ITAP Design Canons - week two

This lecture was about Information Design. 
Information design is the practise of using text and image to prepare a visually appealing representation of complex or unstructured information, in order to make it clearer and easier for the viewer to understand. There are 7 main principles to think about in information design. These are Grouping information, Consistency, Typography, Grid structure, Graphic elements, Spacing and Visual Hierarchy.


To begin I am going to look at the work of information designer David McCandless. I was inspired by his quote that 'Information is beautiful. Below is a screen shot of thumbnails of David's visualisations on his blog 'informationisbeautiful.net'. You can see his work is mainly very simple, yet most of it has been designed from complex information. I think it's incredible how he has come up with so many ways of visually interpreting information.

A piece of his that particularly stood out to me is the one shown here on the right. It is a composition of many different countries of the world, all in scale, placed into an outline of Africa in order to show how big the continent is. This is really good example of how he has taken what probably started off as figures and distances etc and turned it into an attractive, appealing piece of design. It has a larger effect on the viewer presenting the information in this way as the viewer finds it easier to relate the the content. By this i mean that figures written down would probably not mean much to someone who didn't know much about distances, but by being able to visualise the distances it has a much higher impact. 




Another part of this lecture i found particularly interesting was the work of Airside.
Airside is a creative agency working across many design disciplines, including anything from graphics through to moving image. Below is a link to an information graphics video they have designed, explaining the importance of communicating information when trying to get aid to people in the world that need it. It explains how when a natural or man-made distaster happens, communication systems can fall apart, leaving people confused and scared. Airside: InfoIsAid: http://vimeo.com/26668253

Having found this inspiring I looked into other information films created by Airside. I came across a series of 2 videos that they had been asked to create by live earth in order to warn people about climate change. The two films were designed from different points of view. The first was from the point of view of a penguin and what could happen to him when climate changes. 
Live Earth: Penguin in a pickle: http://vimeo.com/18994031

The second is aimed at educating humans who don't know much about climate change in order to show them how easy it is to make a difference.
Live Earth: A beginners guide to climate change: http://vimeo.com/18992999

The graphics shown in these two videos are funny and interesting to watch and also manage hold a powerful message behind them. Watching these videos is more likely to make you react to climate change than reading a few bullet points on a sheet. This is really good example of how showing information through design can make a difference.