Infographics - when not to use pie charts

Pie charts

Pie charts can make data really difficult to interpret, particularly when 2 sets of data need to be compared, when shown as a 3D pie, or when too many figures need to be shown.

This image below is a good example of when not to use pie charts. It needs a key, and is difficult to compare the data from both years.

http://io9.com/these-charts-will-make-you-want-to-throw-your-televisio-1741802688 (article) and original source http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/diversity-directors-tv-amc-fx-hbo-netflix-showtime-1201633122/

The data relates to the number of programs produced by each TV network over 2 years, and whether they were male or female, white or non-white.

Style and tone

Questions to answer before designing:

1 - What is the information trying to show? (factual)

Highlight the vast differences between men and women, white and non-white directors for the US TV networks.

2 - What is it trying to say? (emotive)

That these differences are wrong, there should be much more of a balance. It is trying to make people agree with the author's point of view and make them feel angry or appalled.

3 - Is there a hook?

I decided to use the heading "Racial and gender inequality in US TV networks". Words highlighting the emotive subject of gender and race will automatically draw attention.

4 - How else can you visualise the data?

I wanted to make the actual figures virtually unnecessary, and make it easier to compare the figures at a glance.

Choosing colours to represent white and non-white people is quite emotive in itself. I didn't want to choose white and black, as not everyone who is non-white is black. I thought about using grey for non-white, however this could infer that non-white people are grey/dull in personality, which I wanted to avoid. I therefore decided to use shades of grey for both categories. I wanted the inequality of both sex and ethnicity to be the defining feature of the infographic, so used flat bright colours with lots of contrast.

The typeface choice was easy - Helvetica. I selected this ubiquitous font as it did not want anything to distract from the shocking data.

I wanted to represent the data with icons, so created them in Illustrator with shape, shape builder and pathfinder.

I created the first set of icons with the height being mathematically proportional to the figures, by creating the icons and changing the height in pixels to the number of directors. When all were created, I then selected them all and scaled them to size as one, thus maintaining their proportions. 

When I began creating the next section, the absolute numbers were smaller. I could have used percentages, but that would have distorted the figures, making the small networks appears as it they had the same numbers of directors as the smaller ones, which I wanted to avoid. I therefore decided to represent the directors with an icon per director.

For the final section, I used area so used the square root of the number of directors, creating blocks for each one, before scaling them all together, to retain proportionality.

Final complete infographic is shown below.

Waterstones campaign

I decided to discard my ideas for a bag for life as I wasn't happy with how they were developing. I have revisited my concepts for a scratch and sniff gift tag, which I have developed further and will be continuing with for this assignment.

Infographic design

I chose to design an infographic called sourcing sustainable fish. I researched the sort of information that is readily available online regarding this subject so I could decided which aspects to include.

I found links to various useful websites:

http://www.kensingtonfinefish.co.uk/guide-to-sustainable-fishing/

The Marine Stewardship Council
https://www.msc.org/cook-eat-enjoy/fish-to-eat

Infographic with relevant information on from Sainsbury's http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/media/784088/our_future_with_fish_infographic.jpg

Which supermarkets are best at supplying sustainable seafood: http://www.mcsuk.org/what_we_do/Fishing+for+our+future/Supermarket+survey/Supermarket+Seafood+Survey+-+full+story

Pocket Good Fish Guide http://www.mcsuk.org/downloads/fisheries/PocketGoodFishGuide_2015_high.pdf

Sales revenue of sustainable fish in the UK 2003-2013: http://www.statista.com/statistics/282514/sales-revenue-of-sustainable-fish-in-the-united-kingdom-uk-since-2003/

However, against the major driver of health, there are several reasons cited for not eating fish. Most commonly mentioned is price, with 33 per cent of UK adults in our survey saying that ‘concern over the rising price of fish’ had encouraged them to eat less fish in the past year, and 46 per cent saying that cost is a barrier to eating fish in general. Other significant barriers to eating fish are lack of recipe knowledge (34 per cent), lack of availability of fresh fish in local shops (28 per cent), lack of time to prepare from scratch (28 per cent), ‘not liking the smell it makes’ (24 per cent)1 and difficulties planning ahead for meals (17 per cent). - See more at: http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/1488/uk-fish-consumption-trends-and-predictions/#sthash.YVIYT8GJ.dpuf

However, against the major driver of health, there are several reasons cited for not eating fish. Most commonly mentioned is price, with 33 per cent of UK adults in our survey saying that ‘concern over the rising price of fish’ had encouraged them to eat less fish in the past year, and 46 per cent saying that cost is a barrier to eating fish in general. Other significant barriers to eating fish are lack of recipe knowledge (34 per cent), lack of availability of fresh fish in local shops (28 per cent), lack of time to prepare from scratch (28 per cent), ‘not liking the smell it makes’ (24 per cent)1 and difficulties planning ahead for meals (17 per cent). - See more at: http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/1488/uk-fish-consumption-trends-and-predictions/#sthash.YVIYT8GJ.dpuf

Statistics to use - factors impacting the amount of fish people eat (use for IG), and projected increase in fish consumption.
http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/1488/uk-fish-consumption-trends-and-predictions/


I decided the areas I wanted to include in my infographic would be:
Fish in danger and alternatives
Best supermarkets for selling sustainable fish
Increase in sales of sustainable fish
What stops people eating fish

POP influenced graphic design

Pop art was a movement which started in the UK in the mid 1950's and was fuelled by the LSD-infused flower powered hippies of the 1960s. Pop art was a rebellion against abstract expressionism and a desire to return to popular culture inspired art. It often contained photography, comic-style illustrations and references to TV. Warhol in particular, tried to make his art look like it had been created by a machine. Inevitably, pop culture influenced graphic design.

Warhol, self generated photo, MOMA New York

In 1969 The Beatles film and soundtrack Yellow Submarine were released, designed by Heinz Edelmann (below).

Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was another example (Blake and Hamilton) of Pop influenced design, from 1967:

Contemporary examples of pop graphic design from advertising are shown below.

Late modernism

Massimo Vignelli

Massimo Vignelli (1931-2014) was the foremost designer from the very late International Style or Modernist movement. Originally training as an architect, he was famous for saying “if you can design one thing, you can design everything”. He was a staunch supporter of the rational style and objectivity of the Russian Constructivists. He had a profound effect on corporate identity design in the US from the late 1960s.
He and 5 others set up Unimark International in 1965. It expanded rapidly and had several offices across the US and Europe. He is credited as main influencer in Helvetica being the most popular typeface of the International Style.

His most famous work was to redesign the NYC subway map in 1972. He was heavily influenced by the UK's London Underground map.

Along with Bob Noorda, Vignelli created the information graphics for the NYC subway (below).

In 1967 Vignelli designed the corporate identity for American Airlines which is still in use today.

Design Sponge has the following to say: One of the most well-known designers to popularize the “grid” technique of graphic design, the idea of structure informed much of his life’s work. Vignelli believed that design should be functional above all, following a strict stylistic guideline of grid marks, primary colors and typographic classics.

Referenceshttp://www.vignelli.com
http://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/Historical_Maps