A downloadable PDF you can use to call out bad design. Pretty funny. (Thanks Dave!)
The 2007 Feltron Annual Report
“After 54 weeks of gestating, the 2007 annual report has finally hatched. It was a typical year that saw me entering my 30th year, tasting a few new things, drinking a bit less and learning more about feline dentistry than I had expected. I hope you will enjoy it.”
The Hardest Working Presidential Candidate Logo
“Late last year, a slide show in The New York Times, ‘Reading Tea Leaves and Campaign Logos’ took to the blogwaves like wildfire. In it, illustrator Ward Sutton passed mocking judgment (to great effect) on all of the 2008 presidential candidate logos, commenting on anything from the type choice to the relative size of the R in Rudy Giuliani’s logo (“Extra large ‘R’ to remind you just how Republican he is”). But in his zeal to mock equally, he certainly got one critique wrong: Obama ’08.”
spider monkey escapes!
“A moment of unexpected whimsy in the Wall Street Journal.” (Thanks Coudal Partners!)
ColorJack: Color Theory
“Creative professionals daily delve into the world of Color. Color is powerful, it affects us all in countless ways. ColorJack’s tools help us choose the right colors for websites, print jobs, or any design project.” (Thanks Dave!)
Post-It Note Project
“When living in Japan, Fiona Harding created a project called 100 Post Its in Japan, and now wants to spread the urban guerilla art love with the world by inviting everyone to participate in a global Post-It Note Project.”
XPLANE creates illustrated report for UNICEF
‘A World Fit For Us’ highlights global issues through 19 children’s first-hand accounts
PORTLAND, Ore. (Jan. 8, 2008) — Designed by XPLANE, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has published ‘A World Fit For Us’, an illustrated report for young people that details the state of, and progress around, some of the world’s most pressing issues through the personal stories of 19 youth. The report is UNICEF’s promised follow up to the more than 400 children from over 150 countries who participated in the United Nations Special Session on Children held in New York in May 2002 and expressed their visions for the future. The report is hoped to be an educational and empowerment tool for years to come.
Here is XPLANE’s video case study:
“Pictures are the universal language,” said Aric Wood, chief executive officer, XPLANE. “Understanding the importance of visual communication is the basis of our entire business, and we are proud to be working with an organization as important as UNICEF to create a powerful and unified voice for children around the world.”
Twenty-four pages in length and printed in English, Spanish, French and Japanese, ’A World Fit For Us’ shares true stories that range from addressing the issues of war, health care, HIV and AIDS, the environment, education and poverty. Aside from offering updates on key world conflicts five years following the Special Session, the book also provides ideas for action moving forward. The report was unveiled on Dec. 9 through UNICEF field offices in over 150 countries and UNICEF national committees in 35 industrialized countries.
“Following the Special Session in 2002 and hearing first-hand the hopes, concerns and dreams of our world’s children, it was absolutely clear that we owed them an update as to what has been achieved, and what is still being strived for, five years later,” said Patricia Moccia, section chief, division of communication, UNICEF. “This report is UNICEF’s responsibility to the children of the Special Session as we acknowledge the importance of each of their voices and let them know their demands were heard and responded to. Making the report an illustrated production allowed us to offer the update in a way that could be understood around the world.”
The report’s visuals, created by a team of 10 illustrators, aim to add emotion and storytelling to otherwise complex quantitative data so that it can be more easily understood and embraced by children everywhere.
The UNICEF project represents just the latest in XPLANE’s work to promote conversation for change in regards to advancing the lives of children. Most recently, the company produced the “Did You Know? 2.0” presentation with educator Karl Fisch to advance discussion on how to better educate today’s youth for a continually shifting world.
“Images are a powerful tool for communication and learning,” said Wood. “XPLANE is committed to applying that tool in all areas needed – from driving business results for our clients to discussing world issues we believe need to be shared.”
ABOUT XPLANE
Founded in 1993, XPLANE drives results for many of the world’s leading corporations including Nike, Microsoft, Autodesk and BP by turning complex business issues into visual stories. XPLANE’s multidisciplinary methodology is focused around information-driven communication and visual thinking. XPLANE team members offer clients unique and personalized service through diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise, including journalism, consulting, technology, marketing, illustration, interaction and information design and architecture. XPLANE is based in Portland, Ore., with additional offices in St. Louis, Mo., and Madrid, Spain. For more information about XPLANE, visit www.xplane.com or call (800) 750-6467.
ABOUT UNICEF
UNICEF is on the ground in over 150 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.
For more information contact:
- Parker Lee
- 503 467 7756
- plee@xplane.com
Dispensational Charts by Clarence Larkin
The visual approach of these charts on religious topics is pretty impressive, having been created between 1914 and 1919. This collection includes information graphics describing “the history of man through the ages, the contrasts of the church and the kingdom, the different positions of the “church” in the Bible, the three heavens found in the Scriptures, how the prophets viewed prophecy, an illustrative view of the Ages and Dispensations, the failure of man in every dispensation, overview of the second coming of Christ, view of all the resurrections and judgments found in the Bible and an illustration of the different aspects of the spirit world.”
Building a .com in 24 hours
“This is about how I spend 24 concentrated hours spread out over 4 days during Holidays to build the online service Wigitize.com. It is part of my ongoing learning process on how to run a successful web startup.
Even though I’m a super pimple-faced code-geek, I strive to be a creative entrepreneur who can utilize modern day tools and navigate the chaos to build cool stuff. What I tried to do for this project is use some new methods/tools out there to solve practical problems in my weakness area: design, frontend coding, system administration and SEO.
Purpose of this article is to show my thought process on the multidisciplinary aspects of this project. Also to invoke the discussion on how these things could be done much better (correct me!) and hopefully also to educate other entrepreneurial minded hackers.”
New day rising
“I’m not sure any author is ever completely satisfied with his or her publisher. With my own two ears, I’ve heard folks who’d realized projects with houses I can still only dream of – Penguin, Vintage, MIT Press – issue the selfsame complaints about sloppy copy-editing and limp marketing those of us a notch or three down the ladder make.
Nevertheless, I’ve always regretted publishing Everyware, a think piece if ever there was one, with an imprint primarily known for how-to manuals for aspiring Web developers and Photoshop jockeys. It was a mistake, and it was my own; I was both overeager and insufficiently confident in my book’s merits. And as we’ll see, I paid for it…
Therefore, be it resolved: inspired by the luminous example of Edward Tufte’s Graphics Press, as well as that of our good friends at Chin Music, we’re going to try a little experiment. We’re going to publish my next book, The City Is Here For You To Use, ourselves.”
