Posts Tagged: the times

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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!

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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.

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1
Jul 10

EDO: iPad

I went along to the Editorial Design Organisation’s iPad review evening last night which was good given I haven’t really seen or used one much. Some notes below if you’re interested.

Jon Hill, design editor for The Times, spoke about how they developed their app using Agile methods, that is to say get something out there and then bit by bit tackle aspects of it that need improving, tweaking, adding. Still work in progress, but a good app already nonetheless. A benefit of the iPad is you can retain control over typography and with careful consideration of grids means it flips fairly easily and convincingly between portrait and landscape. Visual content is where they’ve added extras like picture galleries, a week’s worth of cartoons to enjoy, some of them with added animation that play to the strengths of displaying on a big, crisp screen.

Joe Sharpe from Applied Works collaborated with The Times on interactive infographics, something they’re very keen on. He showcased three: Budget, World Cup, Health of England. Using html5, css3 and javascript. They are modular such that they work in both portrait and landscape as well as cross-platform, that is to say the website too with minimal additional work. But, they are hosted remotely so when you’re viewing a graphic you’re in fact looking at it through a webviewer so you have to have an internet connection for it to work. That said the internet connection allows graphics can have live feeds.

Jeremy Leslie reviewed other magazine’s apps – Time, The Spectator, Colors (archive), Wired, Popular Science, Marvel Comics, Guardian Eyewitness with thoughts on what’s good, what’s not.

General thoughts on the iPad were that it’s brilliant for surfing the internet and watching TV and games, especially for kids. Compared to using a computer the iPad is a much more easy, informal, personal experience being one step closer to the conent by virtue of not having a physical keyboard and being larger.

Good things include control over typography, access back issues, great image display, the additional of interactive features to visuals eg 360 views and for better storytelling eg the transitions between frames of a cartoon.

Challenges include the fact that heavy PDFs of print content are not a solution, designing for the two orientations, navigation, knowing how far through a magazine you are (something that’s not a problem in the real world and vital to the experience of reading a magazine or newspaper).