Nigel Holmes has made many big number explanations. Here’s four examples.
We often see these mega-numbers used in the news. But do we really understand their magnitude?
A party for everyone in the world (from National Geographic magazine).
Doubling numbers gives surprising results.
Here’s Nigel’s take on the enormity of the U.S. national debt (in 2010).
World population Seven billion and growing. An explanatory video from NPR. Click on the image to watch the video. Or here: https://bit.ly/1ikyI0f
Speed of light James O’Donoghue (NASA) made these animations to give us a better idea of light speed.
World debt $63 trillion, that’s all. And this is from 2017. Infographic by Visual Capitalist. https://bit.ly/2BWrArR
Cheese overload A 1.39 billion-pound cheese surplus, visualized by Vox.
Lisa uses a technique known as quilling which dates back to the Renaissance. She rolls and shapes narrow strips of Japanese mulberry paper to create these cross-sections of the human body. See more here: https://bit.ly/2UVQ4si
Above, “Midsagittal Female.” Below, “Male Torso.”
“Shoulders” (detail).
“Coronal Man.”
Detail.
“Female Torso.”
“Abdomen” (detail).
“Transverse Head-Tongue” (detail).
“Head and Torso” (detail).
An earlier post: Sabeena Karnik uses the art of quilling to make letterforms. https://wp.me/p7LiLW-2Dl
I’ve posted before about the simple principle of using organization to reduce chaos and to reveal information.
Here are some more examples of the art of arrangement.
Personal favorites (above) Photographer Simon Puschmann shows the things that mean the most to him.
Simon’s portfolio: https://bit.ly/2N1KAJB
Patrol car (below) An example from the New Zealand Response Teams’ “Flatpack Challenge.”
Every Thing We Touch Paula Zuccotti documented all the everyday objects that various people had touched over a period of 24 hours. https://amzn.to/2I5fJgH
Below: Cowboy, Tuscon.
The latest issue is going out to subscribers this week, and will be on newsstands next Tuesday. A brilliant combination of features, engineered by Robert Priest and Grace Lee. Here’s some sample spreads from the issue. Subscribe here: https://shop.8by8mag.com/collections/subscribe
Click on the graphic for a larger version.
A cautionary tale I planned this visualization using the 2014 FIFA World Cup Technical Report, but when the 2018 version came out, some of the data was not included. So I sat down and watched the highlights of all 64 games (with a notepad).
Clearly, I didn’t follow the advice that I give to students: Don’t commit to visualizations before you have the actual data (or are sure you’re getting it). It might never materialize.
Claudia Weber recorded her Munich commuting delays in 2018 by knitting them into a scarf. Two rows for each day.
(On a good day, the trip takes 40 minutes.)
Gray: Delayed less than five minutes
Pink: Delayed five to 30 minutes
Red: Delayed over 30 minutes one-way, or delayed both ways.
The red strip was a six-and-a-half week period when the tracks were being replaced. During this upheaval, the ride took just under two hours each way. Generally, train delays have become an area of concern in Germany.
Journalist Sara Weber, Claudia’s daughter, revealed the project on Twitter nine days ago. https://bit.ly/2FzrRn8
The tweets generated a lot of interest, and that led to the scarf being auctioned on eBay for Bahnhofsmission, a charity that helps people in need at rail stations. The auction ended yesterday and raised an impressive 7,550 Euros ($8,675).
This experimental book is the work of Warja Honegger-Lavater, a Swiss artist and illustrator, who had a design career that included creating logos and trademarks. In 1962, MoMA published “William Tell” as an accordion-fold book. Warja went on to produce several books that featureclassic fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault.
The Tell legend holds an important place in the folklore surrounding the birth of the Swiss nation. It’s told here entirely with symbols, which are explained in the key on the opening spread. The idea of communicating entirely with pictograms has been tackled by a number of people. Nigel Holmes wrote a series of excellent posts on this blog about attempts to create a language using icons. This is the first one: https://wp.me/p7LiLW-LX
Below is “William Tell” told with symbols. The icons change size based on their importance to that part of the story. (I added a translation of the key.) It‘s a fascinating and creative infographic exercise that is clearly aimed more towards adults. Although for children, the use of a symbol language softens the worrying aspects of this rather dark tale. A counterpoint to this argument: As much as I love pictograms, and the book, I’m left feeling that this ultra-graphic approach is perhaps not the most engaging way to introduce your child to the magic of storytelling.
