info-graphic

I chose to do my info graphic on Twin Atlantic. Being the only band I've seen live more than once and knowing Ross (the bassist, and his sister Lucy for many years) it seemed an obvious choice.
After spending too long looking at facts, figures, information and statistics and not coming up with any decent ideas, I decided to re-search the bands fans myself. I started by looking on fans Facebook pages and trying to find things they had in common that related to the band.
After reading an article about Twin Atlantic, this quote really stuck out:
"fans are already showing up at gigs with their logo and lyrics tattooed to their bodies."
So I looking at a few profiles and noticed the amount of tattoos their fans have, not only this, but the amount of lyrical quote tattoos the fans have too. In particular, twin Atlantic lyrical quotes.
I then started to note the actual quotes and the amount of fans I found with these particular tattoos.
When it came to actually designing my info graphic, it seemed most fitting to use a map of the UK, because the fans profiles I viewed were all from UK. I wanted to make my info graphic really typographic (using different script fonts) to get across the style of the tattoos and the feeling of rock/grunge that the fans seemed to have.
I also decided to take note of the fans ages and genders and where in the UK they are from. Having gathered this information I then created the key. For the text outside the map I wanted to use a font that would relate to the band, therefore linking the band and fans. So I chose a loosely kerned sans serif font with a tall cap height (similar font used for Twin Atlantic's logo and on Cd's/merchandise)
I decided to include the banner at the top to highlight the "fans tattooed" because the banner style reminds me of old English style, relating back to the style of the old map and tattoos.
For the guitars in the "age" section of the key, I tried to use the idea of different styles of guitars that relate to different age groups, the acoustic being the youngest, the flying v the teenagers/20's (most popular) and the Les Paul to indicate the 40+ age group. Overall my info graphic design was aimed to be mainly typographic (because I prefer the look of type than charts or graphs)

Info graphics

In terms of understanding, this info graphic, it uses far too much text to convey information. For me the clear focus is the illustrations and the text is an afterthought. The only parts for me that are easy to understand are the Top section with the glasses. I’m not sure if this is because there is clear hierarchy here (the percentages) or because the text itself is larger therefore stands out more? My eyes are immediately drawn to the illustrations, although only 2 of 5 of them are easy to understand on first glance rather than reading the small text.
From looking at the info graphic and not reading all the small print, the only thing I was able to learn was the per cent of women (much more) compared to men working as librarians. Also the per cent of librarians at different ages was easy to understand too- both due to use of illustrations to help me learn.
The designer targets and engages the user (people who read a lot/librarians themselves) by using mainly text to convey information. The use of the serif font may be deliberate to convey classical style associated with older books and the sans serif used to convey more modern style (aimed at younger people) The relationship between the user and the designer is important too because the designer has purposely designed the info graphic to look the style of a book/ the style a librarian would be interested in.
The format of the design is an online graphic and the designer has used space quite badly I think. There is far too much text included in the info graphic and not enough space and images (appropriate for target audience but difficult to understand at a glance) There is no clear hierarchy (only 2 fonts used) and the size and weight doesn’t vary greatly. There should definitely be more space used throughout the design to break up the information a bit.
Typography is used to communicate meaning because the difference in serif and sans serifs used to convey older/classical style and the new/modern styles. Hierarchy is used well at the top of the poster and seems to get less obvious the further down the page.
Imagery is used to communicate meaning because the style of the glasses used in the illustration at the top are quite stereotypical of the age groups being analysed, therefore making it easy to understand at a glance. The images used are symbolic. The designers choice affects my understanding of the graphic mainly through imagery.
The same 4 colours are used throughout the info graphic and are quite muted and reserved (librarian style) The red stands out most for me and is confusing to distinguish between the red of the brain and the red of the female per cent of librarians at the bottom of page.
Type and imagery work quite badly together to communicate meaning -imagery communicates meaning over type. Although the meaning (librarian/classic style) is obvious, the type as a whole doesn’t really convey this.
The style of the illustrations is simple, yet effective. It’s good that the graphics are simple because it makes it easier to understand. There is no clear historical movement influence. But the design style is definitely simplified (stereotyped)
The design process would involve research – talking to librarians/questions/researching info graphics and their styles. Researching online (statistics from websites) human anatomy (brain), librarians style (stereotypes- glasses) The design concept was to be aimed at or appeal to librarians.

journey