blog

Out of context: Reply #37328

  • Started
  • Last post
  • 76,742 Responses
  • ********
    0

    For Rand...

    1) Can you give me a bit of background about yourself and the kind of design work you do?

    My name is Paul Macgregor and I'm a graphic designer and web developer. Originally from Scotland, I'm currently living in Los Angeles helping to set up a new office for my London based employer, Jam. There I conceive and develop online creative campaigns, primarily for the film industry, including websites, games, media and viral. In addition to my online work I like to create logos, posters, album covers and other print work, either self initiated or for friends and family.

    2) Briefly, what was your 'day in the life' project about?

    19/02/08 is simply a graphical account of my day at work on that date. It came about soon after timesheets were introduced in the office and I became interested in creating a more honest and visually exciting representation of my day.

    3) Once you'd decided on a system for representing the information - ie colours for activities, hours in the day - were you surprised with how the graphic looked?

    I think I was certainly lucky that the hours I spent in the office that
    day, when represented in a circular graphic (from 9am to 9pm full circle) made quite a pleasing shape. But I had no pre-conceived notion of how I was going to represent the data I collected, so there were no real surprises.

    4) What do you think you've learned from the project and/or how might it
    influence or inspire future work?

    I've learnt that a simple idea, when given a nice colour palette and an
    audience, can prove quite popular. This popularity however brings an
    > inevitable backlash. As my friend commented recently on a similar piece of work, 'Is this more stuff where data and stats are used to create something utterly meaningless and shallow, because it looks cool?' I can't help but agree with the sentiment.

    5) What is it about creating circular info graphics like this that you think designers find interesting at the moment?

    Designers are concerned with visualising data and the circle is one of the
    most immediately recognisable forms there is. It makes sense to combine the two. Perhaps the increased popularity with such projects is a result of easier access to data. The internet can now provide you with statistical information on just about anything, from song lyrics, to the number of people killed each year by a certain disease. Designers will always be interested in re-packaging that information in a graphical form.

    ********
    0Permalink
    UpvoteDownvote
    Flag
    • lol, what a nob.
      ********
    • well doneNotByHand
    • I know everything now :PJaline
    • knobJnr_Madison
    • lol, was that rasko that said that?Jnr_Madison
    • i now
      ********
    • nah, kelpie.
      ********
    • btw I think the interview is fine, I was just calling you a knob.Jnr_Madison
    • where was this published? also, it was good to see your infographic in data flow.emukid
    • it hasn't been yet. should be in computer arts in a couple of weeks though...
      ********
    • the dizzy heights.
      ********
    • actually, not knobbish at all
      ********
    • pffft
      ********
    • hahahahahaha.kelpie
    • Fascinating. Could you now make a bar graph and tell us about that please?
      ********
    Show [[ numHiddenNotes ]] more notesAdd Note
    SaveCancel

View thread