Category: Infographics

Malofiej 26

TIME FOR AN INFOGRAPHIC RECHARGE.

Soon people who love infographics and data visualization will converge on Pamplona (Spain) to find out what’s happening in the industry, and set themselves up for a great year of graphics. The M26 conference is from March 14 to March 16. A list of speakers is here: https://goo.gl/CG3Jf5
And registration is here: https://goo.gl/GfNmwZ

For six days, the University of Navarra is the center of our infographic universe. M26 starts with a long-established (and widely recognized) workshop for professionals, which I was involved in for many years. That runs from March 11 to 14. This year, the instructors are Fernando Baptista (National Geographic), Larry Buchanan (New York Times) and Javier Zarracina (Vox): https://goo.gl/AUNFmc

I’m running an international student workshop, along with Lisa Borgenheimer who is a professor at the Free University of Bolzano in Italy. Nine of our School of Visual Communication students are taking part. Which has nothing to do with the image below from 2012, when I was making a presentation celebrating the twentieth-anniversary of the Malofiej event. I’ve put it in here just because I like it.


Photo illustration by Neria Armendáriz.

And now… some other M26 examples.
The M26 constellation is about 5,000 light-years away. There’s probably several planets with infographics in amongst these stars. Do they use script fonts? Have they discovered pie charts?

A vintage tank. We all like making graphics about military equipment…


Photograph by Sgt. Frank C. Kerr.

…and racing cars. This is a 1976 M26 McLaren.


Photograph by John Chapman.

An motorway in my home county, Kent (U.K.)

 

Camouflage

DESIGNED TO CONFUSE.

Dazzle painting (or razzle dazzle) was a World War I invention that was all about visual deception. Colors, patterns, lines and curved shapes were painted on ships to confuse enemy submarines. The effects were tested using models which where viewed from every angle, including through a periscope, to get an idea of how submarines would see them. The intention was to confuse attackers enough to make them miss, or to not even fire a torpedo at all. The 1918 painting above is by Burnell Poole. Picasso claimed that Cubists had invented dazzle camouflage, but the credit belongs to Norman Wilkinson, a British marine artist.

The photographs of these designs are all, of course, in black and white, but some strong color was often used.

Each ship had a unique scheme so that the enemy could not identify it by type.

I just had an idea. (Editor’s note: This doesn’t happen often.) Today, we might consider painting ships with some of those multi-colored pie charts from business presentations. They can confuse anyone.

Dazzle ferry
“Everybody Razzle Dazzle, 2015,” a design created by Peter Blake as part of a program to mark the centenary of World War I. A bold new look for the Mersey ferry “Snowdrop.”

Photograph: iStock.com/Alan Morris

The project includes an app so that we can make our own dazzle patterns.

Pixelated
The Canadian armed forces were the first to use computer-generated camouflage, the Canadian Disruptive Pattern or CADPAT, which works well at different distances. There are three types: Temperate Woodland (TW) which is shown below, Arid Region (AR) and Winter/Arctic (WA).

OCP
The Operational Camouflage Pattern is now the official combat design for U.S. soldiers.


Photograph: U.S. Army

If you want to know more about this subject, try the encyclopedia of camouflage (yes, there is one): http://camopedia.org/

Money

THE DESIGN OF CURRENCY.

Cash illusion
Nigel Holmes’ radical redesign of U.S. banknotes makes our money look like more than it is.
And instead of presidents, we have people who robbed banks.

Coin mania
There are millions of coin collectors in the U.S., and consequently several cable T.V. shows that just sell coins. This is a 2018 Proof Silver American Eagle that uses the classic 1916 “Walking Liberty” design by Adolf Weinman.

Infographic coins
Mac Funamizu explored the idea of coins being designed to be more informational and represent their relative value.

More bang for your buck
Another rethink of US currency by Nigel Holmes.

Euro architecture
The buildings on Euro notes are generic so that they are not specific to any country in the European Union. There are seven fictional bridges used on various notes. Robin Stam had the idea of creating real versions, and a housing development in Spijkenisse, which is near Rotterdam, offered to build all of them.

Big money
High-denomination U.S. notes have not been printed since 1947. The low number still in existence are owned by collectors and museums.

This valuable item appeared in a previous post about Eight by Eight magazine. I adapted it from the polymer £5 note. (Australia had the first plastic money back in 1988.) The largest U.K. note is £100, issued in Scotland and Northern Ireland only.

Hyperinflation
During November 2008, inflation in Zimbabwe is estimated to have hit 80 billion percent. By 2009, all printing of currency was stopped.

The Queen

HER MAJESTY’S INFOGRAPHICS.

One of my students recently gave me this holiday season gift. Queen Elizabeth II, the nutcracker version. This is obviously a frivolous portrait, but an affectionate one too. Many people in the United Kingdom (and elsewhere) have a lot of respect for our 91-year-old monarch. And naturally a person with this level of attention is the subject of many graphics.

Color chart
Royal outfit data visualized in Vogue magazine. Blue is the favorite color.

Pantone Queen
For the monarch’s Diamond Jubilee, Pantone and Leo Burnett London collaborated on a royal color selector.

Royal timeline
Portraits on banknotes. The queen has reigned for 66 years.

Being royal
Queen Elizabeth’s world. Infographic by Laura Cattaneo and Francesco Franchi for “IL” magazine. Click on the image for a larger version.

Crown Jewels
The collection (a total of 140 items) is estimated to be worth at least £3 billion pounds ($4.26 billion). They’re kept in the Tower of London. Some examples are shown in this set of well-designed Royal Mail stamps.

