Information + Graphics
Thursday, July 9, 2009
(Click to view full size original)
This is the greatest infographic of all time. Designed in 1869 by Charles Joseph Minard, it tells the story of Napoleon's march to Moscow during the War of 1812. The tan line shows the invasion of Napoleon's army, and the black line shows the retreat. Key dates are annotated across the bottom. And (the most brilliant part) the width of the line shows how many people in Napolean's army were still alive. When they started, their army was 422,000 strong. When they finally returned, defeated, they only had 10,000 soldiers left. And this whole story, the battles, the weather, the frozen rivers, it's all here in this single image.
Have you noticed that you've been seeing more infographics lately? As digital technology floods us with information, and the graphic design tools become available to everyone - not just professionals - the visual display of information is becoming the next frontier in communications talent.
Here's a few inspirational bits I've seen lately. Please list your own favorite sources for learning and inspiration in the comments.
NYTimes.com has been doing a lot of fantastic interactive infographics lately. This one, about economic cycles, was one of my favs.
Nicholas Feltron is a New York designer, who produces his own personal annual report each year. I love this super simple graphic from his 2005 report.
I love this beautiful and effective graphic by Density Design depicting statistics about the poor population of Italy.
(Click to view full size original)
For further reading, I recommend buying one of Edward Tufte's books. Tufte's the master.
And some great blogs:
flowingdata.com/
infosthetics.com/
visualcomplexity.com/vc/
What do you recommend?
5 Comments:
Hi Mike, excellent post.
I would love to contribute with a few additions :o)
When it comes to stats Hans Rosling stands out for many reasons. Especially his TED talk (2006) has opened many eyes - demonstrating how data is only accessible to people if designed in a way that is understandable and actionable:
http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html
Also, Stamen design are quite important players:
http://stamen.com/
And Aron Koblin with The New York Talk Exchange, which is a part of the brilliant MIT Senseable City project: http://senseable.mit.edu/nyte/
And Aaron's presentation at Picnic 08:
http://vimeo.com/3199933
And, thanks for a brilliant blog :o)
Best
Helge
I'm guessing that you've been reading "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" by Tufte, who proclaimed the Napoleon graphic the greatest of all-time in 1982.
yep love all these
http://farisyakob.typepad.com/blog/2008/06/ways-of-seeing.html
FX
Mike,
I'm a fan of dubberly design. Check out this "How to play baseball" graphic.
http://www.dubberly.com/concept-maps/how-to-play-baseball-project.html
For me, hard to beat Aaron Koblin right now. Love what he's been doing with cellphone data. Also fascinated by his move into sound and visualization.
http://www.aaronkoblin.com/
Check also his sandbox.
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