Author: Brendan Barry

  • Building Back Better Boston Transit

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    Brendan Barry
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    The alliteration failed at that last word, but it gets the point across. No mater how you may want to define infrastructure, the term always includes transit. In the Boston Globe, an opinion piece proposed how the city and region of Boston could improve upon the city’s mass transit options. And they made a map.…

  • Choropleths and Colours Part 2

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last Thursday I wrote about the use of colour in a choropleth map from the Philadelphia Inquirer. Then on Sunday morning, I opened the door to collect the paper and saw a choropleth above the fold for the New York Times. I’ll admit my post was a bit lengthy—I’ve never been one described as short…

  • Covid Update: 11 April

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    Brendan Barry
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    This time last week I wrote about how we should not be surprised at rising levels of coronavirus in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, and Illinois. After all, our elected officials reopened economies despite data saying they should do otherwise. On top of that, people have been engaging in reckless behaviour and…

  • But What About Pluto?

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    Brendan Barry
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    Damn you Neil deGrasse Tyson (but not really though)! Because, you know, he advocated for de-planet-fying Pluto back in the oughts. Which I mention because of this post from xkcd, which corrects common images of planets in the solar system accounting for their population. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

  • Choropleths and Colours

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    Brendan Barry
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    In many cities through the United States, real estate represents a hot commodity. It’s not difficult to understand why, as have covered before, Americans are saving a bit more. Coupled with stay-at-home orders in a pandemic, spending that cash on a home down payment makes a lot of sense for a lot of people. But…

  • What Is Infrastructure?

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    Brendan Barry
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    This morning I read a piece in Politico Playbook that broke down President Biden’s $2.25 trillion proposal for infrastructure spending. A thing generally regarded as the United States sorely needs. $2.25 trillion is a lot of money and it’s a fair question to ask whether all that money is really money for infrastructure. Because, it…

  • Discontinuous Lead Bars

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last week the Guardian published an article about drinking water pollution across the United States. Overall, it was a nicely done piece and the graphics within segmented the longer text into discrete sections. Each unit looks similar: The left focuses on a definition and provides contextual information. It includes small illustrations of the mechanisms by…

  • Covid Update: 4 April

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last week I wrote about how the inevitable rise in new Covid-19 cases was occurring in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, and Illinois. Now, one, in the last week, we saw no evidence of states preparing to reinforce their public health and safety restrictions. And two, whilst we have no data on people not following…

  • A4 For Ever (and Ever)

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    Brendan Barry
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    Most of my readers know that I am a designer who works in all formats. But, I really love working in print. Colours, textures, and the physicality of it all. Give me a foil stamp or metallic ink any day. Any American designer who’s ever worked for an overseas client or overseas designer who’s ever…

  • Too Much Horsing Around

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last week the Philadelphia Inquirer published an investigation of the staggering number of horse deaths in Pennsylvania’s race track facilities. I found the article fascinating, but admittedly at a point or two a wee bit squeamish when the author described how horses essentially die. Then about halfway through the article I ran into the first…