Category: My Work

  • Detroit’s Housing Market

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    A few weeks ago the Wall Street Journal published a graphic that I thought could use some work. I like line charts, and I think line charts with two or three lines that overlap can be legible. But when I see five in five colours in a small space…well not so much. So I spent…

  • Raining Maps Monday

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    One of the things I like about Chicago’s WGN network is its weather blog. They often include infographic-like content to explain weather trends or stories. But as someone working in the same field of data visualisation and information design, I sometimes find myself truly confused. That happened with this piece last Friday. The map in…

  • National Heights

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    And by this title I am not referencing McKinleys, K2s, or Everests. No, the BBC published this piece on the changing average heights of citizens of various countries. This was the graphic they used from the report’s author. Personally speaking, I do not care for the graphic. It is unclear and puts undue emphasis on…

  • Septa’s Silverliner Service Shutdown

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    Two weeks ago Philadelphia regional rail commuters, a large group to which I belonged for a number of years, experienced a week from hell. On 2 July a yard inspector for Septa, the Philadelphia region’s transit agency, discovered a Silverliner V railcar tilting. For those not familiar with Septa, the Silverliner Vs have been in…

  • Not All Charts Are Necessary Part 2

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    Monday I examined a chart from the BBC that in my mind needlessly added confusing visual components to what could have been a straight table. So here we take a look at some other options that could have been used to tell the same story. The first is the straight forward table approach. Here I…

  • World Income

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    Over the weekend I found myself curious about the notion of a growing global middle class. So I dug up some data from the Pew Research Center and did some analysis. The linked piece here details that analysis. I go into more detail than just a map. Hopefully you enjoy the piece and find the…

  • Where Is Pennsyltucky?

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    So last week I mentioned Pennsyltucky in my blog post about Pennsylvania’s forthcoming importance in the election. And then on Friday I shared a humourous illustrated map of Pennsylvania that led into an article on Pennsyltucky. But where exactly is it? Luckily for you, I spent a good chunk of my weekend trying to find…

  • Comparing Economic and Political Freedom

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    Today’s post is just a little scatter plot today of my own creation. I was interested to see which countries fall outside the mainstream when it comes to economic and political freedom, as measured by the Heritage Foundation and Freedom House, respectively. Those are certainly not the only indices that I could have chosen, however,…

  • Who Led Ganister’s Orthodox Church

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    I spent the weekend in Ganister, Pennsylvania (shameless plug, you can learn more about the town on the website I built for it) where my immediate family gathers for Easter. The Orthodox version was obviously far later than the Catholic version this year. When here I try to do research on the town and the…

  • Merging Alaska Airlines and Virgin America

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    Alaska Airlines and Virgin America made some news the past few days when they announced Alaska would purchase Virgin America for $2.6 billion. I mapped out the flight routes of the two carriers to see where they overlapped. You can see the results in my piece for the blog today below. Credit for the work…