Noisy Decent Graphics

What to do with empty shops and used gum (part 1)

At the end of last year I was in Portland and Seattle. There were a few things I saw that I wanted to blog about, but I never really got the time. What with all that end of the decade madness.

I'll rectify that now.

 
I've always wondered why more towns don't do this. I guess everyone has. I know there are all sorts of boring bureaucratic reasons why you can't just turn empty shops into pop-up shops. Sometimes landlords actually want properties to be empty for a short period of time.

This is good though. Christmas seems the perfect time, with all that increased footfall, to do this.

What first struck me about this notice was the expression 'Pop-up Shops'.

Pop-up shop is jargon which has entered (is entering) the civilian lexicon. I always find that a bit odd. Does it mean anything to anyone? Does anyone care what type of shop it is?

Pop-up shops used to be really quick, for a few days only, only for those in the know, retail experiences. Cool and trendy brands would open them is fringe areas. This year I've noticed an increase in pop-up shops in traditional retail areas by mainstream brands. Cath Kidston has called her new shops Pop-In Shops.

All this made me think about shops a bit more. It feels to me that as the longer the internet sticks around the more relevant the questions we first asked of it become. The 'death of print' is one, the 'death of the high street' is another. We were without internet recently and I had to buy a dishwasher. The thought of going into an actual dishwasher shop filled me with dread. The internet has made that such an easy experience. And crucially, when purchasing something you're unfamiliar with the internet makes you feel like you're being ripped off less than you would be on the high street. That might not be true, but in retail perception is everything.

And just like there are some retail experiences that are better online, there are days when it's better to shop in the real world than the virtual one. Christmas Eve for example.

Which makes me wonder if we'll start to see big, famous brands who only have high street shops at certain times of the year. The pop-up shop concept but slightly more permanent , regular and on the busiest high streets. Borders and HMV strike me as good examples. Everyone knows that the internet is killing the high street bookshop and record shop. Borders are in administration. That's old news. But every Christmas Waterstones and Borders are always packed. So maybe we'll see brands, old brands I guess, that exist all year round but massively ramp up their high street presence at certain times of the year. Most of these businesses make all their profit in one quarter of the year anyway. Greatly reduced costs, same profit.

Popped up not propped up.

Best Credit Crunch Graphics So Far

As spotted by Mike of Surrey.

A while ago I spotted (but failed to blog) that the FT appeared to have commissioned a series of photographs of bank logos. Essentially the signs of Barclays, RBS and the others photographed in many different ways. At night, in the rain, on wooden signs, on illuminated signs and so on.

This, as we've discussed before, is because of a dearth of decent images concerning the Credit Crunch.

This would be a good one though, wouldn't it? Especially for Mandy's comments asking people to stop "bashing" the bankers.

Seriously if you're from the FT or something, give Mike a call, buy this photo off him and win front page of the year at the Press Awards.

Introducing Recession: Simple Advice for Designers

Right then, let's talk Recession.

There is a recession coming. People have been unsure for a while, but that uncertainty has faded. It's coming. Here at NDG our job is to help you through these difficult times with jokes, tea and Guest Posts. So all this week we're going to be running a little series on the Recession. Err, we can't think of a better title than 'Recession: Simple Advice for Designers' so feel free to suggest one in the comments.

Anyway, recession is probably going to affect the listenership of this blog significantly. Most of you work in small, owner managed businesses and traditionally marketing budgets get hit hard by a downturn. So we've rounded up a series of experts to comment on various aspects of the recession. From New Business, through Accountancy and various other disciplines these Guest Posters all have some suggestions to help you out and crucially they have two things in common. One, they are not the usual suspects, they may blog elsewhere but you probably won't be that familiar with them. Secondly, they are wise enough to have seen a recession before and to have some experience of the difficult times.

So that's this week. But before we do all that, I'm going to add my bit. I'm not going to offer any practical advice at all, I'm just going to talk about Credit Crunch graphics.

I've mentioned before how miserable the Credit Crunch Graphics have been. Truly woeful. I was kind of hoping for something better. It's just been the usual fare of downward arrows and red boxes.

There's been some funny stuff, and as you'd expect the British tabloids have risen to the challenge. This Sun front page from the morning after the Bailout being a highlight.

Talking of the Bailout here's The City the morning after that historic event.

Err, doesn't look any different does it? As Chris correctly points out it's very, very hard to picture intangibles. As anyone who has ever worked in Pharmaceutical advertising will tell you, it's very hard to depict things like 'ill, but better than a few weeks ago' just like it's hard to depict 'my mortgage now costs £50 a month more' in a concise witty way. Which is why most newspapers revert to pointy red boxes.

If all else fails they resort to the dramatically distorted depiction.

You'd think in this day and age Data Viz would help us out wouldn't you?

Phil has a brilliant post over on his blog about this chart. There's lots of peculiarities here. Apparently the FTSE started at 1000 so possibly showing the zero line would be pointless. However, the graph does significantly distort the truth to make a point. But then maybe that is the point. To show you the drama of one day? Whichever, Phil went to the trouble of redrawing the graph with a zero line to inject some reality into proceedings.

That's good isn't it? Illuminating. But it's still not perfect. The best stock market chart I've seen inevitably comes from the brilliant Khoi and the gang over at the New York Times.

 

It's hard to see in that screen grab, but this brilliant interactive graph compares the current fall in stocks to other falls in history. It makes for scary reading.

This is a cool thing by the Banksyesque K-Guy, witty and well done. It's clever and very of the moment.

Actually I'm surprised we haven't seen more of this kind of stuff. Surely something like this would suit a Guardian front page? I did see this leaflet for a Princes Trust event. Close, but no cigar. Definitely no cigar.

So there you go.

Simple, honest, practical advice will follow this week. Don't miss it. A see if you can think of a better title than 'Recession: Simple Advice for Designers'.

(I ought to mention that all those pictures were taken from the Credit Crunch Graphics Flickr Pool and they all link back to their original pages. Thanks to the photographers!)

The Economist cover this week

Gratefully received from one of our readers.

Credit Crunch Graphics

I'm gonna start a new, loosely curated, series on Credit Crunch Graphics.

I love this Economist cover. This sort of stark, powerful illustration is the reason I first started buying The Economist.

This is a nice little in-joke from the FT. Promoting their well known, regular supplement 'How to Spend It' on the top left and promoting the one off Credit Crunch special with the line 'How to Survive It' on the top right.

I guess this is the first financial crisis in the era of "You can't move in London without someone giving you the news". That's why it has to have a catchy name and it has to be the biggest crash and the biggest bail out. This is also why it has to be happening NOW. Whereas history will probably have the Credit Crunch dated as 2007 -2010. Something like that.

Here's Robert Peston the unbiased bringer of many leaked scoops (you knew his father was a Labour peer, right?). But ignore him (go on, please) and look at that Global Financial Crisis logo. What's the point of the bloody arrow?

Sure the arrow signals down, which is the way everything is travelling, but is it necessary? Is it helpful? Surely the word Crisis communicates enough. A better use of the arrow would be on I in Financial and then we could lose the Crisis. Sort of.

To be continued.

UPDATE: Due to popular demand, I've created the Credit Crunch Graphics flickr pool.