XPLANE recently collaborated with the non-profit Caregiver Relief Fund to produce a simple but powerful video to inform, inspire and support the more than 49 million Americans currently serving in the role of caregiver. The two-minute video can be viewed on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUtRhnfLmSc.
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Something for the America’s caregivers
xBlog. 11 years.
On this day, in 1999, I let xBlog out.
Those were some wildly fun days at XPLANE and in the nascent blog world back then (they still are, but we’re all much more grown up now, and those worlds have gotten so much bigger than we could have imagined).
I started xBlog as an internal resource for the folks at XPLANE. As the “web guy” back then, I was sort of like the in-house “Seen it” version of Anil Dash. If someone said they needed to draw Singapore’s flag, I sent them a link. If someone wanted to find an Isotype library, they asked me. And so on. So I started saving and sorting those links, and soon released it to the world as xBlog | The visual thinking weblog.
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The problem with chunks
We’re all familiar with the problem of the rising tide of information.
But how do you wrestle with that wave? The growing magnitude and complexity of information is not going away, and yet by most accounts the bandwidth we possess to process that information is going to remain fairly constant (barring any long-overdue cybernetic enhancements.) How do you parse that wave into a channel fit for human consumption?
There are plenty of ways, but I’m only going to focus on one theory here. I’m also going to have some problems with it.
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What’s in your worry closet?
Whenever we start a new client engagement, we begin by working to understand our target audience. Who are they? And what is it that they are looking for?
Another way to frame that question is to ask, “What keeps them up at night?.” If you can figure that out, then you can begin to understand how to best address their needs. If you’re striving for solutions, it’s best to begin with the end in mind and work backward from there. So what keeps you up at night? How about a little Visual Meditation doodle therapy to clear your head?
Okay pencil and paper ready?
Sketch it, scan it and upload it to our xBlog activities Group on Flickr.
- Exercise: Draw a big head and fill it with the things you worry about
- Optional: Add a speech bubble
- Flickr tag: xworries
Visual meditation: Happy head
Doesn’t it seem like life is moving faster and faster every day? We’re always moving from one fire to another and we become consumed by pressing deadlines and client satisfaction, while giving little thought our own mental health.
This week for our Visual Meditation, let’s take a few minutes to think about the things that make it all worthwhile and bring relief from the craziness.
Think about the things in your life that make you happy.
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“Visual Language for Designers”
Visual complexity is a paradox. On the one hand, complexity is a compelling feature known to capture a viewer’s attention and stimulate interest… On the other hand, complexity only arouses curiosity up to a point. When a visual is extremely complex, viewers may tend to avoid it altogether.
There are a lot of reasons why I really like Connie Malamed’s 2009 book, “Visual Language for Designers: Principles for Creating Graphics that People Understand.” Here are three:
1. Balance | The book balances examples of great design, explanations of core visual principles and informative bits on cognitive research about how the brain processes graphics. Some pieces you might be familiar with: Nicholas Felton‘s Annual Reports, the HistoryShots series, and Nigel Holmes‘ and Alberto Cairo‘s work all appear here. But a great strength of the book is in the mix of graphics projects you’ve almost certainly not seen before.
2. Context | But it’s not just about infographics. It’s not just about charts. It’s not just about data visualization. It’s not just about posters or maps or illustrations. The book clearly places each of those outputs into context by using specific projects as examples of a key design principle rather than sorting them by deliverable, or style, or date, or provenance or designer. Seeing each piece according to its best qualities is almost better than having an overall project case study. It helps make successes clear and repeatable.
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Also published in Books, Data visualization, Graphic design, Infodesign & graphics, Language, Mapping, Product design, Visual thinking comments (2)
Picture designers, nonsense, and being old
So a friend came over tonight. We hadn’t talked in a while, and he wanted to meet the baby, and so we talked and ate and some small and great things were exchanged, including two books. For the baby there was The Monster at the End of this Book, and he took our copy of Vonnegut’s Bluebeard.
How this is relevant to visual thinking involves a couple hops, but it seems natural to me:
Kurt Vonnegut wrote. He wrote 14 or so novels, an equal number of collections, and some plays. He was good enough at it to make it his profession. And of course he left a lasting mark on the pliable morality of many teenagers who were lucky enough to have his books on their summer reading lists. He did this with words.
But he also drew stuff. Although I struggled tonight to remember the plot of Bluebeard (what was the fate of Rabo Karabekian’s secret?) what will forever be burned in my brain is Vonnegut’s glyphic resampling of the asterisk. I remember meeting it at the bottom half of a right-facing page in the early pages of a paperback book, and it’s been in my head ever since.
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Hijacked! (and painted on velvet)
I was invited to take part in a local, one-night art show called “Hijacked.” Not a novel concept altogether, but the idea is that the artist goes thrifting and procures a piece of second-hand artwork to then manipulate into a new work of art.
I researched via Google. I trekked around St. Louis’ thrift stores. I labored over my purchase endlessly at each stop. I retraced my steps, second-guessing my dismissals. I ended up with a couple of $3.99 velvet portraits. And then researched and labored some more.
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XPLANE joins Dachis Group
The acquisition was announced this morning — this is exciting news for all of us!
More info here: Dachis Group acquires XPLANE and be sure to check out the buzz on Twitter.
Also published in Business issues, Communications, Infodesign & graphics, Social business, Visual thinking, XPLANE news comments (0)
Similarities
Great set of design accidents, homages, inspirations and appropriations.
The pairs of images in this “Similarities” set are similar visually in one way or another. They are presented without judgement as to the motives of their creators. The viewers of the pieces can form their own opinion(s) about what they see.
