In this seminar session we were focusing on how graphics can be used to portray information in a fun visual way.
Information graphics have become popular in more recent years as companies seek aesthetically pleasing ways to demonstrate facts or ideas in a simplistic way.
These can be achieved through both graphic design and more animative pieces too.
In this activity we were asked to formulate an "info graphic" piece which was personal to us, and convey this to an outsider.
The example given was particularly effective as it was centralised on a drastic life event... Death. In this piece the graphic artist had chosen to use separate curved lines across a horizontal axis to illustrate the "shortening" of life. To do this- the years lived were colour orange- while those that have been lost by a gun crime related death were colour grey. It was remarkable to see not only how many deaths were caused by this form of weaponry but also how this sort of death significantly ends a life way before expectancy would presume otherwise.
The simple sketch I completed in class was very basic but was according to distsnces from "home" certain people, places or things were.
This is shown below with a key to explain the graph in the top left corner.
As this was only a rough drawing, I thought it would be worthwhile using the computer and Adobe Indesign software to produce an Information graphic piece which had a much more professional finish. Being new to this software I chose an alternative idea which was much easier to produce. This was that the colour of a circle would intensify according to how much I liked that thing. E.g the darker the colour, the more I liked it. I used the colour blue for this as their are many shades so was easy to distinguish between each tone of this one colour. The result in shown below. 50 items are listed and the pages have this information graphic style due to the rigidity of layout and standardisation of text and auto shapes used. In this WA the colour changes are the most recognisable feature if the 2 page document.
