GDS Digital

GDS Digital is a company that specialises in making info graphics for websites and articles. Below is some of their work I believe is a good example of data visualisation.

The World's Leading Companies


This graphic was created for Business Management and looks at the top companies in the world on the the Forbes Global 2000 list and breaks them down into industry and sectors, looking at how much money is made in which fields.

The large yellow line down the graphic isn't there as a margin between the 2 columns but actually part of  the diagram at the top for the banking sector, demonstrating the grip the financial sector has on the world. This can be seen online along with it's accompanying article on Business Week: http://www.busmanagement.com/news/the-worlds-leading-companies/

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

http://www.ngoilgas.com/news/oil-spill-latest-the-cost-of-clumsiness/

The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook

For the Imbalance brief I have been looking at data graphics. Below are a set done by Matt McKeon, a developer working with the Visual Communication Lab at IBM Research. They document the how Facebook's privacy policies have changed over the years and how newer default settings grant access to different data sets on your profile:

A scary thought indeed to see how your data has spread through the years, however a nice example of data visulisation. Simple, effective, clean.

An interactive version of this can be seen on McKeon's website: http://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/

Voting Turnout – Age & Gender

While researching election turnout, I came across a study by the University of Essex looking at voter turnout by age and gender. I thought it would be interesting to include to see if comparisons can be made between different variables of voting groups.

(Available from: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/Expodata/Spreadsheets/D5204.xls)

Voting Turnout Statistics

As one of my FMP briefs I have chosen to do ISTD's Imbalance brief from this year's award briefs. I have chosen to do this brief as it provides a good opportunity to work with a political theme within my work.

Following this year's General Election I have decided to look at voting turnouts and the idea of 'my vote doesn't count' attitude towards voting. As this is an ISTD brief it asks for a typographical interpretation of fact, so I want to also couple this with statistics to give me the opportunity to incorporate some information/data graphics into the project. I have started looking at turnout results for the UK general election to get me started with some figures to work with.

Here are turnout results for the UK General Election from 1918 to 2001.

(From the House of Commons Library Research Paper 04/61 - 'UK Election Statistics 1918-2004', page 17. Available from http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/rp2004/rp04-061.pdf)

Below are turnout statistics since 1945, covering up to the 2005 election.

(From International IDEA (The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance). Available from: http://www.idea.int/vt/country_view.cfm?CountryCode=GB#parl)

A lot of the official documentation from these sites hasn't been updated to include this year's election but BBC is reporting 65.1% turnout. (Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8672976.stm. I feel this number is safe to trust due to the Electoral Commission suggesting the BBC as a source while they verify results themselves: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/home)

I now have General Election turnout results from 1918 up until this year's 2010 election. The 1918 election was the first election after the The Representation of the People Act 1918 that widened the right to vote to virtually all men and women over 30 that met certain minimum property qualifications and so is seen as a milestone year from the political process in this country, however I will be concerning myself with the results from 1928 onwards where women's suffrage was brought inline with that of males,  enabling all citizens 21 and over to vote – a truer definition of electoral quality.

'Contemporary' Victorian Style

While looking at Victorian styles, I don't want to be producing work that looks old, just merely hints at it. Hammerpress, a letterpress & design studio, demonstrates the principle of taking Victorian inspired elements, such as decorative boarders, mixed up typefaces and a generally busy feel and managing to make that look contemporary.

If you want to see more of their work you can visit their website here.

H.G. Wells Book – Cover Research

Ann Veronica

The History of Mr Polly

Kipps

Love & Mr. Lewisham

Tono-Bungay

Ambrose/Harris: Layout

I wanted to use the LCC: Public Arts Brief to learn more about type, layout and grids. I wanted to get down to the nitty-gritty of it all. Joe Gilmore suggested I look at this book and learn about baseline grids.

This book was an excellent resource for everything type & layout related. It had sections on the golden ratio and different types of symmetric and isometric layouts but it's section on baseline grids was worth it's weight in gold.

Racing Game Logos

I have also decided to look at some racing game/simulator logos. These companies will bring a game out fairly regularly and along with it comes updated graphics and logos. These game studios also have a shorter history than alot of proper car manufacturers or organisations and so have less heritage or old logo to preserve that may be holding them back from doing a completely new design.


Forza

Forza Motorsport

Forza Motorsport 2

Forza Motorsport 3

Gran Turismo