If the Queen ever runs short of cash, this should do the trick.

Microscopic

THE WORLD THROUGH A MICROSCOPE.

It’s not easy for us to imagine the impact that “Micrographia” had back in 1665. This giant-sized flea probably shocked the reader. It was the first time that people were able to see the secrets of the natural world in such magnified detail. Robert Hooke was an architect and scientist, and his precise illustrations were a leap into the everyday micro world. By the way, the book contains the first use of the word “cell.”
(Images from the Welcome Collection.)

The head of a grey dronefly.

Sparks of fire struck from flint and steel.

A copy of Hooke’s first compound microscope is in the British Museum.

Modern magnification
Now we’re used to seeing very high-power magnifications of all kinds of things. This image of pollen was created by an electron microscope.


Photograph by the Dartmouth College Electron Microscope Facility.

A house fly photographed with a macro lens.

Photograph by Yudy Sauw: https://500px.com/yudysauw

Our home

AN OPTIMISTIC AND ENCOURAGING INTRODUCTION TO THE EARTH.

This is a companion post to the previous one, which was about the “Powers of Ten.” An explanation of the scale of the universe: https://wp.me/p7LiLW-21z

Oliver Jeffers created this beautifully illustrated book with his very young son in mind. It’s a positive view of our planet and all it’s fascinating diversity, that seems especially uplifting in these divisive times. Perhaps we need to step back, see the bigger picture and be nicer to each other. Really, why not?

In Oliver’s words, “Some things about our planet are pretty complicated, but things can be simple, too: there are lots of us on here, so be kind.”

On Amazon: goo.gl/aieE7o

Powers of Ten

THE SCALE OF THE UNIVERSE.

Both posts this week are about our place in the universe. In this animation, we zoom out in increments of ten (every ten seconds) from an overhead view of a couple in a Chicago park, to the edge of the known universe, then zoom back in to enter the nucleus of an atom inside a person’s hand. Charles and Ray Eames, the influential American designers, released the final version of their project in 1977. It was based on the book “Cosmic View” (1957) by Kees Boeke. See the film here: https://goo.gl/DHFCci

“Powers of Ten” might not seem so ground-breaking today, but it was made long before the existence of Google Earth and the level of computer effects that we’re all so familiar with.
There have been many references to this project in pop culture. Here’s an intro to “The Simpsons”: https://goo.gl/zcc4Us

And the ending sequence of “Men in Black”: https://goo.gl/zjrRSy

A 2012 version by Danail Obreschkow: https://goo.gl/2kKQ9j

The book version by Philip and Phylis Morrison was published in 1982. (Philip narrated the 1977 film.) The sequence is shown on 42 right-hand pages. Zooming inwards, from one billion light-years out in space to the components of an atom. A few of those steps are shown below.

New approach
This book by Caleb Scharf with diagrams by 5W Infographics and illustrations by Ron Miller, is a new approach to the “Powers of Ten” idea. https://goo.gl/na4jMg

Informational illustrations

EXPLANATIONS BY WENDY MACNAUGHTON.

This approach scores highly in terms of being warm and friendly. I keep saying this (to the point of being really annoying, I know), but we need to engage our audience. Not always with fun, of course, but it’s one good way to go.

Sometimes they’re just for fun, with some insight included.

 

Wendy’s portfolio: http://wendymacnaughton.com/#portfolio

Website: http://wendymacnaughton.com

Prints of her illustrations are for sale here: https://goo.gl/vNMuYR

Flowcharts

SHAPES AND ARROWS.

Most of the flowcharts that we remember are humorous or philosophical (above example by Gustavo Vieira-Dias), but explaining a process through a series of options has many utilitarian uses in a wide range of disciplines. However, this humble infographic format has been much maligned because of it’s use in unspeakably bad PowerPoint slides and various other baffling informational material. I was in an interminable presentation recently when a thought occurred to me: No need to protect this proprietary process, just convert it into a bad flow chart. Then people will have absolutely no chance of decoding it.

Although most examples are not admirable in terms of design, many of them have a very worthwhile function. They present information about a sequence of decisions in a relatively clear way. This is especially useful in, for example, the design of computer programs.

There’s a recognized system of meanings for different shapes in a flowchart. More technical charts often use a wide range of shapes.

Before computers, templates like this were common. And they’re still available, if you want to make a chart the analog way.

Draw.io is a good online resource for creating flowcharts (and other process charts): https://www.draw.io

Two fun examples by Wendy MacNaughton, whose work will be featured in an upcoming post.

Use this color

PANTONE MAKES THINGS EASY.

If you want to to win prizes with your 2018 infographics, there’s a simple answer: Use plenty of Pantone 18-3838 Ultra Violet.

From the Pantone website: “A dramatically provocative and thoughtful purple shade, Pantone 18-3838 Ultra Violet communicates originality, ingenuity, and visionary thinking that points us toward the future.”

This other home page statement is pretty meaningful: “Complex and contemplative, Ultra Violet suggests the mysteries of the cosmos, the intrigue of what lies ahead, and the discoveries beyond where we are now.”

Read more of these kind of insights here: https://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year-2018

And get a mug to remind you each morning: goo.gl/KWx7VD

Of course, the real ultra violet is not in the visible area of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, it gives us a sun tan (or sun burn), and makes for interesting effects in night clubs. It’s also good for killing germs. But we can’t directly see it.

Anyway, a combination of Pantone 18-3838 and a Spirograph should be enough to clean up the top data viz awards this year.
See my advice on making fake data viz here: https://wp.me/p7LiLW-11q

A general post about Pantone: https://wp.me/p7LiLW-qq