Harriet's Lecture
I really enjoyed all of the references and things to research further in this lecture. Harriet provided some incredible examples of infographics and logograms that will be such a great basis for research going forward. It never really crossed my mind that photography could be used in this way, for example the IKEA recipe book. It looks so beautiful and simple I'm actually surprised this isn't now the standard for recipe books!
I also found the idea that infographics can save lives really interesting. Especially today, 2 years into the Pandemic, our brains have been saturated with slogans, infographics and the representation of Big Data in increasingly useless briefings. I think back in 2020 when the government had only recently lost its credibility by having a straw headed buffoon at its helm, infographics were used by their communications team to try and make it look like they had some basic of understanding of how to handle a pandemic. We now know this was all a ruse but for a while they had some people fooled. I believe these presentations by people who actually know what they are talking about (shout out to long suffering Chris Witty) sharing big data such as death rates and hospitalisations, in a simple way lessened the panic and gave people trust that the scientists knew what they were doing.
Information is Beautiful
I've had David McCandless' Information is beautiful book for a few years now and use it as a reference at work a lot. This book made me realise how beautiful data can be - it doesn't always have to be dense. I thought one of the most interesting parts of the TED Talk [1] was the infographic about global media panic - the fact that by visualising the data he spotted a trend that may have otherwise remain unseen is very impressive. I have always viewed infographics as a way to visualise data rather than a way to analyse it so this is definitely something I have learned from the TED Talk.
The above images are a collection of my favourites from the book [2].I love how different they all are and they way they use relative data to show the impact of the message.
Nicholas Felton
Nicolas Felton started tracking the data from his own life and producing personal annual reports each year. I think this is a great project as it is so personal and also allows you to hone your infographic skills using real data collected by yourself in real time, you are not relying on data in the media so you know it is true. I love this self initiated project and it provides such interesting insights into his life. [3]
I love how Felton takes every day things and translates them into meaningful infographics using a mixture of photography and graphics.
Workshop Challenge
This week we want you to analyse one of the pre-selected examples Download pre-selected examples of information design to determine its effectiveness. Consider clarity, communication, message and the role of design in communicating the message to you. Be critical and write a synopsis about its effectiveness, which we want you to present as a piece for editorial design.
Open the PDF in Acrobat, as it contains hyperlinks and an interactive video.
Select one of the five examples of information design provided.
Analyse its effectiveness, the story revealed and the role both design theory and practice took in producing the work.
Write a 500-word synopsis of your analysis in your research journal and include visual references and highlights of the piece examined.
Create a piece of editorial design to portray your final synopsis and visual references.
I have chosen Accept & Proceeds Moon Landings as it is a subject I have always been fascinated with and I think it is a beautiful infographic.
Research
Hearing Matthew Jones talk about how they came up with the idea and executed the Moon Landing Infographic was really interesting. It's clear a lot of thought has gone into this and a lot of data has been captured in such a simple graphic. [4]
It got me thinking about what other data i could represent with my editorial design and if I could make that into some form of infographic to represent my 500 word analysis. Possibly showing the scale of the missions. I feel like my editorial design should add something to the conversation rather than just commenting on it. That is how science works after all, constantly advancing and adding to the conversation.
Infographics
Education for the Digital Age [5] published an analysis of infographics and representation of visual information. They divided it into 4 sections:
The First Impression
The Story
The Data
The Strategy
I really like this breakdown as I think it covers each area and gives structure to analysis. This is why I will be using this as a basis for my 500 word analysis of Moon Landings by Accept & Proceed.
500 Words
The First Impression
Moon Landings by Accept & Proceed is a beautiful infographic designed to show the data from the 6 successful moon landings. It not only represents data but also serves to honour the 12 brave astronauts who to this day are the only people to have ever walked on the moon. My first impression of the piece was that while beautiful it is quite complex. It isn’t immediately obvious that the circles represent the time spent on the moon, I initially thought it showed the area covered by each mission. The colour palette represented the incredible void of space with the dark greys and black driving home what the astronauts would have seen from their vantage point on the surface of the moon.
