Scarborough

I went to Scarborough for the day yesterday, basically for my independent project as I am specifically looking at journeys and those taken by train in conjunction with social interaction and the way in which people can interpret a lot about people on trains despite never even verbally communicating with them. This is something that I find quite interesting.

My course had been on a day trip to Scarborough the previous week for a bit of a bonding session, which I couldn't go to and whilst they were there had to capture the essence of Scarborough through photography or through video. So whilst I was there for a bit, I decided to take a pics on my Blackberry, so although they are not great quality, I did capture images of a few things that I thought was the essence of Scarborough.

Let me know what you think.....I thought there were lots of casino slot machines places as well as little cafes along the coast. The harbor had some really good potential shots had I had a better camera but I quite like how a few of my images have turned out despite them being taken on a Blackberry.......also seagulls there were loads of those! x

My Pictograms in situ

Final Designs for Pictograms

Here are the final designs for my pictograms, in both black and white and the version with colour. In terms of the colour use, I decided to use pastel colours so that it was not too bright and bold but subtle colours. I wanted to use a different colour for each department to add distinction to each one, which I think is particularly useful for the subjects, which are homed in the same buildings on campus, to avoid the confusion that they are not part of the same department in terms of subjects. Some colours add to the clarity and understanding of the symbols, which I think has been beneficial for the communication of the departments. For Japanese, I have incorporated the flag into the design. The colour red had been used to highlight this, which I think works well in communicating that the subject is Japanese.

I have tried to make the set as unified as possible in terms of the design of the symbols representing each subject. I have used both straight and curved lines to bring depth and more of a quality to the designs, which can be seen through the progress of my development. I think this combination of curved and straight edges has made them look more professional particularly as they developed from the initial ideas.

For each of the subjects, I found some much easier to communicate in terms of the choice of symbol to show the subject. However, there were some that were slightly more difficult to represent, including Spanish and also Design. For design I started off with the initial ideas of having a Mac computer as well as a pallet and paintbrush but this did not fit very well with the set having simply one symbol for each. I found this quite tricky trying to think of a single symbol that communicated design as a whole because of the many different aspects of it like graphics, fashion, product as well as art and design. I managed to come up with various tools that are associated with different design subjects, such as a pencil, paintbrush as well as a scalpel and this is the idea I went with. I tried to keep the designs as simple as possible so that the communication was clear to the audience.

Further Pictogram Development

I had a few different designs in terms of the actual symbol representing the subject of Spain. To begin with I had the fan and the castanets, which both represent Spain quite well in terms of its culture and traditions, particularly with the flamenco dancing. However, from the first feedback session it came to my attention that the fan symbol could also be used to represent Japanese as it is apart of their culture too. As well as that, having the two symbols together for the one subject did not link well with the rest of the set, which were each being associated with just the one symbol, such as the the calculator for mathematics, the helmet for history and the cylinder for chemistry.

So I decided to simply look into developing the castanets symbol. On testing it to see if people could tell what it by itself, knowing that it stood for a particular university department, it did not do so well at communicating the subject of Spanish. There was confusion with it perhaps being boxing gloves so presenting something to d with sports, so I then went on to look at a new design with a completely different symbol, which seemed to work much better at communicating the subject of Spanish.

Pictogram Development

Here are a few examples of the particular subjects I was designing pictograms for, including mathematics, history and chemistry. For each one I started off with the basic structure and shape of the designs using the colours black and white, as it was important that the symbols communicated the subject to the audience in the simplest of colour use. I then continued by introducing a colour to each of the subjects, in order to bring the element of distinction to each of the subjects. For the audience to recognise that each subject is represented by a different colour would bring about that distinction between each subject. However, the design of the symbols themselves with both curved as well as straight lines also introduced consistency to the set of subjects, which are all part of the University of Leeds.

From the ideas that I came up with, I found that the ones which stood out the most were the plain black background with the white symbol (no lines separating the symbol and background). This simple white on black or white on a specific colour worked well in terms of standing out and communicating each subject effectively to the audience. I then when on to further develop the pictograms in this style in both black and white as well as white with a specific colour representing each subject.

