When I started thinking about what I could do for my final project, I wanted to do it about something I knew only a little about, but wanted to learn more. I decided to do it about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that occurred about a year ago now. I didn't know many details about this event before I started researching it. The only thing I knew was that it was a catastrophic tragedy that I probably should know more about. There was a plenty of quantifiable information that I could easily gather and by collecting and organizing that information so that it would be easy for other people to understand, I too gained a greater understanding of this unfortunate event.
In the beginning, I wanted to do my final piece about all of the oil spills that have occurred in or by fault of the U.S.A. I quickly learned that this was much too ambitious a task for the amount of time that we were provided to complete the project. After some good advice I decided to pick three pieces of information about these oil spills that I could represent together in miniature info graphics on one larger poster. I picked the environment, gallons spilled, and cost. As I started my research I found things in these categories that could've taken years to organize them all so then I decide to narrow my topic to the oil spill that was most recent and the largest yet: Deep Water Horizon BP. Through my research I found reliable sources that gave me a good base of information about the casualties, estimated gallons spilled per day, total gallons spilled per day, total area the oil slick spread, and information about the effects on wildlife. I decide to make a few different info graphics and combine them together to design one larger poster full of information about this spill.
I used a pretty neutral color palette because there is a lot of information packed onto the spread and I didn't want it to be overwhelming to look at. I used a lot of browns to reference oil and a lot of different shades and tints of yellowy orange to pull out the accent in the bp logo. I tried very hard to make good use of layering techniques using hue, saturation, value and also different typographical hierarchy techniques. Since I have a large amount of information represented in different ways, I think layering is the most important part of my design. There needs to be separation between all the elements of information while maintaining a sense of continuity as well. Color, font style, and graphic style hold this piece together and help the viewer process it all as one fluid information diagram. If I didn't use these elements, the information would start to fall apart and even though it's all related it would be hard to draw visual connections through the piece.
There are somethings that I would like to change but due to time restraints I will have to finish the project on my own after class. I would like to add a visual progression of the oil spill. It would be interesting to show how, over time, the oil slick moved and grew and drifted closer to shore on the surface of the ocean. The information and pictures on the 'Effects on Gulf of Mexico Marine Life' chart are taken almost directly from the National Wildlife Federation website so I would like to modify it more to make my own icons for the animals and change the information slightly so that it's not word for word. I might be able to fit it a little better too because right now the typography looks a bit tight.
Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill info graphic seems to be on its way towards success. My ultimate goal is to finish it and use it as a piece in my portfolio when I apply to jobs after the completion of this class because it's my last one! Finally. Woo Hooo!
Bibliography:
Rogers, Simon.."BP Oil Spill-Official Deepwater Horizon Disaster Timeline."datablog. Web 9 September 2010
Buczynski, Beth.. "Gulf Oil Spill-10 Horrifying Facts you Never Wanted to Know." The Environment and Wildlife Cause. Web 27 May 2010
NWF "How does the BP Oil Spill Impact Wildlife and Habitat?" Gulf Oil Disaster. Web 20 June 2011