The Story
I think the Moon Landings infographic does a brilliant job of illustrating the hard data of the moon landings, in his talk for It’s Nice That Matthew Jones states they were inspired by the personal stories of the astronauts, however this is not clearly represented in the final design. It could be argued however that the personal story being referred to is the story of mankind and out ascent to the moon, showing through data the bravery and achievements of the 12 men who left their footprints on the moon.
The Data
I think it is the supporting data of this infographic that adds the true beauty. The grey circles showing time spent on the moon gives the impression of moon-dust being kicked up as the vehicles land, the more dust there appears to be, the longer the mission to the moon. This is the part of the piece that I think offers the human element, it’s not simply co-ordinates or names, it is putting the duration of the trip into a visual language. Time is something we all understand so adding this detail enables the viewer to place themselves in the boots of the astronaut and understand the life changing journeys they took.
The Strategy
The colours used in the Moon Landings piece were clearly inspired by the grainy black and white footage of Neil Armstrong taking his one small step. It gives the piece a historical feel making you wish we could see something as incredible for both science and humanity in our lifetimes. The motion of the data appearing in a circle I think is inspired as it references the landers themselves giving you the impression that as you are watching they are landing. I think the black background perfectly represents the vastness of space and makes me think of the 6 men who went on the journey to the moon but never had the chance to make their mark on its surface.
In conclusion I think this is a wonderful piece of information design by Accept & Proceed. Although it takes a while to understand what you are looking at once you do you not only have new information but also a new appreciation for the incredible advancements made by NASA and a hope that this will continue.
Design
I decided to start the week off with a Crazy 8 design sprint! It has really helped me in previous modules and I think it could offer some initial ideas as a base to jump from this week.
I think this was a good start to the design stage, the two ideas I am going to take further is the 1st/7th idea (showing scale and the journey they took) and the 2nd (a rotational device like the phases of the moon diagram).
Initial Ideas
My initial design phase led me down the route of adding information to the existing Moon Landings infographic by Accept & Proceed. Initially my idea was to make the editorial in a phases of the moon rotational calendar however I’m not sure this adds anything relevant to the moon landings.
My next idea was to represent the distance the missions travelled from the earth to the moon and back. As you can see (left) I worked out the ratio I would need, which worked out to around a meter of paper. I did like this idea but I think it is something that has been done before. Instead I am going to go back to the research stage and come up with some new ideas.
In the 13 Minutes to the Moon podcast from the BBC [6] I was listening to during lock down, I remembered a story about Buzz Aldrin having to jam a pen into the control panel to replace the circuit breaker switch in order to launch the lander back off the surface of the moon. I thought this was a great story about having the whole scientific community behind you but what actually helped re launch the capsule was one felt tipped marker. This would be an interesting addition to the design for my editorial.
A common theme from Accept & Proceeds Moon Landing graphic was circles - the moon itself, the pinpoint for the landing spot and the circles to represent time on the moon. This would be an interesting theme to carry through.
Melville Brand Design
In June 2019, Mara Schneider, Marie Schaller, Florian Brugger, and Lars Harmsen from Melville Brand Design Munich teamed up with Markus Lange from Cairo to work on the topic APOLLO 11. They used the mechanical print process of silkscreen to combine found elements in a random way, with a minimum of planning and composition. [18] I came across this project on Melville Brand Design’s Instagram account a while ago and it has stuck with me ever since.
I loved the aesthetic of the book but particularly the use of repeated circles to indicate the destination of the mission - the moon. This reminded me of the repeated circles in Accept & Proceeds Moon Landing. I think this is a really innovative use of geometry and one I will definitely take into consideration during my design development.
I stated thinking about designing this editorial around the pen Buzz Aldrin used to restart the Lunar lander with. I thought this was an interesting piece of history that not everyone would know the story to. However, after the initial designs I didn’t think this fit in with the Accept & Proceed aesthetic and was really just adding a random piece of information that wasn’t needed. One of the most important things about infographics is complex information communicated in a simple way and this would just confuse the message.