My Initial Pictograms for Project

Here is my initial set of pictograms for each of the subjects in question, Chemistry, Spanish, Design, Maths, History, Japanese, English and Engineering. As a set I think that they need to become more unified. After the first crit, it was seen that perhaps the use of the black, such as in the fan representing Spanish could act as a basis for part of the design which is apparent in each of the pictograms. I am going to see whether I can come up with a set of designs that fits this, thus making them appear more unified and part of a set all from the University of Leeds, as this is an important component for the designs.

It was apparent that the subjects were easily identifiable from the initial designs that I had produced. However, the importance of consistency came up with the fact that most of my pictograms are represented by one image, such as the book for English and the flag for Japanese. However, for Design and Spanish, perhaps the fact that I have used two objects this needed to be re addressed in order to tackle the problem and create the consistency within the set. The pictogram, which I created for history also needs re thinking because of the way I had included the years on the time line. Text should not be appearing and also the time line doesn't fit in with the other subjects being represented by single objects or representations.

More design also needs to arise because these initial ones I have done are quite basic but on a positive note they are communicating each of the subjects effectively. So adding and re working some of them is required and perhaps a little more thinking in terms of the design of others such as History and Design is also needed.

The Ocean Club Signage System

The graphic design consultancy The Kitchen, were faced with the dilemma of creating a signage system for people who could not see. It was commissioned to create this for Ocean, which is one of the largest music venues in London with a capacity of over 3000 and three auditoriums over four levels. I found this example of a signage system in “Mapping An Illustrated Guide to Graphic Navigational Systems” by Roger-Fawcett and William Owen. The Kitchen attempted to devise a system that was as restrained as possible, working all the signs into a square format produced in enamelled metal panels.

As you can see from the images, white backgrounds were applied to all of the signs bringing the element of consistency and also making the text stand out. This also made the signage easier to read and more legible. To create a design that was going to be suitable for a blind person, braille text was added to the bottom of each panel. I think that the placement of this is quite important and will have required a lot of thought and testing, particularly for blind people to be able to read it. By placing the embossed braille at the bottom of the panel, I think this would have made it more accessible as opposed to having to feel around the board. This will have been more convenient and saved time.

Stansted Airport Signage

I found this example of airport signage in Stansted Airport in “Mapping An Illustrated Guide to Graphic Navigational Systems”, by Roger Fawcett-Tang and William Owen. Architect Sir Norman Foster designed the system. He commissioned the design consultancy Pentagram to create a signage system that would compliment the distinctive architecture.

As you can see from the images, the signs are very large and appear on the walls next to what it is they are representing, such as currency exchange, toilets and food services. These symbols guide the traveller in the airport and so also act as a reassurance for them. The design of these symbols is consistent with the use of space to create shape and also curves to the design. As well as that, the use of the colour blue is apparent on all of the symbols, which shows that there is a link between the signage as it all appears within the airport. This style of design with the incorporation of consistency through colour brings about professionalism, which is something that people in the airport would want to feel. As they are waiting to board a plane, which can be quite daunting for some, feeling comfortable and knowing their surroundings would be key to the audience of travellers.

Creating pictograms as large as this would work well, particularly in an airport, which can be very spacious. Facilities may not be in close proximity to where it is you are waiting in the airport. This would mean that the large pictograms would be eye catching on the wall and would be good at informing people who may be quite far away from them, meaning that they could spot them from a distance. This may be something that I would have to bear in mind when I am designing the pictograms for the university departments.

Peak Break Up Times

This graph represents peak break-up times according to facebook status updates and was created by David McCandless and Lee Byron. I found this piece of information design on www.informationisbeautiful.net.

As you can see from this piece of work, it is very much a fun infographic, which you can see from the typography that has been used to describe different time periods of breaking up, such as Christmas “too cruel”. Also Spring Break “spring clean” was used to describe this time.

I think the data being given is very sketchy because there is no sort of figures being given. It is all very much the months being shown in comparison to one another, as opposed to any set figures and numbers being shown to representing couples. You can see from the graph however, that there are a similar number of break-ups that occur in March time and beginning of December time.

Again, because this kind of data is quite meaningless, the lack of figures is understandable. It is simply showing the different months and when the top times are for couples breaking up according to facebook. As you can see the summer holidays and also during the festive period these appear to be the times where couples do not break up.

