Abstract
Synopsis and Strong Points
This book is a curated collection of 59 information graphics selected from print publications and 10 interactive graphics drawn from websites. There is a short foreword by the series editor Gareth Cook and an introduction by former Talking Heads band member David Byrne. Each graphic is accompanied by a two- to three-sentence explanation by the graphic designers. There is no other explanatory, critical, or contextual writing in the volume. In the words of David Byrne, the idea is that the “geeky rapture” of information graphics can draw a natural audience of coffee table owners, graphic designers, and other aesthetically inclined nerds.
The book is divided into four sections—three for print graphics and one concluding chapter in which interactive graphics are presented in static form. The first section under the heading “You” purports to depict “the human scale.” It includes “The Quantified Self” from the arguable leader of the quantified self hobbyists, Nicholas Felton, as well as a number of less clearly human-centric graphics such as “From Teaspoon to Gallon and Back Again,” a volume conversion chart by Shannon Lattin, and “The Four Kinds of Dog,” by John Tomanio that charts the genetic family tree of dog breeds.
The second section, “Us,” is more thematically cohesive with graphics that revolve around demography, social problems, and cultural expression. The best graphics in this section are “Gay Rights in the U.S., State by State,” by Fielding Cage and Gabriel Dance; “Sexism Visualized,” by Brian McGill; “What Sandy Left Behind,” by Archie Tse; and “Just How Fast is Bolt,” by Graham Roberts and Kevin Quealy. This section is the largest and contains graphics that could usefully structure classroom discussions about a number of contemporary sociological issues such as gay rights, campaign finance, inequalities, education, gun rights, and media depictions of cultural events such as the Oscars and the Superbowl.
The third section, “Material,” is shorter and the most editorially coherent, focusing on the natural world and technology. It seemed like some of the graphics from the “You” section would have fit better in the “Material” section, like the redesign of nutrition labels. Many of the graphics in this section could be creatively incorporated into graphic design, human factors, environmental studies, material culture, anthropology, and media studies courses. The most aesthetically pleasing and thought-provoking graphics in this section focus on meteorological events such as “Where Twisters Touch Down,” by John Nelson, and “Heat Streak,” by Katie Peek, as well as events that happen below sea level like the astoundingly graceful recreation of the sinking of the Titanic by Kaitlin Yarnall, Matt Twombly, and Nick Kaloterakis and “Digging for Drugs” by Jennifer Daniel and Emily Keegin.
The 10 interactive graphics in the final section selected by Eric Rodenbeck of Stamen Design in San Francisco are consistently excellent. Since this collection is being sold as a printed book, the printed presentation of these interactive graphics leaves room for improvement. However, the small hurdle associated with jumping from a book to a screen is well worth overcoming because each of the graphics is well-executed and thought-provoking. Some of the selected graphics present well in print—“Wind Map,” by Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg, and “Red State, Blue State Shuffle,” by Mike Bostock, Shan Carter and Amanda Cox—but all of them are compelling in their intended interactive formats. This interactive section was the best section of this “best of” collection.
Intended Audiences
The intended audience for this book is the coffee table crowd and the graphic design world. However, a number of the graphics could easily and usefully be incorporated into large lectures and seminar discussions about race, gender, and class-based inequality; politics; and the uneven social impacts of climate change. Furthermore, the graphical techniques on display in this collection can serve as inspiration for academics seeking to create graphics that can help convey their own findings to colleagues, students, and broader public audiences. Social scientific, cultural studies, and humanistic research often underpins these graphics, and academics seeking to reach students and broader public audiences would do well to consider the benefits of incorporating information graphics into their own publication processes.
Points to Be Aware of (or Beware of)
The book offers little critical commentary about the success of any particular graphic or of classes of graphical forms for the presentation of particular types of data. A deeper introductory essay would have served the series well. The collection is clearly an opportunity to celebrate infographics, not critique them, but that forecloses a productive discussion on role of infographics in communication ecologies. Thus far, that conversation has been dominated by field-defining figures like Edward Tufte, Alberto Cairo, and Stephen Few, who might have usefully been invited to write critical essays at the start of subsections. As an additional caution about the editorial work, the “You,” “Us,” and “Material” subsection arrangement is confusing and unevenly applied.
Overall Recommendation
This series usefully pulled together some strong graphics from the 2012 year, but overlooked others and included a number of unimpressive graphics lacking nuance and salience. Overall, roughly one third of the graphics in this book provide a clear, sophisticated perspective on social, cultural, and environmental issues that appear in typical undergraduate coursework. These graphics could be incorporated into undergraduate lectures or seminar sessions.