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I tried to find this when I wrote that post, but I'd misplaced it. Mike's kindly emailed it to me so all is well.
The best, best map is Mike's moving version of Bucky's Dymaxion Map - the Faumaxion Slippy Map. It's hard to explain, but click through and have a go. You'll soon get the idea.
About two years ago I was looking at a map of the world and noticed that Britain seemed disproportionately large.
My companion remarked that this was because in days of yore whoever was drawing the map always made their country look bigger and more important. This nugget of information sticks in the brain.
So for the last two years I've been taking pictures of Britain on world maps. Not accurate maps, but drawings or illustrations of maps. The differences are amazing. You might assume that all maps were accurate, or at least accurate-ish. But no, designers play fast and loose with the truth making the host country bigger, more important or more central.
Look at Britain in these photos. Look at the size of it compared to Europe. It's the same, but different.
Americans will be used to seeing this map of the world.
Whereas Europeans will be used to seeing this map of the world.
In this instance one isn't more accurate than the other, but the perception is very different and the power designers wield in shaping that perception is huge.
New Zealanders can often play Spot Our Country. Next time you see a map of the world on the BBC News or in the paper, look for New Zealand. Odds are it will have been left out in the name of aesthetics. If it's not left out then it's cropped to within an inch of it's life.
Most New Zealanders would probably prefer their maps to look like this.
The answer to most of these problems is to look at the world via Buckminster Fuller's amazing Dymaxion Map.
OK, OK, we're drifting off the point a little bit. Map projection is a huge topic and this Wikipedia page is a good place to start. There's also a good article called The Map Gap on BBC News.
Back to where we started. Over the last few months I took lots of photos of maps, you can see them on Flickr.
Today I traced over England, Scotland and Wales. Please note these tracings were done quickly and aren't massively detailed. The results are quite odd.
They all look pretty different don't they? You know it's Great Britain, but some of them are wild approximations.
Next I dropped them all on top of each other (here I left off Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland because I wanted to compare just one shape).
That's a bit higgledy piggledy so I filled them all in.
Viola! The mean shape of England , Scotland and Wales by 14 graphic designers. Not very accurate, is it?
This isn't a cartography blog and I know some of these maps are over stylised for a reason but I want to make a wider point about graphic designers and the assumptions we make and how easily they are accepted. If you look at all the maps on Flickr they all look kind of OK. When I put them all together it looks like madness. Like people having been taking liberties with the truth.
Think of other times you do this.
Hierarchies are a good example. The point of bold and italic and underline is to make one piece of text more important than the other. But how many times do you see a poster where the text is bold, italic and underlined? I bet I could get a load of notices like that and achieve the same effect as the 14 shapes above. Everything would be bold.
Premiumisation - there's a word that really fucks me off. I once heard the MD of a famous packing company droning on about how his firm's USP was that they could design premiumisation into any old piece of packaging. In case you're wondering, that means lots of over elaborate folds, some foil blocking and a healthy does of script and moody photography. Problem is, take a look at the chocolate cakes in Tescos, I bet you'll find 10 'premiumised' brands, 4 value brands and nothing inbetween.
What I'm saying is that graphic designers have a certain amount of power, people tend to trust what they see without much questioning. We should use that power carefully.
My coins arrived the other day. Lovely aren't they?
Great graphic design if you ask me. It's engaging, it's fun, it will entertain your Grandad as much as your 5 year old nephew, as the designer says, "It's easy to imagine the coins pushed around a school classroom table or fumbled around with on a bar - being pieced together as a jigsaw and just having fun with them." It's practical, it's relevant and it's appropriate. It's different, it's very now and yet it won't date. It's brilliant. Literally.
I've only met one person who doesn't like them so far.
The designer, Matt Dent is one of the speakers at Interesting 2008, that'll be good.
More tales from Chicago.
We were lucky enough to have a visit to the Hillside Fire Dept. If this was a different blog I'd say how kind they were for showing us round and how brilliant the tour was. Hero is one of those tags that gets bandied about too easily, but people that run into burning building for a living qualify in my book.
Anyway. This is a graphic design blog so take a look at some of the gorgeous hand painted typography. A few more pictures over here.
At first glance I love these.
Picture taken from Laughing In The Face, usual rules apply.
It seems like a good idea and the graphic designer in me loves the arrows on the floor. Arrows on every floor I reckon. But anyway, this is the new attempt by TfL to get people to stand nicely to one side and let the passengers off. The Creative Review Blog has a good post and some great pictures here.
What I like most is that they're trying out four different designs and seeing which one works. This is a great idea. It's very rare for graphic design to measured and even rarer for it to be measured properly. But it's not just that, isn't trying out four designs just a good idea? A focus group would have been terrible, complicated and expensive. Someone at the top could have just made a decision but then you'd be relying on one person's opinion. Trying out four solutions is cheap, quick, practical and sensible.
I'm all for sensible design solutions.
Picture taken from the Creative Review Blog, usual rules apply. I can't seem to find out who took the picture. Sorry.
The CR Blog raised some interesting points in the comments. Our own Alex said, "I think this is a great idea and well needed here in London". But then Alistair pointed out, "Since people seem unable to use even the most basic levels of common sense (and manners) to realise that standing clear of the doors and letting the passengers off first is the best way to do things, are they really going to pay any attention at all to some floor graphics?" Which is a very valid point. Maybe us designers are just getting carried away?
Patrick then pointed out, "Myself, Mark and Eliza from CR got on the Jubilee Line at Waterloo last night. Most people were obediently standing outside the white lines."
Which made me wonder just how they're going to be measured? Surely the only way to do it is with an old fashioned human being. And that's got to be more than a bit subjectve? "Only one person was standing on the yellow lines, so I considered this to be a success". And how long do you measure it for? And how often do you measure?
When I did some measurement earlier today at Waterloo, it didn't seem to be working. Not at all.
Maybe we should all measure it? Every time you use the Jubilee line take a picture and then we can start to see if we can see any patterns? Would anyone be up for that?
I'd love to tell you about this new Pantone handbag.
It's the perfect gift for someone with the disease.
It sounds like a good idea and it lends itself to good window displays.
I've seen it in real life and I've taken the pictures above but I just can't find out anything about it. Pantone sell their own handbags and German Vogue have an article about the Mango ones, but the translation doesn't really make any sense.
Can anyone shed any light?
(Picture taken by Tobias Frere-Jones and borrowed from Helvetica Film Blog, usual stuff applies)
Apparently there is a café in Melbourne called Helvetica. Nice eh? Taken from the brand new blog of the notorious film.
Picture taken from mandatorythinking with huge thanks, usual stuff applies
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