Centre Georges Pomidou, Paris

I found these images of the Pomidou Centre in Paris in the book “Mapping An Illustrated guide to Graphic Navigational Systems” by Roger Fawcett-Tang and William Owen. The signage system was developed by Ruedi Bauer and is based on the idea of ‘spatial explosion’ of information usually contained in a single panel. The idea of having the same words close together appearing in different languages was to express the interdisciplinarity and multi-culturalism present at the Centre Pompidou.

As you can see from the images, the signage works on both surfaces, such as banners on the side of the building, as well as non-surfaces, such as freely suspended neon typographic elements. The idea of the use of many different bright colours along with the many different words was to bring about a sense of energy and immediacy, which I certainly think the Centre does very well.

As well as the signage of typography, there are also pictograms that also are conveyed through the use of bright colours like yellow and blue. These two colours particularly compliment each other because they stand out well on each other and so remain legible. I think the colour use is key within the Pomidou because of the way that they want the visitors to feel a sense of energy from the architecture inside, which is something I think is really interesting. When looking at the project expansion from the brief that I have chosen, I think analysing the architecture that the signage will be on is very important and so I will have to bear this in mind.

Headlines as Pictograms

I found this really interesting project on www.iconglobe.net. The idea for this being that a simple application would take headlines from the BBC News and then split each word up in the headline, creating a picture from that word. I think that the design of the pictograms is a clever idea of transforming a news headline into picture form, in order to communicate in all languages where available.

I think that this would prove to be quite difficult however, as I am sure that not all words are as easy to draw as others. I think that the text is needed to run underneath the images because without this I probably would not have realised what the actual headline was. I could definitely get beer but for the traffic light picture I did not realise that this meant ‘stay’ without reading the text. Now that I know that it means ‘stay’ though, I understand what the picture is attempting to communicate because of the way that the top light, which is red on a traffic light is highlighted in white. And the red light means stop when you are driving, hence the word ‘stay’.

I also think that the consistency in the design for these pictograms is key to the reading of the headline because it is supposed to link, as it is a sentence. This has been achieved because you can see the stroke of the white lines that make up the pictogram are highlighted and it appears are of the same weight. There is also an even distribution between the curved lines and straight lines to show shape in the pictograms. I think the curved lines bring more realism to certain pictograms such as the plunger because this is what it is like in reality rather than perfectly straight. Particularly the way that they have not added any extra colour, simply sticking to black background with white line makes it look a lot more professional and clear to the audience, which I am sure is how the BBC would want to be seen.

Identity Management - University of Leeds

Having looked online at the Identity Management of the University of Leeds I found many different factors that designers must consider when creating any sort of promotional or advertising work for the university.

For example when selecting images the idea of trying to project important messages about the university is key. “Proud of it’s history and tradition; committed to excellence in all aspects of its work; modern and future focused; inspiring; professional and customer focused” name but a few of the messages the university want to convey about itself. This is something I will need to consider when creating the pictograms for the brief I have chosen.

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/identitymanagement/styles/index.htm>



As well as that, the foreword on the website showing the identity management of the university written by the Vice Chancellor Michael JP Arthur mentions the key principle of consistency in the design of work promoting the university. The Vice Chancellor says, “We are a diverse community of schools, departments, services, centres and institutes, but we are one university, and it is essential we appear this way…to give greater cohesion, consistency and professionalism to out appearance anf presentations.” Again, is definitely something I shall need to consider and implement in the pictograms I design.

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/identitymanagement/foreword.htm>

NHS Fife Pictogram Design

The Department of Strategic Clinical Change and Development at NHS Fife have developed an innovative series of electronic clinical pathways, which visualize patient movement within the hospital environment. The idea of this redesign was to get rid of the current system that used clip art to convey these different processes and to create a more appropriate set of pictograms representing different processes within a hospital. The wide range of situations included patient care, GP surgeries and primary care settings to A&E, hospital clinics and theatres.

