EmilyW.R02

Layering and Separation are two very crucial elements of any design. This article was interesting but not as informative as I hoped it would be. The two things that I feel I got from this reading were pay attention to your negative space and the Joseph Albers rule 1+1=3 (these two principles are very closely related so I may go as far as to say I got one thing out of this article). There was maybe a very brief touch on how color effects a design. Over all I do feel disappointed with what I read. Layering and separation is a HUGE realm in design and I feel like the article only lightly touched the surface. I don't like to give critique without a reason to back it up and I understand why this might be confusing to the reader. However, I'm still new at this too and I don't have the adequate information to back up my opinion, maybe it is suffice to say I didn't learn enough from this article to articulate why.

I did appreciate some "touchingly ramshackle" humor in this article like "if the paper is heavily gridded on both sides, throw it out" and "some 460 lamp-whiskers were erased". Also I knew that, for example, if a border is too wide and then placed close to another border it looks bad and makes your eyes spin but I didn't have words to describe it. After reading this article I know about 1+1=3. I read about Joseph Albers before and this equation as it applies to color theory but now I can connect it beyond that with shape, line, and rhythm.

The video of David McCandless was very informative and inspiring. His data maps were extremely well done and interesting to look at. In addition his Ideas about information design made me get excited about this class and even imagine if I had a job designing data maps what kinds of information design I could do. These are the kinds of things I want to take away from this class. How to create successful designs for our modern era and cater to the needs of our information overloaded population. I want to make people drink from my designs and I want them to let me pour it down their throats.

Andrew+M+R02

The Reading, Writing and Income map we looked at today was an example information design overload. The map presented very interesting comparisons but the use of three discrete data sets that, when combined, produce an output of thousands or millions of colors was too much for me to think about. As much as I enjoy direct comparisons and overlays, I also like to control how many information sources I am engaging with at any given moment. The ability to toggle specific demographics would allow the ability to bring the noise down to a level the can cope with. As for me in particular, viewing only two combined overlays at a time would have been much more readable because the color mixing of only two sources would have produced a more limited output that I could recognize faster.

Our reading also introduced how overlays are useful and can reveal “hidden” data that would be otherwise overlooked. The image of multiple black circles with a rectangle is a good example of overlay or how arrangement can reveal hidden data. The circles with their grey wedges could be seen as an overlay or could be arranged in such a way that an apparent rectangle is created. This example illustrates that depending on how visual elements are arranged can determine what information we can extract from them; had these circles not been arranged as such, the rectangle would never become apparent or maybe after arranging them in this order, it becomes a distraction as the rectangular shape could itself be noise.

The 1 + 1 = 3 rule shows that the arrangement of visual elements and the space directly around them can distort a graphical presentation. This rule not only keeps data from becoming distorted but also inadvertently makes data more desirable to read. Stark contrast of black and white is always very loud and sometimes feels threatening; even fully saturated colors, while eye catching from a far, can become overpowering on close examination. When creating a graphic, immediately using black, white or fully saturated colors limits an artist. These colors mark the end of a palette, once you’ve used black you’ve effectively said that you will go no further, as there is nothing darker than black, the same can be said for saturated colors as red can only get so red. Starting in the middle and leaving room for the unknowns and last minutes will always save you from having to go back and reorganized your palette.

The simplest yet most effective example was the train schedule, where the grid lines overpower the data. Often we become so concerned with organizing the data that we forget the data could potentially organize itself. The flush left edge of a paragraph naturally creates a straight, vertical line while data such as time in the form of hours and minutes will always occupy the same space, producing a natural grid when in table form. Taking this into consideration, the designer can sometimes forgo the need to separate data with line and color that could ultimately become noise and could instead play off the inherent figure ground relationship already present.

...I duno if this class will be complete without a Hans Rosling video.