Art heists infographic

Hey bloggers!

Today I want to share with you my art heists infographic. The goal was doing a graphic which explained a sequence of chronological events, in this case the art robbery in the Isabella Gardner's Museum at Boston in 1990. Thus, the information should be explained the more graphically possible in order to make the reader get the process the thieves followed to perpetrate this heist.

Structure:

So, I thought it would be interesting to depict this sequence of events through a footsteps path in order to follow one of the main principles of graphic desginers,which is to direct the eyes. 

Style: 

I did a little bit of research on another information graphics related with crimes and also art in order to get inspiration.

I got to the conclusion that a sober backgournd was the most suitable for this topic. I also wanted to look for a sort of "detective", "investigation" style, that's why I placed the target icon in front of the museum's image and also why I did a kind of radar location of the robbery place.

Errors:

The bottom part is the one of which I'm less convinced about, because I think that the bar chart doesn't really fit the other styles in the graphic- Perhaps I should have unified this a little bit more. I also know that I failed in the organization and the hierarchy of the graphic, because, although the initial idea of the footsteps path was good I didn't made it work in a such efficient way :(

I'd like to hear what you think from this graphic, because I think the initial idea was not bad, but I'm aware that there's a lot to improve! Help me with your feedback!

Sara.

Airplane crashes

Hey bloggers!

Today I bring you another infographic that I made at class. This one is about airplane crashes in the U.S. The purpose was doing a graphic based on an Excel document with many data about all the airplane crashes in the world since the beginning of the last century. I though it would be interesting to focus only in one country and that's the reason why I chose the United States. 

Who could it be addressed? I think this graphic would be interesting for being addressed to the American audience, probably could be publishable in a newspaper beside an article explaining the dramatic consequences of plane crashes. I've also made the graphic quite simple and understandable for everybody (maps and linear graphics are very familiar to everyone), so I think it could aim to every American adult.

Colors:

As the topic was quite serious I wanted the graphic to focus on the information that was given rather than on the colors. That's why I chose a neutral background, to give seriousness and formality to the graphic. I've also chose not very bright, saturated colors on the maps because as I said I wanted to give it a serious, more journalistic style. 

Fonts: 

As for the fonts, I chose this neutral, very simple and plain black font for the data and the explanations and this purple more impacting font to catch a little bit more the attention of the reader. 

Organization:

I though it would be interesting to cover the main questions that an American adult could answer himself in front of this topic. That's why I distributed the work into three different graphics. First, a map of where had most accidents happened (concretely in which State) and where not. Secondly, a line graphic in which we could see the evolution of the amount of airplane crashes from 2000 to 2009, that answers to the question: In which years have there been more plane accidents? And lastly, in which has died more people, focusing on the three "worst" States that have suffered most fatalities in their plane crashes.

Style: 

In order to give it a more dynamic style, because I was aware that if not the graphic could seem quite dull, I've found nice to connect all the graphics with a plane icon and its fly path. With this I also aimed to follow one of the principles of graphic designers that is directing the eyes. This way the reader is given an extra guidance through the graphic and the order in which the information has to been processed is clearly established.

Errors:

I'm not quite sure about the distribution of space in this graphic, because at first I thought it was good, but now that I see it again I find that there is many blank space and that the text explanation in the second graphic looks like if it was floating there for no reason. I guess I should have managed that better.

I hope you've like it and I hope you can leave me your suggestions and opinions on my graphic!

Sara.

My CV

Hey bloggers!

Today I want to share with you my CV project, as we did in class a task consisting on represent your CV (or in my case how I wanted to be my CV in the future) in a graphical way.

Style and colors chosen:

As I had previously looked for other CVs graphically depicted on Google, I did realized that the more easier and clarified the information was, the more understandable was the CV. So, I've chosen blue colors (light blue for the background and navy blue for stressing on some titles and graphics) because they look very serious and professional and there are also very quiet colors that don't look too loud. I also complement the CV with white, as I think it complements very much the blues in this task of making the CV look professional. In the end, I picked up orange for the title in which there is my name and for cheering up the CV, because if not it could look too boring. Orange is a color which transmits positivism and energy and I think that this two adjectives suit my personality, so I would like to transmit it too in my CV!

Distribution:

I organized my CV in: Education and Training, Work Experience, Languages, Interests, Skills, Desired Employment and Contact Me. 

I though that locating the Contact Me on the upper part was essential so the interested people who could possibly hire me, had no troubles in finding my email, mobile phone or so. I also like the idea of attempting to do a time-line with my education. I don't know if this aim is clearly fulfilled and it looks like this in the graphic, but this was the initial purpose! As I don't have work experience I tried to make how I'd like my CV to be like in the future. So I though that it could be easier for the reader to identify the places in which I "have" worked if there were if a map. As for the Desired Employment (in which title now I've seen there's a spelling error!), I though that it would be more clear if I organized the fields in which a journalist can work in a wheel. 

Errors:

Looking at it again, I'm not very happy of how the Interests part looks. I think the "comic style" of this smiling face doesn't really suit the other part of the graphic. When I did it I was thinking in how to depict my interests and I though it would be interesting to represent it in a human brain, but as I didn't know how to draw a brain I drew this possibly in a more "childish" style. I also don't like the right-bottom part, the Skills one, because I think that the last rectangle looks like floating there for no reason at all. I should have though in how to organize this in a more effective way.

I want to know your opinion about it! So please leave a comment below and tell me what I can change in order to make this infographic better!

Thank you for reading,

Sara.

First infographic ever made

Hey bloggers!

Here there is the first infographic I made with InDesign! 

The point was making an infographic that showed graphically the distribution of the Solar System and its planets and also show some information of the International Astronomical Union. 

My work was clearly not very well. I tried to depict the information in a representative way to make it more realistic and interesting but I failed on making the graphic attractive. It looks very dense as I charged too much the page with information! I think I should have organized better the text, with subtitles and grouping the similar topics, because if not is too heavy for read it. The reader would easily get tired of reading all the information. However, I think that the idea of representing the background like the outer space looks nice and gives the infographic a very eye-catching style!

I would like to hear what you think about this infographic and if you could give some advice on how ameliorate it, it would be great!

Sara.

But, how we get started?

Hey bloggers!

In today's post I want to share with you how you can get started in this world of creating infographics. Mastering some programs like Adobe InDesign which enable you to create amazing infographics is crucial, but also difficult at the beginning. That's why we, at the Graphic Design course, started with basic exercises in order to learn how to deal with the pen tool. The pen tool is a basic staple to create good infographics because (and this is a VERY important thing) the more visual an infographic is, the more likely that the information is going to be perceived and processed by the reader. And how could be more visual than drawing your own figures for your infographic? I have to admit that at the beginning the pen tool was a nightmare for me, so don't pay much attention of the quality of the figures I did, but on the process that it's behind. You'll need lots and lots of concentration of what you're doing and also precision, but it's known worlwide: PATIENCE and PRACTISE is the key to improve in everything!

Here I leave you the exercise we did, in case you want to practise on your own.

Good luck!
Sara.