The pictograms had to demonstrate clarity, certainty, be politically correct, have a strong visual impact and also be acceptable for people with disabilities. As you can see from the image, the set appear to have been designed so that particular pictograms can be linked together. For example all of the pictograms that have a grey background and dotted outline seem to be representing something like administration or office type work. One seems to be the internet, another a filing cabinet and another an email service. Obviously, as these are without text it just goes to show that I can understand this, so the elements of clarity and certainty are definitely within the designs. Then you have the pictograms in blue with a white background. To me, they seem to be representing some sort of procedures such as having an injection and the one in the bottom left with the female symbol I think would represent gynecology. Although I am not quite certain how they are linked, I have a good idea as to what each one means. For the pictograms with the yellow background perhaps they represent different areas in the hospital, particularly because they seem to have the sign showing the hospital on the bottom row.

In terms of the design of the pictograms and the symbols that represent each one, I think consistency has definitely been considered in order to give a strong visual impact like the designers set out to achieve. As you can see where there are people, there is always a break up between the head and the body and the shape of the arms coming off the body in a curved way is always the same too. Where there is negative space in the symbol the colour of the background always comes through, again showing consistency. As for the stroke of the lines you can see that it is more heavily weighted particularly on the symbols with the white background. For example, on the filing cabinet one and the injection one, you can see the outline of these symbols is more heavily weighted than the detail within the symbol. As mentioned before for the use of colour, you can see that the designers have linked certain symbols together through this colour useage, such as having a yellow background or a white background. This is clear to me however, for some of them I am unsure as to why they are linked but perhaps to people working in the hospital this would be very clear.

Mum's Thoughts

This is my one frame diagram of how the mind of my mum works. I have decided to use the shape of a house to fit each of her thoughts inside because I thought this would be an appropriate way of showing how she thought. The house has allowed me to split it up into three levels using the white lines because I wanted to have a hierarchy to show what the most important things are for her. So at the top is family and the cats, she is always thinking about these two things. Then next I have an image of her worrying because she is always worrying about things along with money and cleaning and maintaining of the house. These are all next in the hierarchy of her thoughts because I think her worries take over the more fun things that she enjoys to do. Then the final level shows shopping bags because obviously you have to do your shopping each week to make sure you’ve got enough food in. But she quite enjoys shopping, which is why this is alongside having a glass of wine, which most mums enjoy as well as the speech bubbles to represent socialising.

The Times iPad Graphics

Applied Works, the London based studio have created some interactive graphics to support The Times’ iPad edition launched this year. Here is a video showing the applications in action on the screen of an iPad. As you can see from the video the fact that they are interactive certainly engages with its users, the audience of The Times readers. From the examples shown, they have produced a World Cup fixture tracker, allowing viewers to find out all kinds of information about the individual matches as well as player profiles and much more. As well as that there is an information graphic depicting the North/South health divide that exists in England, one that shows the huge growth of UK national debt since 2000 and a 70th anniversary Battle of Britain timeline.

Each of the graphics has been cleverly designed to reach specific target audiences and the unique styles for each infographic can be clearly seen. I think it is particularly interesting in the way that the final example on the video of the timeline enables the reader to play the text so that somebody is reading it for you. This is a very innovative way of informing people of news as well as being interactive.

The use of colour in each example has been chosen to distinguish between various facts. An example being in the Wall of Debt, where the red coloured bricks represent the national debt, the deficit is shown by the blue coloured bricks and the green coloured bricks show the cuts. The information being depicted here is clear and easy to understand through the layout and use of colour. The interactivity engages the audience much more than a simple infographic because it allows them to play around and see for themselves how the Wall of Debt will change over the coming.

The Times: iPad infographics by Applied Works from Applied Works on Vimeo.

Remembrance Day: Where they Fell

I saw this graphic showing the number of UK war dead from 1914 – 2010 on the BBC news website. The information showing how many people from the UK had died at the bottom of the graphic reads

*Except for Iraq and Afghanistan figures do not include those on non-active service, training or in accidents. So the only figures, which do include this information, are from Iraq and Afghanistan. The layout of the piece contains the key, showing what the red circles represent on the map. The larger red circle shows a bigger number of deaths. And the smaller the red circle shows a lesser number of deaths. As you can see from the key, only the toll for 1, 400 and 800 deaths is being represented. The difference between the sizes of these circles is very distinct and possibly to scale of each other because the 400 circle does seem half the size of the 800 circle. However, it is quite difficult to tell on the map the number of deaths within particular countries such as the Balkans and man & Dhofar because of the size of the red circles here. Being slightly bigger than the 1 but significantly smaller than the 400 circles, this leaves you to only be able to hazard a guess at the number of deaths it is representing.

