Posts Tagged: other

example / opinion — 4 Comments
17
Mar 12

Tower graphics

I get at least two enquiries a month to create these* so it’s time to put down my thoughts about them.

In a nutshell remember tower graphics are a piece of journalism as much as they are a piece of design, and with that comes a set of standards.

From TechCrunch

Infographics v editorial design & illustration
If we’re talking semantics, tower graphics are not infographics, rather editorial design, heavy on illustration.

If we’re talking plain english, what infografistas do better than editorial designers and illustrators is to grapple with information. It is this which leads them to a graphic, or several, that best show(s) visually what the information is saying.

What editorial designers and illustrators do better than infografistas is to create designs that can hold together all the elements of a whole page or screen, some, all or none of which can be an infographic.

The two fields are not mutually exclusive, tower graphics would benefit from both, but on the whole they fall between the two, erring on the side of style with little regard to substance.

An example from the other end of the spectrum that showcases what can result from bringing together people from both areas of expertise would be Eureka and Bloomberg Business Week. These are my current favourite examples of editorial design that seamlessly integrate journalism, infographics and illustration. I can stop worrying about semantics and just enjoy a good read.

Pros and cons
(See also Max Gadney’s good blog on them here.)

Tower graphics are good for going viral. They’re friendly and engaging. Their style is ‘of the moment’. Everyone wants one.

Tower graphics are bad for their treatment of information. See the one from earlier this week on Pinterest as a case in point. For starters the three bar charts centrally are all incorrect which leads you on to question the integrity of the whole thing. And with that many sources cited – listed at the bottom – are the figures they compare really comparable?

A form of journalism
I don’t mean to single out the above Pinterest tower graphic, and I don’t need to. Those points apply to the majority of tower graphics I’ve ever seen. But (I get the impression) tower graphics are by and large generated as a piece of visual collateral, by designers with no analysts or journos involved. Hence the ‘con’ above: the quality of journalism is poor.

Scrolling infographics
A tower graphic is distinct from a deep infographic that plays to the scrolling nature of a browser to tell it’s story better. A nice recent example being the BBC’s Ocean trench.

Tower graphics: Let’s make them better
*I get at least two enquiries a month to create these, and being of a purer infographic persuasion they are not really my cup of tea. If there is a talented illustrator or editorial designer out there who’d like this kind of work please get in touch. If you’re good with numbers so much the better. If not, I’m happy to collaborate on that bit.

example — 4 Comments
16
Jan 12

Bringing words to life

Happy New Year!

Being a cyclist I always enjoy the occasions that I do travel on the tube to catch up on the latest posters and artwork on display all around.

Fed up of getting a daily drenching most days so far in 2012 – and needing not to look like a drowned rat for a client meeting – I was presented with an opportunity to take the tube last week and I wasn’t disappointed.

I really liked these:

They’re not infographics, but more and more I find myself talking about telling stories visually, which is exactly what these do.

As an infografista I tend to read copy with a pencil in hand, sketching as I work through it. Then you look back and try to find the common threads to tie it all together which in turn suggest an overarching visual to hang all the component parts from.

These are an elegant case in point. The visuals immediately convey what the copy is going to be about, the copy is short and to the point, and the result is perfect for delivery as a poster.

The alternative: bullets points. I know which I’d rather!

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1
Nov 11

Simply solved

Something I love is being surprised by a simple solution. As does Stu.

Nuvinci's simple solution to displaying where you are on an infinitely adjustable sliding scale

example — 3 Comments
7
Jun 11

Patterns < > numbers

Seeing this video recently (via @appliedworks) reminded me of the real physical beauty that can be found in numbers when they’re displayed visually. When it’s pretty we call it a pattern, inbetween times it’s just a mess.

Much of my job – or the bit I like best – is finding patterns in numbers. They’re never this pretty, but visualising them is such a powerful way to find out if you’ve got any patterns.

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11
Apr 11

Simply useful

Found the platform but not sure how long you’ve got before the train leaves, still haven’t found your carriage let alone the carriage you’re meant to leave your bike in, look up at the clock, try to remember what time it was your train departs and then perform some mental arithmetic to work out how many minutes you have got to sort yourself out… this was me last Thursday evening.

So, how good was it when I looked up at the clock to see displayed the one piece of information I hadn’t until that point realised I wanted to know:
Departing in 8 minutes

Breathe, relax, stroll to carriage, get in. Get out again, take photo*, hop back in quickly.

Amazing that no-one has thought of this sooner. So simple, so useful.

[*My camera/phone died so you now need to imagine a typical digital display on a station platform. Under the big digits telling you the time and destination runs the aforementioned gem of information]

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1
Mar 11

Numbers narrative

Whether or not you agree with their methodology I think the Economist’s Shoe-throwers’ index is a good example of using video to tell a numbers-based story.

With a tight script, well timed animations and clear explanations of what they’ve done it’s a good example of how a bit of hand-holding via video can bring complex numbers to life.

You wouldn’t, or shouldn’t, present this graphic as a static image. There’s far too much going on.

But having built up to it step by step you’re left with an understanding of how and why they got to this index.

I’d like to see more of this sort of thing.

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23
Jan 11

Impartial and objective infographics

There was a job ad posted this week for an ‘Associate Analyst – Infographics’ for the International Criminal Court in The Hague. I’m tempted to apply just because I really want to see examples of what they do.

To quote the ad, among other things you’d be creating:
- products to be used to interview witnesses
- graphics to assist in the analysis and investigation work
- exhibits to be presented in trial
- infographics to be used in public communications
- represent in graphics/animations crime scenes and events related to the crime (i.e. military operations, attacks on towns and villages, refugees flows, etc.)

And of course there’s a stipulation for ‘factual accuracy…to investigate impartially and objectively’. I bet that is really hard and would imagine it hugely limits the aesthetic quality of the work.

Years ago I cut out an ad from the Serious Fraud Office for a ‘Graphic Information Designer’ along similar lines. And I know the UN produce infographics to assist in managing humanitarian crises which obviously are focused on being fast, international and functional rather than engaging, original and elegant.

I’d like to find out more about this genre of infographics where being impartial and objective has to out-weigh everything else.

And what do the people who have to use them think?

I wonder if anyone has any examples?

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