xBlog: The original visual thinking weblog » Politics

New project: The Carbon Economy

Bill Keaggy — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:16:06 +0000

For the second time in recent months XPLANE has partnered with The Economist to create a compelling video on a topic of global importance. After working together on “Did You Know? 4.0”, The Economist enlisted XPLANE’s visual communication expertise to develop “The Carbon Economy” about the growing importance of climate change and green technologies and solutions.

“The Carbon Economy” will be shown at The Economist’s upcoming Carbon Economy Summit on November 17 and 18, 2009 in Washington, D.C. The video is three minutes in length and includes simple visuals and a moving soundtrack to clearly convey the troubled state of global climate change and what steps must be taken to reach a positive outcome. The production was created using Apple’s Keynote software.

For more information on The Carbon Economy Summit, visit http://carboneconomy.economist.com.

Did You Know? 4.0

Bill Keaggy — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:41:06 +0000

XPLANE is happy to present Did You Know? 4.0 — another official update to the original “Shift Happens” video. This completely new Fall 2009 version includes facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology, and was developed in partnership with The Economist.

As Garr Reynolds mentions over at Presentation Zen this morning, yes, this project was created with “off-the-shelf slideware” (Keynote and GarageBand, actually, along with Photoshop and Illustrator). Content by XPLANE, The Economist, Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod and Laura Bestler. Design and development by XPLANE.

For more information, or to join the conversation, please visit The Economist’s Media Convergence conference site at mediaconvergence.economist.com, or stop by shifthappens.wikispaces.com for all things Did You Know.

Fast, fun video illuminates Obama’s inauguration ceremonies

XPLANE — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:48:13 +0000

The XPLANE-created piece visually depicts 23 fun inauguration factoids.

XPLANE, the global information design consultancy, has created “Did You Know?: The 2009 Inauguration Edition” to visually explore 23 unique facts surrounding the 2009 inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama, as well as past inaugural events. The one minute 30 second piece moves fast with its catchy music and wealth of interesting information. The piece can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hvXMuzCimk&fmt=18.

This video is part of an ongoing effort by XPLANE to put out timely, relevant XPLANATiONS that distill complex information in order to inform, entertain and provoke new ideas and thoughts. Previous pieces include “Did You Know 2.0” a collaboration between XPLANE, Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, “Savings & (mis)Trust”, “Did You Know: The Holiday Edition” and a print piece on how Barack Obama was able to turn down campaign finance funding.

With an innovative visual, multidisciplinary methodology, XPLANE is unique because it applies both left and right-brained approaches to develop fresh solutions to challenging communication problems. This approach accelerates understanding, which drives actions and results. Companies have hired XPLANE to motivate employees, drive sales, convince decision makers and improve processes. XPLANE won a bronze medal in 2008 at the 16th Malofiej International Infographics Awards, known as the most important and respected infographic contest in the world.

ABOUT XPLANE
Founded in 1993, XPLANE is an information design consultancy that drives better results for many of the world’s leading corporations including Microsoft, Intel, Nokia, U.S. Department of National Intelligence, U.S. Marine Corp., Nike and BP through visual thinking and design. XPLANE offers clients unique and personalized service through its employees’ diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise, including journalism, consulting, technology, marketing, training, illustration, interaction, process improvement, information design and architecture. Global XPLANE headquarters are in Portland, Ore. USA; European offices are based in Madrid, Spain and a third office is located in St. Louis, Mo. USA. For more information about XPLANE, visit www.xplane.com or call (866) 750-6467 (USA) + (34) 915 635835 (Spain).

For more information contact:

Parker Lee
503 467 7756
plee@xplane.com

Savings & (mis)Trust: A Credit Crisis XPLANATiON

Bill Keaggy — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:03:51 +0000

The subprime mortgage crisis XPLANEd: The United States economy is suffering one of the worst financial crises in history, due to seriously flawed subprime mortgage lending practices over the past eight years. The repercussions have already been severe and continue to unravel. American people are fearful and unsure of what the future holds. How did we get to this point? Clearly understand the roles that borrowers, mortgage lenders, banks, financial institutions and asset backed securities played in creating this financial meltdown of historic proportion.

This four-minute animated movie takes viewers through the process starting in 2000 and ending in current day. It details the role that home buyers, mortgage lenders, banks, financial institutions and ultimately asset backed securities played in this financial mess.

No Small Change: How Obama Reinvented Campaign Finance

Bill Keaggy — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:45:48 +0000

Check out this new XPLANATiON that XPLANE put together:

“Barack Obama is the first major candidate to decline participation in the public financing system for presidential campaigns. He’s found a more effective way to raise money — by leveraging the power of the American people through online Social Networks.”

This work is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

50 Years of Symbolic Peace

Bill Keaggy — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 16:46:09 +0000

“Pacifists and war protesters all over the world wear peace signs on shoulder bags and jeans jackets. But only few know what the symbol really means, and where it came from.

Exactly fifty years ago British designer Gerald Holtom created what would become the international peace symbol. On February 21, 1958 the Royal College of Art trained artist designed a logo for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the start of the British peace movement.”

The Hardest Working Presidential Candidate Logo

Bill Keaggy — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 22:02:26 +0000

“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.”

Darfur Drawn: The Conflict in Darfur Through Children’s Eyes

Bill Keaggy — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:33:11 +0000

“On mission along the border of Chad and Darfur, Human Rights Watch researchers gave children notebooks and crayons to keep them occupied while they spoke with the children’s parents. Without any instruction or guidance, the children drew scenes from their experiences of the war in Darfur: the attacks by the Janjaweed, the bombings by Sudanese government forces, the shootings, the burning of entire villages, and the flight to Chad.”

Killed Cartoons: Casualties from the War on Free Expression

Bill Keaggy — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 23:38:44 +0000

The Bookslut review: “Norman Rockwell’s best painting may very well be Blood Brothers, a grim depiction of two dead soldiers, one white and one black, laid out beside each other with their blood intermixing on a Vietnamese battlefield. The white soldier’s eyes are closed, but the black one’s are wide open in a perpetual expression of shock. Unfortunately, it was killed by Look magazine in 1968.”

Wires Reject Handout Photo Of Bush Speech

Bill Keaggy — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 05:30:36 +0000

The White House broke with tradition Wednesday night and refused to let photojournalists shoot still pictures of the president at the podium after his prime-time address on the Iraq war. As a result, newspapers and wire services had little choice but to run low-quality frame grabs from the video of the speech. An official handout photo from the White House, which most news outlets rejected, was the only other option.”