However, we are shown to the left of the map and key the total number of deaths within the first and the second world wars, as well as the number of deaths in wars since 1945 (so after the second world war). Again, the actual figures for this are presented inside a poppy, which is obviously larger, the more deaths that have taken place. As you can see there were many more deaths in the First World War than the Second World War, but a significantly smaller figure since 1945 in comparison to the Second World War. I think the incorporation of the poppy into the information highlights to the audience that the information is about the remembrance of people who have died at war. The poppy is such a significant symbol in today’s society that people will recognise this and so there understanding of the information should be made easier.

I think perhaps the actual countries of the map could be made darker in colour because at first I was more drawn to the negative space thinking that it was a close up map. Perhaps if the outlines of the countries were darker this would make it slightly easier to read.

Japanese Food Pictograms

I found these pictograms representing different Japanese foods on www.iconglobe.net The work was created by the designer Masaaki Hiromura for Chinese food chains. I had a go at covering up the text that showed what each one meant and found that some of them I could work out but others I could not. For example I could understand the chicken, lemon, orange and strawberry, but could not work out the eel or seaweed. I am also unsure of whether the other parts of the pictograms, which appear to look like Japanese writing actually are real words. Perhaps they are and so would make more sense to Japanese people.

I like the idea of incorporating pictograms of items of food within the symbols because for such a unique writing style in comparison to the generic alphabet the rest of the world are familiar with, I found that I could understand some examples, which I think it quite a good thing. A language that I would never be able to understand unless I learnt the language seems to have become understandable (in some of the examples) by simply incorporating images, which is quite impressive.

I think the similar style of the pictograms shows consistency, giving you the sense that they are apart of a series. I also think that the example of them on display, where they appear on a white background and are green in colour actually stands out really well. Also the idea of green brings about connotations of cleanliness, which is probably quite a good thing for food but also the idea of healthiness – that the food is healthy and good for you.

10 Levels of Intimacy in Todays Communication

I found this piece of work on www.pleaseenjoy.com and it is the work of designer Ji Lee. He investigated into how the digital age has affected the ways in which we communicate with each other and how it is a lot different with new technologies being continuously developed. He asked himself the question of whether all these new technologies actually bring us together more or infact alienate us a lot more from each other because of the nature of the communication.

I think that the pictograms he has designed captures the levels of intimacy in today’s communication quite well. One way in which the intimacy is shown is through the incorporation of the line that sometimes is shown between the two people. This distinguishes between the people being able to see each other or not, whether it be face to face or on a monitor. So out of the 10 levels on only 2 of them you can actually see the other person you are communicating with and one of them is not even face to face. I suppose this does say a lot about the communication of today and how it takes place on a much less personal level like you are hiding behind a screen or some sort of other technology.

Each of the people are of the same size and placed centrally within the coloured box, showing consistency, as well as a link between each of the pictograms that makes it clear that they are a series. I think that the text does add to the understanding of each of the images. However, I think with some thought I may have been able to work out what most of the pictograms represented, particularly because of the inclusion of the mobile, letter and speech bubble pictograms placed in the middle of the top of each box. The text does speed up this process though.

I think the use of colour within the actual pictograms is simple having the black silhouettes of the people on the white background. This contrast is clear and easy to read, making it legible for the reader. However, I am not so sure about the use of colour to represent each intimacy level. I can see with the facebook and twitter examples (level one and two), that the dark blue colour for facebook and the light blue colour for twitter actually corresponds to the colours of the social networking sites in reality. But looking at the other eight levels the colours do not seem to link with the examples and so are more likely to have been chosen for aesthetics and also to just distinguish between each intimacy level. I think that the way that the colour seems to go from one part of the colour spectrum red to blue, makes the information more aesthetically pleasing but does not add to the understanding of the pictograms.

