed rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel. By choosing both appropriate language and visual style it is engaging and informative, but not daunting.

This is also a great example of a feature that has been designed as a whole, fully integrating words and pictures. This always makes for a better end product.