Thanks, Brazilian tree forest company, for inspiring cities to provide us with water on demand.
Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
Water on Demand
Tag: illustration
Sailing Through Southeast Asian Waters
Today the US sent a guided missile destroyer through what China claims—but few recognise as—its sovereign territory, twelve nautical miles off the coast of semi-artificial islands. This piece from Quartz illustrates just some of the overlapping claims of the Spratley Islands. In the end, nothing happened to the destroyer as China did not counter it with ships or aircraft.
Credit for the piece goes to the Quartz graphics team.
The First Democratic Debate
Last month we looked at the Washington Post’s coverage of the second Republican Debate. For those unaware, the first Democratic Debate was held last night. And so it is only fair for us to look at the Post’s coverage of that event.
Credit for the piece goes to Samuel Granados, Richard Johnson, Denise Lu, Ted Mellnik, and Kevin Schaul.
How the Diesel Engine Works
For a little while now I have been wondering about just how the emission cheating system worked for Volkswagen. Thankfully the AFP put together a graphic illustrating how their diesel engine process works. It gets me partially to the level of understanding for which I am looking. But even though I now understand how the diesel engine works, I am confused about where the cheating device fits into the process.
Credit for the piece goes to the AFP graphics team.
Unhappy Millennials
I attended a dinner on Monday where the topic of Millennials arose. While most of the evening is not germane to this post, I did recall Wait But Why’s piece on why Millennials are unhappy on the way back to my flat. So here you go, a look at the Millennials and why we are unhappy. Bonus: we have unicorns and rainbows.
Credit for the piece goes to Tim Urban.
Expensive Wines Taste the Best…
But not for the reasons you might think. This video from Vox looks at the notion that expensive wines taste better. And it turns out they do. Sort of. In terms of the design of the piece, it uses some nice charts and motion graphics to make its point. Plus, it includes snippets from Sideways, notably: “I’m not drinking any fucking Merlot.” Classic.
Credit for the piece goes to Joss Fong, Anand Katakam, Joe Posner, and the Vox.com staff.
Supermoon Lunar Eclipse
Last night we experienced a total lunar eclipse here in Chicago. Unfortunately, significant cloud cover meant that much of the event went unseen. That was unfortunate, because eclipses are fantastic. To explain it we have this piece from the BBC.
And for those were either unable to see it or did not know about it, here is one of the photos I took.
Credit for the diagram goes to the BBC graphics department.
Credit for the photo is mine.
Boston Bruins New Breakout Play
If you guys have not yet figured out, I am a baseball guy. But that is pretty much my only sport. And so maybe you can help explain to me just what is going on in today’s piece from the Boston Globe. I think it is attempting to explain hockey formations for the Boston Bruins.
Credit for the piece goes to Joe Moore.
The Second Republican Debate
11 candidates. 9 authors. (That would be the sub-title if my blog had sub-titles.)
I do not have cable and so watching the debate live was not an option. Instead, I rely upon post-debate coverage to understand who said what and to whom. Usually that means an article with some video clips. But this piece from the Washington Post looks at the debate by the numbers.
What is worth pointing out is not Trump’s hair, but the credit list below. That is nine people who had to contribute to one article, which relies both on reporting and data, on text and images, and none of it is interactive. That list is not all reporters, you have a mixture of reporters, designers, and illustrators working together to produce some quality content. And while the piece was planned—how could it not have been—it still went live within probably hours of the debate as its publish date was the same date as the debate. Sometimes people think that smart, clear graphics are simple and easy to produce. Well, not always.
The graphic itself has two nice features worth mentioning specifically. One, the use of HTML text in the graphic. That makes the text searchable and more importantly rendered by the browser on the page instead of relying upon image export quality. The second is that this piece relies on two colours: black and red. Tints of both allow the entirety of the story to be told. Each candidate is represented by the same red without need for ROYGBIV+.
Credit for the piece goes to Bonnie Berkowitz, Kat Downs, Samuel Granados, Richard Johnson, Ted Mellnik, Katie Park, Kevin Schaul, Shelly Tan, and Kevin Uhrmacher.
The Crane Crash in Mecca
Sometimes when you are reading something, what you really need is context. Personally, I prefer visual context over textual, but not everybody is so thankfully we can do both. Last week a crane collapsed during inclement weather in Mecca and fell upon the Grand Mosque. I knoew that it was a large crane, but it was not until I saw this piece from the Washington Post that I truly understood just how large. People can write so many feet or this many feet all day long, but the visual juxtaposition of the crane against the Washington Monument is far more impactful.
Credit for the piece goes to Richard Johnson.