coolinfographics.com

Considering that I have to start producing final resolutions for my 'What is a Line?' brief I thought I would start to look at some pieces of information graphics that could inspire me. I visited the website coolinfographics.com and came across a few interesting designs that I liked.

ONE:
Underskin is an infographic that traces the routes of eight different systems within the body (Digestive, Respiratory, Arterial, etc.), and highlights the major connection points. I really like this because even though the composition is in no way similar to the original loop design, you instantly know where the inspiration has come from. It's amazing that even though the design is just coloured lines and circular 'stops', the message is incredibly clear.







TWO:

The State of the Internet. An infographic with a twist, moving imagery. I really like the idea and the video flows effortlessly. The colours used are minimal but effective. If I had one criticism it is that the type moves a little too fast, and it is sometimes difficult to take it all in without pausing the video to catch up.

THREE:
Online daters should no longer be considered a desperate minority that trolls the web for love. In fact, a fascinating infographic from Online Schools reveals the truth about online dating — it’s booming and might even be bigger than porn. Per the graphic — which pulls data from a number of sources, including Reuters and The Washington Post — online dating is worth more than one billion dollars per year, with the mobile phone dating market worth $550 million. Sadly, we all seem to be misrepresenting ourselves to attract an online mate. Men lie about their age, height and income, while women distort the truth about their weight, physical build and age. Though that doesn’t appear to stop online daters from marrying much faster than their offline counterparts, especially should the couple in question have met on eHarmony.

Tarantino Posters

I just love it when somebody takes a film or a TV series and makes their own posters promoting them. Here I found a designer who has taken all of Quentin Tarantinos films and made his own version of the promotional poster. Although the standard may not be quite as high as other pieces I have seen, the idea is certainly effective. My favourite one would have to be the 'Jackie Brown' one, mainly because of the subtlety involved. The way he used a 'paper plane' floating across the page, whilst at the same time incorporating the original blue and yellow colourscheme used on 'Jackies' uniform in the film. Also the perspective used is in incredibly interesting, the way he has created depth of field and almost two levels is incredibly effective.

Nazario Graziano

This is an artist who I just stumbled across, but as soon as I saw some of his work I couldn't help but realise how similar he is to one of my favourite designers: Eduardo Recife. He combines collages and type, and often throws in blocks of colour to emphasise his ideas. I really love this approach and would love to create something similar myself.His work just seems to have so much depth and texture. This is probably achieved through his use of different stocks and the fact that you will not find one piece of white space on any of his pieces.

Will Robson Scott

'In Dogs we Trust'

Home Grown

Over the half term holidays we were told to visit some exhibitions and expand our knowledge of art. At the 'Urbis' gallery in Manchester there was a show on the world of rap and hip-hop. From the outset this seemed no use to me and I considered not going, however I am glad I did because I managed to capture some very interesting images. Around the exhibition was a lot of album art work, some of which was incredibly graphic and useful. Another useful aspect was the photography featured. There were a lot of portrait pieces but also a lot of street photography, something which would have been useful a few weeks ago in my digital photography elective.






The images above show some of the ways in which the exhibition was laid out that I particularly liked. It was as if the rooms flowed into one another, through the medium of the pictures on the walls. From the moment you walked up the stairs and saw the display board right in front of you, it was obvious what the show was all about and what was waiting in store. The use of collage and graffiti provided an interesting combination and something that now I know works, may look into in the future. Below are images of actual graphic design and photography that I saw and liked.




Photographers I discovered by visiting this exhibition include: Michael Antoniou, Jake Green and Will Robson Scott.

Up In The Air

Indie Wire interviewed the filmmaker, Jason Reitman and asked this about the film titles:

When did you come up with the title sequence; it perfectly sets the tone for the movie. What was your goal there?

“I figured you put a camera in a plane, you put it up in the air, you point down, you get aerial footage, right? I really thought it would be that simple. It was so complicated. Every time you see aerial footage in a movie it’s from a helicopter at 12,000 ft. To get it from 25,000 ft, first we went up with a jet and we had a camera that was going through this bubble system, except the optics weren’t good enough and atmosphere was giving us trouble. Then we went up with a propeller plane and the pilot had to wear an oxygen mask to get up that high; we took a camera out on a wing, we went digital instead of film, and then the camera would not go straight down, so they’d have to put the plane into a dive to get the camera to go down. I mean it was just like unreal how hard it was to get this footage. But I’m really happy with the results and of course it made for fun opening titles.”

Tom Eckersley

Tom Eckersley was born in Lowton, Lancashire in 1914. Just five minutes away from where I was born. He worked continuously from the 1940's to the 1980's and created many memorable posters on a wide range of topics and themes. However all of his works managed to maintain the same sense of style. He used bold colours and shapes and played around with layering to create alot of depth and texture in his compositions. It was an approach that was popular among many designers in the sixties but somehow Eckersley managed to keep his ideas original and in return his work has become iconic.

HP

I love this set of ads put together by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners for the HP Retail Publishing group. The illustrations were created by Ryan Meis (also of Lab Partners fame) and later rendered in 3d by Australian design firm Electric Art.


I really like these pieces, partly because they remind me of Johnny Kelly's work. An artist whom I created a post on at the very beginning of the year.

TV Posters

Graphic artist Albert Exergian has created a bunch of minimalistic posters for some of television’s most popular shows. And while these aren’t as conceptually clever as others I've seen before, I can still appreciate many of these. Below is a small example of the collection:

My personal favourite is the design for 'Six Feet Under'. This is most probably because it is my favourite television programme, however the overall feel is
very sombre and one hundred per cent true to the show. The black and grey colour scheme and the inclusion of the crow, which features in many aspects of the programme, are spot on.