Water footprint

I found this online. It shows how much water is used to make the things you use/eat and how to reduce your water consumption. I knew it took a lot of water for beef to reach your plate, but this puts it in great emphasis. I love how informative this graphic is.

I love being a vegetarian too.

Final Choice

Last class when this project was being explained, my mind was rolling about what subject I could create an informative graphic around. A couple thoughts came to mind. One of them was how to pass a law. I've taken my share of American government classes to have an idea of what those steps are. But I'm not too into the subject of American government (nor know much about it) so someone else can design a great illustration of that.

Another thought that came to mind was the levels of a rainforest. I remember in elementary a infinite amount of time ago, I learned about the rainforest and the animals that live in the different levels of the rainforest like the canopy and such. I remember when learning about this stuff was so fun.

(I had to draw the forest and label it like this too)

Brainstorming some more I just made up a list of subjects I like/sound interesting. And it goes like this:

Food

Platypuses

Environmental subjects

TV series

Shopping for gifts

Coffee

We shall see what the final decision is.

Ismael Obregon (edit)

Ismael Obregon is the creative designer behind his personal company Oishii Creative. Through his presentation of his company, he seemed to focus his company more towards interactive design such as webpages and media broadcasting. In the beginning of his presentation he started off by saying he wasn't going to talk about his company but more about language. He told everyone that we know more than one language (besides our spoken language) and that was visual language.

The two videos that he did present were very well put together. It showed some of his branding and identity works from the NFL and EA Sports. I wished that he showed some of his print designs in his presentation though. He seemed to be more proud of his branding and media broadcasting.

His presentation ended pretty quickly and after, he opened up a Q+A discussion with the audience. I think people were stunned that he opened up the Q+A so quickly since he had to wait a bit for a question to come up. The way that he answered his questions was very professional. He answered the questions in a way that didn't denounce his clientele yet answered the question. For example, someone asked how he dealt with clients that were difficult to work with. He answered that if a client is difficult to work with it is only because they are passionate about their company. They only want the best for their company and they want their portrayal of their company to be in a successful and positive manner.

Ismael also said that he works with many other companies to collaborate on his projects with. He outsources his work which I think would help his company grow. He would be able to see how other companies work and get insight on how to make his company grow so that in the future he may be able to produce the work in his own studio.

Ismael Obrego

I think Ismael has probably learned from sitting through many presentations that a long speaker event is usually never someone's forte. That's my guess on why he cut his presentation to about 40 minutes.

He seemed like a really good designer in terms of branding and interactive design even though he only showed two videos of his works. I wish he went into a little bit of his print work. Or at least show more of his work. I guess opening up most of his presentation to Q+A allowed more interaction with him. I thought we might have to get up and do something when he told everyone to move forward. I kinda wish we did...

Reading 6: Narratives of Space and Time

I think Tufte and Galileo would have been homies back in the day. I figured this out from the emphasis on Tufte's many quotations and reference images from Galileo.

Anyway, I'm still trying to figure out what Tufte means by time and space. He talks about the timetables of rails and schedules. I don't know if I'm thinking too into it, but I think he talks about time as timetables (train arrival times) and space as (amount of space for the diagram or whatnot, chart, etc.).

I loved the diagrams of the dance steps. The illustrations effectively described what steps needed to be taken where during the dance. Pace however was not given but I'm guessing these are more reference guides rather than how to dance illustrations.

Vote

No wonder people don't vote. As if it's not hard enough to get voters to vote, add caps and bold in huge information paragraphs and you get information design disaster. I was wondering why it took me so long to figure out what I was voting on...

Legibility plzkthx.

Reading 5: Small Multiples

So, small multiples are basically multiples of an image with various changes that show alternatives to the image or whatnot. Reminds me of a flip book.

Relatively easy to understand and to the point chapter. I agree with Tufte that small images of something like train illustration on page 68 is easily understood because the images are all the same except for the changes in the lights. It makes it easier to focus on what's important and what info is supposed to go through your mind.

