My lovely book, Information Is Beautiful, is out in the UK (Amazon).
To celebrate, I’ve teamed up with HarperCollins to give away five signed copies.
MY LOVELY BOOKS!
LIMITED EDITION PRINTS
Category Archives: Information Design
Photographers Rights In The UK
Here in the UK, there’s been a recent spate of harassment and even arrests of innocent photographers by police invoking anti-terrorism laws.
So we’ve compiled an easy-to-read wallet-sized infosheet of photographer legal rights here in the UK (PDF). It’s designed by David McCandless and Joe Swainson. The information is sourced directly from the UK Metropolitan Police and distilled from other bust cards out there.
Download and print the PDF, cut it out and stick it in your wallet or purse. If you’re stopped by police for taking photos, whip out the sheet and instantly check your rights.
Of course, it’s never a good plan to antagonise the politzei. We hear they’re particularly unimpressed by having ‘infosheets’ waved in their faces. If you are stopped for suspicious photography, a good response is usually something like:
“I’m an amateur photographer taking pictures for fun. Would you like to see them officer?”
NOTE: Note Saturday 23rd Jan 2010, there’s a Mass Photo Gathering in Trafalgar Square in London 12 Noon to protest photographers rights. It’s organized by PhotographerNotATerrorist.org
If you can help us with photographers rights cards for other countries, such as the US, please get in touch. Thanks!
:: source Metropolitan Police Guidance To Officers, Metropolitan Police: What is Stop and Search?, Sirimo.co.uk: UK Photographers Rights, and PhotographerNotATerrorist.org: Bust Card.
Also posted in Infosheets, Political 23 Comments
Win Signed Copies of the Visual Miscellaneum!
The Visual Miscellaneum sold out in North America over Christmas. Woo! Thanks to all those who bought a copy.
Thanks to my publishers HarperCollins, I now hold what could be the last five copies of the first edition.
I’d like to sign them and give away to you, lovely readers. Before this site goes all Information Is Beautiful on your ass.
To enter the prize draw, just leave a comment below.
On Saturday 16th January I’ll pick five winners at random and contact them via email.
(BTW Apols for the lack of updates recently. I’ve been working on some cool new stuff to be released v. soon).
UPDATE: Thank you for all your entries and the lovely comments. I have been blushing continuously all week. Comments are closed now. But I’ll be picking winners on Monday 18th.
Also posted in Fun, The Visual Miscellaneum Comments closed
2012: The End Of The World?
A piece exploring the myths around 2012, Mayan Prophecy, geomagnetic reversal, The Long Count, consciousness shifts, Hunab Ku, galactica alignment, the Precession Of The Equinoxes, rogue planet Nibiru, solar storms, pole shifts, timewave zero, the return of Quetzalcoatl and THE END OF THE WORLD December 21st 2012!
UPDATE 1 (8 Dec 09): There’s now a Portuguese version of 2012 (thanks Ricardo Vieira) and a French version DEUUUUXMIIIILLEDOUUUUZE (thanks to Olivier!)
Skeptical Sources: Wikipedia, Associated Press, Astronomical Answers: University of Utrecht, The New York Times, John Hoopes on Tribe.Net, Skeptical Inquirer, GSA Bulletin, NASA, Nature
Believer sources: Timewave Zero, 2012: Dire Gnosis, RealitySandwich.com, 2012:TheBook, Calleman.com, Institute For Human Continuity (fake website for 2012 film).
Explore the sources In this Google doc
Also posted in De-Hyping, Environment, Esoteria, Group MInd, Media, Movies, Skeptics vs Believers, sci-fi 109 Comments
Interesting, Easy, Beautiful, True?
I’ve been doing a few interviews to promote my book, The Visual Miscellaneum, and a question keeps coming up. “What makes good information design?â€
This is the point where I go a bit glassy. To be honest, I don’t know. I am unschooled in both information (I was a college dropout) and design (I am a self-taught designer). I’ve never really thought about it.
So, I made a nice cup of tea and had a think and came up with this.
To me, these seem like the key components of a good infographic / data visualisation / piece of information design.
- Information needs to be interesting (meaningful & relevant) and have integrity (accuracy, consistency).
- Design needs to have form (beauty & structure) and function (it has to work and be easy to use).
You may disagree. I welcome your input. I may not have got it right.
Something surprised me about doing this though.
In information design, it seems, if you have just two elements, you get something tolerable and cool. i.e.
- integrity + form = eye candy
- interestingness + function = experiment
(I’m not entirely sure about these combos)
But if you combine three elements without the fourth, things suddenly FAIL:
- interesting subject, solid information, looks great, but is hard to use = useless.
- amazing data, well designed, very easy to read but isn’t that interesting = boring
What do you think? This is a work in progress. Can you help me shape this a bit? Have I missed anything?
Also posted in Graph, Group MInd 87 Comments
Four Infographical Morsels No. 5
Tide Prediction
I liked the look of this one from Wilfred Castillo. Can’t really perceive its function? But love the detail.
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6 Comments