The Apple Field Guide

I found this piece of information graphics on www.styleandflow.com In terms of the layout and choice of typeface, the piece is very clear and legible, making it pleasing to the eye. Each of the 4 examples of where you could be using your apple product are separated with a dotted line, such as The Office and The Home on the first page of information. The style looks very much like a notepad or checklist. The information being presented is very much about the designer’s opinion on the 3 apple products: the macbook; the iphone and the ipad. I think that the spacing between the information being presented is also very consistent. You can particularly see this where the text, which is all aligned centrally, is underneath the dotted line.

The pictograms that represent each of the scenarios for the 3 apple products show consistency within their design. The colour use, black and white, maintains simplicity and ease of understanding for the audience, despite the fact that some of the information seems they are more for humour rather than actual fact. An example being in The Great Outdoors, where the macbook would not be good due to the startup sound meaning bear for ‘bring it’?!

The strokes of line used within the pictograms also shows thought in the design, where the main body of the pictograms are thicker in stroke and thinner where more detail is required. The use of the colours to distinguish between the ticks and crosses adds to the understanding because generally the colour green indicates something positive like go or good and the colour red indicates something negative like stop or bad.

Motivation Animation Infographic

Here is a video I found online, which is describing the issues regarding motivation at work and results found from research into this area. It is actually really quite interesting because of the way that there is someone drawing out everything that the speaker is saying. It has obviously been sped up so that the information being drawn actually corresponds to what the man is talking about because nobody could ever draw and keep up with what someone is saying in real time. For quite a serious topic being discussed, the drawings are quite playful and cartoon like. I think that this makes the video a lot more interesting to watch though. I did also notice that when the speaker mentioned an important point, the man drawing the animation changed from using the black coloured marker to the red coloured one. Changing to such a colour certainly highlights and makes the word written in red stand out to the audience.

Toilet Symbols

I found a selection of different toilet symbols from around the world in the book “Pictograms Icons and Symbols” – A Guide to Information Graphics by Rayan Abdullah and Roger Hubner. From this selection, you can see how varied they can be but universally we can understand which one represents male and which one female.

Most of the examples here have used the general silhouette shapes of the male and female body to represent which toilet is which. This is easily distinguishable because of the dress that the woman has on and the trousers that the man is wearing. Although they have used the same idea of the silhouette, the actual styles of the design are different. Some are much more linear whereas others have a curve to the design. I personally think that they all work in identifying between the two toilets but I think the best is the design that is the cleanest and simplest one. I particularly like the bottom left designs with the black silhouette shapes on the white background, making the symbols easy to identify as well as standing out on the toilet doors.

The black on white or vice versa certainly stands out better than the example of the black silhouettes being on the brown background. This is not as clear and so would make it harder for the audience to see the signs from a distance as well as it taking some time for the audience to work out which toilet is for which person.

The symbol on the top right appears to be made from chocolate? The style of the design here is much more detailed than the others, which is not necessarily needed when trying to communicate to an audience and simplifying the information for them. I think this is quite humorous in the way that it distinguishes between the male and female by having the detailed drawings of one boy standing up and the girl sitting down. However, in terms of a piece of information design, as you can see from the other examples, creating a design that is simple and clean in appearance works much better and does not need to be so detailed when communicating a simple instruction.

Life Map CV

Here is an information graphic that I found by designer Ritwik Dey. He decided to make his life look beautiful by visualizing his CV. Firstly I think that it was a very interesting way of designing a CV because particularly in the design world you have to stand out and show you are a designer and a CV is one of those ways of showing that.

I think the colour use really separates the information. It seems that the warmer colours on the top half of the age line contains more important information compared to the colder blue colours, which appear to show more general information. For example the passing away of his father is not really something that you would ever consider putting on a CV but then again he has also called it his ‘Life Map’ and so is obviously an important moment in his life. I also found it confusing that the top half of the diagram was labeled non academic and the bottom half academic. For me, it would appear that the information being shown within the colours is the other way around.

I do feel however, that the idea of creating a document as important as a CV, whereby potential employers get an incite into your creativity, as an information graphic as a very clever idea. One, that I think would definitely make you stand out, so long as it made sense and did not confuse the reader.

