It’s no news that Spain’s unemployment crisis will get worse before it gets any better. What might be news though are the patterns that arise when you contrast these numbers with different sets of criteria. And that’s just what we’ve done in this video for Actibva. Not your typical poster info-graphic nor your average internet-stats video:
You will notice as well a restrained use of visual design. If there’s one thing we’re obsessive about at Vostok is of not overcrowding our work with a mix of shapes, sizes, colors, etc. If done right, a small visual change should suffice. Like in this video. Where a change in color means something, a change in size, a change in position. Because when trying to get information across, nothing is arbitrary: every single detail counts.
There are three ways of funding Japan’s reconstruction (total damage amounts to 7% of country’s GDP): issuing government bonds, increase in taxes or expenditure shifting (spend less on non-essentials and more in affected areas). Much has been debated and the government has decided on government bonds (to be paid in ten years). Economist and former government economic adviser, Takatoshi Ito considers this to be a huge mistake. The main reason: Japan’s working-population is getting smaller and not necessarily richer. The burden of debt will bring about new problems in ten years. His proposal: make the baby-boom generation (today’s highest income profile sector and tomorrow’s retirees) share the burden along with the rest of the population. Don’t wait 10 years, do it today: increase VAT taxes, that way everybody pays.
Unfortunately Mr. Takatoshi Ito’s motion (and that of other economists as well) will remain unaddressed; taxes are infinitely unpopular.
Almost seven months have passed since 3/11. Time enough to erect a barrier separating what was from what will be. And it looks like Japan is making the most out of it.
The bittersweet reality of catastrophes is that, despite everything, they honor you with a precious gift: the opportunity to start over. Funnily enough, what comes across most strongly is their desire to start anew, create something that’s their own and not just an interpretation of other cultures. This documentary grasps a tiny tiny glimpse of that.
Thousands of protesters have gathered in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol for the past five days. They demand jobs, economic equality, and “real democracy” hoping to make a difference in the upcoming elections, when they (we) will vote for new municipal councils and regional governments.
The Madrid electoral board is pushing to have the protest banned before the elections. To defy the ban people must get together and sign a petition. And they are. From all over the world. And a map is registering it all live.
There are only two things I have to say:
You would never ever find this kind of map coming from traditional spanish mainstream media. And that says something.
It’s a great example of a simple but powerful mesh between mapping, information design and political awareness.
Kudos to Vizzuality and Actuable for documenting and sharing this real time. Not only for Spain but for the world.
You’re in a foreign country. You’re stripped of means of communication. You need to survive. What do you do? You rely on the only true universal language: pictograms.
Concepts any John Doe needs to convey: date, time, water, food, lodging.
Concepts the US Army needs to convey: means of identification, ambush, booby traps, hideouts, weapons, destruction, pullover, surrender + date, time, water, food, lodging.
It exemplifies analytic and synthetic thinking at its best, no?
This guide was made by Kwikpoint. A visual translator company that works with designers, linguists and diplomats to replace “pounds-or kilos-of language dictionaries and phrase books” with images. Javier Cañada bought this sample in 2004, at the height of the Iraq War.
Do you agree with Austria’s reunification with the German Reich promulgated on March the 13th of 1938, and do you vote for the Party of our Leader Adolf Hitler? (yes/no)
Learn about the past from the future. Or was it the other way around. Nevermind. Paleofuture.tv, by retrofuture researcher Matt Novak goes right to our instafave-ultrafan video playlist. Enjoy episode 0000:
The difference between product design and architecture is in human scale and that has to do with political power.
There is something subduing in the creation of structures we humans inhabit or use in any way, something about those structures condioning our moves and behaviors. Architecture and (even more) urbanism have that powerful quality.
Architects project their structures to influence in the way we feel and behave. They manage flows of people, they regulate our exposition to daylight to condition our feelings or they make us feel free and empowered through space and height. They make structures that manipulate us.
Architecture and urbanism could be the use of power though means of space. That could explain why politicians have always flirted with architecture, and dictators love to have scale models of their dreamt cities.
Designers instead, have never been that interesting for the powerful (with some interesting exceptions). Their work is usually not that influencing. Designers make things that tend to be smaller than humans. Their structures may condition but don’t force us to do anything. It’s not the space which conditions the individual but the individual who manipulates the object.
I made a personal update to the Schematic Chart of Ideological and Design Changes from the 60s to the 80s by Massimo Vignelli. I decided to add a column named “internet times” suggesting that the internet is bringing a set of values to the way we understand creation, specifically designing and more specifically designing for the internet.
Mine is a personal interpretation of what that fourth column should be, if there should be a fourth column. I encourage you to make your interpretation too, filling the blanks with what you consider more appropiate. I’m sure there will be some common points.
Here is the original Schematic Chart of Ideological and Design Changes from the 60s to the 80s by Vignelli:
And here’s my interpretation. It’s a Fireworks PNG file for your editing convenience:
Now come and do yours, or at least help me out with rows 1 and 3.
