Archive for the “System” Category

Cribsheet

Thursday, June 28th, 2007

Cribsheet, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

This is the name used by the glamorous science magazine SEED – founded by Adam Bly, the youngest member of the Canadian National Research Council – to describe their visual tool aimed to “survive the 21st century”.

Nothing more than infographic illustrations (with a lot of text!), but it seems to work very well in the science popularization.
Or, at least, in the popularization of the magazine it self!


Phylotaxis, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

Two years ago, Bly launched also Phylotaxis, a visual news aggregator designed by Jonathan Harris, based on the idea of finding the balance between science and culture: a simple but effective graphical synthesis of the possible(?) balance between linear and complex systems.

Travel-time Maps and their Uses

Thursday, June 28th, 2007

Travel-time Maps and their Uses, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

Transport maps and timetables help people work out how to get from A to B using buses, trains and other forms of public transport. But what if you don’t yet know what journey you want to make? How can maps help then?
This may seem a strange question to ask, but it is one we all face in several situations:
* Where would I like to work?
* Where would I like to live?
* Where would I like to go on holiday?

These are much more complicated questions than those about individual journeys, but one thing they all have in common is transport: can I get to and from the places I’m considering quickly and easily?

The maps on this page show one way of answering that question.

Death and Taxes

Thursday, June 28th, 2007

Death and Taxes, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

The budger graph is visual guide to USA federal taxes, ‘Death and Taxes’ is a representational graph of the federal discretionary budget.

Chocolate

Sunday, June 24th, 2007

chocolate, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

One of the running themes at Worldchanging is the importance of knowing the backstory of the things we use and buy. There’s no better incentive to be a responsible consumer than seeing previously invisible (and frequently unsavory) aspects of our commodities. Arlene Birt has begun designing communications campaigns for edible products; specifically, she has dragged the lifespan of a chocolate bar into transparency, from unharvested cacao bean to first delicious bite, by designing an easy-to-decipher graphic label for the interior of a chocolate bar wrapper. Check out the clever use of simple information graphics used in her project,