My pictograms: eating; drinking; studying; socialising

I have created my own pictograms that represent eating, drinking, studying and socialising. I have tried to keep the design as simple but effective as possible. My use of colour white on black stands out well and I have aligned the images so that they are all central within the boxes in order to get consistency in the designs. Like from the previous lecture where some of the Olympic pictograms were not a full silhouette, I have tried to do this too. By separating the images I wanted to give the symbols more depth rather than them seeming very flat and 2d.

EU Budget Plans 2011

Here is an information graphic that shows the budget plan for the EU in 2011, taken from the BBC news website. The use of colour, shape and orientation has been changed to represent each figure. I don’t really think that the colours have any specific link to the areas that the show, such as a lilac colour being used for the ‘Rural Development’.

I think that the shapes of each one are quite good at showing the amount of money being funded for each matter. Obviously the larger the shape, the bigger amount of money being set aside for that particular one. An example being that for the Common Agricultural Policy 43.7bn Euros have been set aside for that, which is quite a high figure in comparison to Security and Justice being given 1.5 bn Euros. You can also see this difference between the two shapes representing each amount. The strip, which curves off to the side to lead you to the text is much thicker for the CAP than for Security and Justice, which is only very thin. I also think that the way the strips curve off to the side in order to lead you to the text works quite well because it allows more room for the written explanations and also allows the text to be placed on both sides of the diagram. If they did not curve off to the side they would all meet at the bottom and so there would much less room for the text. This would then look cluttered and much more off-putting to actually read. So in terms of aesthetics this is actually very pleasing to the eye.

Also, I think the way that the overall amount being budgeted appears right at the top of the infographic draws your eye to it and is easy to understand that this is the overall figure, simply because of it's placement on the page.

Esso Pictograms

In 1975, Esso decided to use pictograms to highlight the special services that were on offer at their petrol stations. To begin with, these pictograms were accompanied by explanatory words, which were later on not included. If the words were needed in the first place, does this not show that perhaps the diagrams were not doing their job properly and making life easier and more understandable for the audience but in fact bringing about confusion?

To look at now, without knowing what the pictograms represent, some of them I can sort of work out, but others I do not understand at all. In terms of the design, I think they have been designed very well. They are consistent with the use of the black and white colours, whether it is black on white or the other way round. I think the competent designs help you to understand the meaning for each one. You can see all the images are centralized within the black box and also appear to have equal spacing between two separatre images. There is also consistency within the same image representing something different. For example the hands are all based on the same design of the hand, despite them representing different actions.





This also reminded me of the pictograms that light up on your dashboard of your car when you are driving, such as when the petrol light comes on or when you have your handbrake on. Some you can identify them easily because you see them a lot more often than others that only occur when there is a problem. For example if there was a problem with the engine, I think if I did not check the manual then I would be confused as to what was wrong with the car by looking at the symbol. Here are some examples below from http://naomhquinn.com. Most are simple and easy to understand but there are a few I wouldn't be so sure about if they appeared on the dashboard without looking in the manual.

London Attacks

On the BBC news website, I found an account of the London bombings in 2007. Maps and diagrams show the positioning of the bombers on the tube trains and bus that were targeted as well as the area combed by forensics where the bus blast went off. Maps also inform everybody about where the different bomb blasts went off in comparison to one another.

The map showing the area affected by the blasts is quite basic in terms of how detailed it is. Road names are not on the map and neither is a scale to show how close the blasts were to one another. However, the map does contain very identifiable and well-known places on it, which give people a very good idea of the range of the blasts and whereabouts they happened. The River Thames, Regents Park and also Hyde Park are included on the map and I think they help to distinguish where the blasts occurred.

The key that shows the different lines of the tube that were affected is simple and easy to understand with the use of a distinguishable colour to represent each line. I think that there is enough information here to tell the audience the story of where all the events took place. Any more information, taking into account the size of the map, and I think this would have overcrowded the information being given and it would have been too complicated to look at and work out. By outlining where the blasts took place in a white box and making the text blue, this highlights to the audience where each blast was. It jumps off the page and does not need a lot of working out because you can understand this quite easily.





I think the layout of this information is aesthetically pleasing because of the angles created in the design, such as the more detailed image of the train between Russell Square and Kings Cross coming off the less detailed image at the top. I think this works really well. The placement of the text and the image has been done in a way that neither collide and so it is pleasing to the eye and also the text is legible.