reading is fun and mental? really?

my latest information graphic assignment was to re-design an existing one... (according to our teacher 90% + of what is being touted as "information design" out there sucks.) it was pretty clear when i found this transparency from good magazine that it needed some help. the concept was cool (showing the literacy in various countries by equating word count to percentage of population that can read) but the overall message was missing. i felt that for the viewer to truly understand the data, they needed to be able to start with the bigger picture (and be able to compare the literacy of other places to where they themselves live) and then delve in to get more detailed information if interested. to do this, interactivity was a necessity. (and actual interactivity, not just zooming and dragging.) finally! a use for flash that doesn't feel forced!

click here to see it in action! and click here to see the original.

(oh, and it's not fully functional. i only put in all the data in the arab states book. for sanity's sake.)

and when did it turn into march?

yes. i've been slacking a bit. but this was literally the last thing i did before i found myself in a french hospital for a week. (the best slash worst way to learn a foreign language.) in an effort to catch up, these are the photos i probably would have posted last monday from my first trip to the louvre. which was totally overwhelming. even with an audio tour. i had to focus on one thing to keep myself from being completely lost. i think color was a good choice...

a month later

this post is the product of lots of separate thoughts coming together. it's from being so disconnected from the rest of the world when i first got to paris that it was days before i knew that the earthquake in haiti had even happened. it's from reading about the history of phaidon last night (i realized that they would be a kick ass company to work for...) and wondering what walter benjamin would think of all the art on the internet today if he was so appalled with photogravure. it's from feeling slightly embarrassed that i've been here for a month but still haven't gone to the louvre (it's in my plans for this weekend...) it's from telling myself that i should be designing and making stuff but wondering why it doesn't exactly feel like the right fit for while i'm here. it's from soaking in the surprisingly contemplative process behind eric baudelaire's work at a lecture on lundi. and it's from being reminded at that lecture of the never resolved tension between having responsibility/wanting to do something and feeling like it's just (as the french would say) "pissing in a violin."

how do you process something that you can only see through photographs on the internet you have to be sitting in a mcdonalds to use? how do you find relevance in paintings made for kings hundreds of years ago? it most certainly comes from making connections and creating a context for yourself. as eric explained, his practice is in images. but images are not meant to be autonomous.

"in 1977 i argued that while an event known through photographs certainly becomes more real that it would have been if i one had never seen the photographs, after repeated exposure it also becomes less real. as much as they create sympathy, i wrote, photographs shrivel sympathy. is this true? i thought it was when i wrote it. i'm not so sure now. what is the evidence that photographs have a diminishing impact, that our culture of the spectacle neutralizes the moral force of photographs of atrocities?"

-from eric baudelaire's "que peut une image?"

photos from the websites of the louvre and the new york times.

bling bling

a love letter that even lonely hearts won't find nauseating.
because it's to an entire city (philadelphia) and the lettering is sick (stephen powers.)

happy valentines day.

design jerk off

imagine the rain on my parade when my teacher proceeded to slam this infographic from my beloved good magazine. to be totally honest, he had every right to call me out. i'm pretty sure i just liked it because it was rainbow. oh well. made for a good exercise in erasable ink. lesson learned.

"everyone spoke of an information overload, but what there was in fact was a non-information overload."

-richard saul wurman
(from tufte's "the visual display of quantitative information.")

art noveau revival

please don't tell musee d'orsay that i took these pictures when no one was looking. the exhibit was just too cool to not document. and i bought postcards to make up for it.

le 17 février

aside from watching "qui peut bettre philippe lucas?" and "jackass" avec sous-titres at the apartment, i've been going to the movies a lot pour aider avec mon français. they showed a preview for one of my new favorites before "où sont passés les morgan?" the other day... fantastic mr. fox. en français. i'm pretty excited. c'est tellement adorable.