July 13, 2010 • 12:39 pm • POSTED BY rtashjian
For the visually and verbally inclined, the word “data” is a foreign if not daunting one. But a visit to the blog FlowingData, in which UCLA graduate student Nathan Yau culls displays of data from all over the internet, may leave you much more at peace with number crunching.
Topics covered in Yau’s nearly daily posts range from the fanciful to the serious, from a chart showing How to beat Super Mario Brothers 3 in 11 minutes to an infographic on how much a musician needs to sell online to make minimum wage. It’s an interesting exercise in how visuals can clarify facts—or in some cases, muddle them: Yau does as much reveling in beautiful graphics as he does intelligent questioning on how the data is collected and parsed.
Most exciting are Yau’s posts on infographics that show what raw data can only imply. This elevation map of San Francisco’s prostitution arrests, for example, builds hills and even mountains in the areas of the city where the most arrests take place. The map’s designer, Doug McCune, points out the shadows formed by these peaks, which imply that this issue reaches far further than the crime itself.
If admiring the work of others weren’t enough, Yau has created your.flowingdata.com, which allows users to track data on themselves via Twitter. The program takes the information you tweet, from what you eat to when you go to sleep, and creates beautifully clean word clouds, maps, or time series graphics. Maybe statisticians are aesthetes just like you and me after all.
July 12, 2010 • 6:45 pm • POSTED BY kdorsey
The Communication Arts Design Annual 51 (September/October issue) will feature two of our favorite Loyola University Maryland pieces, the Sophomore/Junior Search Piece, which is printed on newsprint and the School of Education Viewbook. There’s been a lot of interest in the newsprint piece so we’ve posted more images after the jump for your viewing pleasure… MORE
July 9, 2010 • 3:10 pm • POSTED BY awilson
Are you a creative, media savvy, advertising genius who loves competition? Do you enjoy high socks, shin guards, sweat and soccer balls?
If your answer is “yes”, then 160over90 wants your team to compete in the Agency World Cup!
Advertising, branding, design, media and interactive agencies in the Philadelphia area are invited for a soccer showdown on Thursday, August 5 from 3pm-5pm for the Agency World Cup.
The teams will be co-ed and consist of 5 v 5 plus goal keepers. Each game will last 20 minutes. There will be a minimum of a three game qualification stage, followed by a knockout/bracket stage. Teams will be scored three points for a win, one point for a draw.
The Agency World Cup will take place in Philadelphia and the exact field location will be determined based on the number of participating teams.
This competition will separate the creatives from the athletes so leave your projects at the office and bring your A-games to the field!
Please RSVP by Thursday, July 22
Michelle Prescott
AgencyCup@160over90.com
July 9, 2010 • 12:13 am • POSTED BY Jim Walls
That’s one ballsy letter to your fans, Cleveland Cavaliers Coach Dan Miller. Probably the most inappropriate use of comic sans I’ve ever seen, however. Unless there’s an STD clinic using it for their invoices or something.
I think I would have gone with some more like a Tungsten. I like the way it sits there and silently judges you. Not like that jerk font Fajita, who is constantly goading you to have another margarita or some taquitos.
July 2, 2010 • 11:31 am • POSTED BY anguyen
I’ll admit, I’m an Apple fan. But when the new iPhone 4 was announced I was convinced to wait before purchasing it. I knew from experience that the first batch of any product is bound to have its share of problems.
Seems like I was right. Along with having proximity sensor trouble, signal strength can now be added to the growing list of problems. If you hold the phone like you would any other you run the risk of losing all your bars of reception. Why? Because while being designed at Apple they didn’t realize that by having the antenna on the outside surrounding the phone would mean the user would be touching it.
Don’t worry though, there IS a fix! It’ll just cost you $29.00 at an Apple store to buy an awful looking “bumper” to wrap around your phone. And there you have it, fixed reception issues for yet more money. Or for the “DIY-ers” you can be like this guy and use a $1 bracelet.
I understand even the best companies make mistakes, but this is a great example of what could happen when a company puts form over function. Maybe they’re feeling the pressure from the HTC Touch 2 or the newly announced Droid X and rushed through vital testing. Whatever the cause, the iPhone 4 is beautifully designed but what’s the point in beauty if it doesn’t even serve its purpose?
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July 1, 2010 • 3:04 pm • POSTED BY mreed
World Cup fever is everywhere, especially in the office lately. Amidst the exchange of ideas and change requests, you’ll hear various profanities or exclamations coming from around the boomerang table.
Obviously the World Cup’s presence is especially pervasive on the internet right now. I recently found this illustrator who has been doing some pretty interesting work inspired by the beautiful game.
His name is Charis Tsevis, and he’s a designer from Athens, Greece. I like how he expresses the kinetic energy of the event with traditional African design patterns. His process reminds me a bit of Chuck Close’s work too, who happens to be a favorite of mine.
Check it out…
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