The legend in words
Bailiff Gessler, who was a very nasty piece of work, put his hat on a pole in Altdorf town square, and made the people bow down before it. But William Tell walked straight past, so he was arrested. Knowing that Tell was an expert marksman, Gessler ordered him to shoot an arrow (from 120 paces away) into an apple placed on Tell’s son’s head. Failure, or refusal to do it, would mean death for both Tell and his son. Of course, we all know that Tell shot the apple straight off his son’s head without harm.
However, Tell had taken a second arrow from his quiver, and when Gessler asked him what it was for, Tell replied that if his son had been harmed, he would have used that arrow to kill Gessler. The result of this revelation was that Tell was dragged to a boat in which Gessler was traveling back to his castle at Küssnacht. The general idea was that when they arrived there, Tell would be thrown in the dungeon indefinitely.
On the trip across Lake Lucerne, a strong storm sprung up and a scared Gessler was pressured by his soldiers to release Tell so that he could steer the boat to safety. Tell maneuvered the boat to land, grabbed his bow and quill and jumped out. Then he kicked the boat back out into the lake, and escaped. Tell raced to a lane that led to Gessler’s castle, and killed him with an arrow to the heart as he passed by. The people were free of the tyrant.
Tell Monument In the market place, Altdorf.
Photograph by Roland Zumbühl
The collector
I’m once again indebted to my friend, Professor Michael Stoll, who owns this signed copy of the book, and suggested the subject. There are several posts from Michael’s wonderful collection of historical information design on this blog. Of course, we can all learn a tremendous amount from the best work of the past.
Start with Michael’s amazing Cadillac: https://wp.me/s7LiLW-cadillac
This new book by Thomas Ramge and Jan Schwochow visualizes the key components that make up our complicated international economy. It’s published by The Experiment. Buy it here: https://bit.ly/2Lf6o6o
Here are three of the 99 graphics in the book. Below, worldwide poverty levels. (Click on the images to see larger versions.)
Product pipeline: The complex process of manufacturing cars.
Thomas Ramge writes for the Economist. Jan Schwochow’s company, Infographics Group, produces the all-information-graphic magazine, In Graphics. Two previous posts about it:
JOSHUA STEVENS VISUALIZES THE WORLD’S CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL DATA.
Joshua creates compelling and important visuals for NASA’s Earth Observatory, where he’s the lead for data visualization and cartographic quality. Satellites provide the data that drives an impressive range of informative visualizations. They often illuminate key issues that our precious planet faces. See many more examples at: http://www.joshuastevens.net/
Cloud cover (above)
A subject that used to be dear to my heart: the likelihood of clear skies over the U.K. and Ireland. (I’m from England.) https://go.nasa.gov/2CynLKv
Landslides Satellite data every thirty minutes gives new insights into long-term patterns. https://go.nasa.gov/2yYaibh
Hurricane effect Wind speeds as Florence churned across the Atlantic. See the full animation here: https://go.nasa.gov/2T1MAUS4g
ANALOG WAYS TO SHOW THE PATTERNS IN EVERYDAY DATA.
Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec’s latest collaboration is Observe, Collect, Draw!: A Visual Journal. The book shows how anyone can have fun collecting personal data, and then use a simple non-software approach to display it. This is a natural development from the ”Dear Data” project described further on in this post.
Read more here: http://giorgialupi.com/observe-collect-draw/
Buy the book: https://amzn.to/2Op4C4S
Dear Data was a year-long analog exchange of ideas. Stefanie (London) and Giorgia (Brooklyn) mailed each other weekly data viz postcards. On the front was a hand-drawn visualization of an aspect of personal data. On the back was an explanation, and a key to understand the data. The project later became a book. Below, the covers from the U.S. and the U.K.
A few of the 104 postcards that crossed the Atlantic. Below, Week 26.