Hm, not much else to say about it...

Logo

I saw this stick logo on the Kogi truck this weekend and thought it was pretty cool. I'm pretty sure the initials are HRS but I thought it was weird it had nothing to so with the website name. Maybe it's the creators initials? Nope, I checked their website and it's not. I stared at it for a while trying to figure out if it actually was an H or T or M and whatnot too since food truck food often takes forever.

Reading 4: Layering and Seperation

This chapter talked a lot about a concept called 1+1=3 or more. After the initial reading of the definition, I soon forgot what it meant and by the end of the chapter I think I still fared pretty well without knowing what it meant. Well, after looking back to the first page I think I can conclude that 1+1=3 or more, means that when you combine two design elements, you can unintentionally create one or more extra elements wanted or not. (Correct me if I'm wrong about that definition cause Tufte never seems to have direct definitions.)

Tufte goes a lot into what is "chart junk" I suppose and how to clearly define data without bringing emphasis to the wrong data. For example, the image of the musical notes on page 59. Using thinner lines rather than thicker lines, it takes the emphasis away from the lines and onto the music notes.

Simple alterations can make a design a whole lot better.

Poverty Levels

Poverty in America

I saw this map on Yahoo. I was reading an article about how the new homeless population is quickly becoming more children too. If you go to the link, it's actually an interactive map that tells you state by state data about the percent in poverty.

Here's the link to the children in poverty article too.

Reading 3: Micro/Macro Readings

Did anyone else laugh when Tafte wrote about how "easily" it was to display the info of graph on page 39? Whut? Honestly, when I see graphs like that I overlook it and skip to the next page of reading. I don't know anything about "electrical resistivity of copper...", but there has to be a better way of representing the data than this solution.

However, I guess I understand (somewhat) what this chapter is trying to get into. Something along the lines of having a lot of detail in something, and creating a bigger picture out of it. You can see the details stacked with details in micro/macro pieces of work.

I thought the section on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was interesting. I like the conclusion of arranging the names by the date of death. If it was arranged alphabetically, then yes, it might be easier to find the name of a lost loved one but the memorial itself would look like a phone book as critiqued. A repetition of "James Jones" 16 times in a row would not look aesthetically correct.

Reading 2: Escaping Flatland

Originally I thought this chapter was about escaping flatland by creating more dimensions, however I think it goes a bit deeper than that from what I understand.

According to Tuft, information design is made beautiful by detail used (such as in maps) and bountiful amounts of data. I can agree with his view. Information escapes the flatland of dullness for me by catching my attention and making me want to know what a chart or map can tell me. Clarity is also an issue. Though it may catch my attention at first glance, if it's a jumble of data forced into my face I will not hesitate to pass it by.

I loved the images of the sunspot paths (pg 21). Very beautiful design with plenty of scholarly looking data marks(Italian?). The creator of the sunspot path Christopher Scheiner created an innovative solution to viewing sunspots on a flatland in a three dimensional plane.

Fuel

So I found this on the web which reminded me of our recent past project...

Very interesting way of getting a point across. Though I'm not too sure about the drawings of the gas cans. Look more like car batteries to me. Nonetheless, the info it gives off is something to consider. Carpool more.

Love the little humor at the end with the Whoppers too. Walking ftw!

Reading 1: Color and Information

At first glace, maps in general seem to be a jumble of information, routes, and geographical lines representing who knows what. For example the map on page 80 in the book seems to me to be overly detailed with every little line representing every bump in the mountain. It gets a bit confusing if not for the colors used to represent the bodies of water and the land masses. If there were no color in the map, I wouldn't even try to struggle to read the text on the map.

As for the primary colors used in the Pythagora's Therem, I don't know if such vivid colors properly got information through. I think it's in part because there are so many lines and shapes that my eyes are struggling to see any hierarchy in the colors. Math in general is confusing for me as it probably is for others. Did we not all become art majors to avoid math classes? Oh...

In all, it is agreed that colors are awesome and make a great way to define maps if used properly.