I then moved on to looking at continuing the theme of circles. That’s when I realised that I wanted to pay homage to those who went to the moon but didn’t get to stand on its surface - the command module pilots. Circles made me think of the view from the command module so this is the theme I have decided to go with.
Design Development
Cover
I decided to do a booklet to echo the manuals that were integral to the success of the Apollo missions.
At first with the cover I wanted to include the original Accept & Proceed graphic. However I thought it looked too busy and by adding the title it didn’t make much sense, the rest of the labels plot moon landings and the addition of the title just didn’t feel right.
I then decided to illustrate the moon like the command pilots would see it on approach. I took inspiration from Information is Beautiful to keep it very simple. This is the aesthetic I will take throughout the booklet.
Spreads
1. The phases of the moon would illustrate what people saw from earth when Apollo was on the moon. I don’t think this goes with my scheme of looking at what the pilots of the command module saw.
2. Instead I think an illustration of the journey being made but not necessarily completed would be. This shows the command module circling the moon waiting for people to come back from that mission.
3. I have designed my 500 words in the shape of the moon. I like this but it is a lot of words. I think the page needs more work as the lunar lander looks like it is floating in light rather than the darkness that of space.
4. I added the shape of the command module window to give the impression that it is being viewed from above. It is in the shape of the moon with the titles around echoing the original graphic. I think this looks a bit busy though, I want to simplify this in my final piece.
Final Design
My final design pays homage to the 6 men who went to the moon but never got to walk on its surface; Michael Collins, Richard Gordon, Stuart A. Roosa, Alfred Worden, Ken Mattingly and Ron Evans. The cover represents the approach, the spreads represent the time spent waiting for the lunar module to return and the back represents returning home, leaving only a footprint behind.
The background is all black, showing the vast emptiness of space and echoing the Accept & Proceed original designs. On the cover, there is the white moon with a single dot at the centre of the title of the piece showing the future landing spot. The inside left page shows the flight path of the command module and the inside right page shows the view out of the command module window. The text is curved showing the edge of a close up moon, mid-mission. The back page is what they would have seen in the window while leaving to return home after their incredible journey.
Mock-Ups
I have mocked my final design up into the booklet as it would be intended. I am really happy with my piece and I think I have captured the story of the astronauts who never made it to the surface of the moon.
Summary
I found this week really challenging but at the same time really rewarding. I chose Moon Landings by Accept & Proceed very quickly because it was a subject matter I was interested in and also the original graphic was beautiful.
Much to my surprise, I found the 500 word critical analysis relatively easy but it took me a long time to land on a final design for my editorial. Possibly because I am so interested in space so I already have a reasonable amount of knowledge about it, so the ideas were swirling around in my head. I did a lot of research this week which I think helped me decide on the story wanted to tell through my design - the story of the 6 men who made the journey but didn’t actually walk on the moon. I think I did this through simple and clear design, which echoes the simple and clear original graphic from Accept & Proceed.
I am really pleased with my final outcome this week, I think it conveys a story different to the original graphic but still complimenting it. I took inspiration from Information is Beautiful in the simplicity of the design and Melville Brand Studio’s use of geometry. I think the colour scheme echoes the black and white nature of the mission - it was wither going to be successful or a failure; luckily it was a success!
References
[1] McCandless, David (2010) The beauty of data visualization, [online] July, (Accessed: 9/2/22)
[2] McCandless, David (2008), Information is Beautiful, (New York: HarperCollins).
[3] Felton, N. (2014). 2014 Annual Report. Available: http://feltron.com/FAR14.html. Last accessed 9/2/22.
[4] It's Nice That. (2019). Matthew Jones gives insight into Accept & Proceed’s work for Nasa. Available: https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/nicer-tuesdays-2019-accept-and-proceed-graphic-design-140619. Last accessed 9/2/22.
[5] EDDA. (2020). The 4 Parts of an Infographic. Available: https://eddaoakland.org/research/. Last accessed 9/2/22.
[6] BBC (2019), Long Island Eagle, [13 Minutes to the Moon], 29th May 2019, Available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csz4dl
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