B R I E F 1
S T F C P R E S E N T A T I O N S – 19/1/2021
Previously for Translation and Transmission, students were asked to choose a topic of their own that would in some way incorporate politics. However, we were presented with an opportunity to work with data sets from one of nine organizations. The organizations ranged from cycling organizations to the mammal society to sustainability organizations. So, we had a pretty diverse range to pick from. I decided to choose the Science and Technology Facilities Council or STFC for short. Originally, just from looking at their website, I felt that maybe I wouldn’t choose them as I couldn’t understand over half of the things I was looking at. However, when Poppy Hollford of STFC presented about the council and how she works for them despite not being the best at science, I could relate to her. It was interesting to me how we could use design to translate scientific data and make it accessible to anyone of any age. Which is also another point mentioned by Polly, they wanted to create infographics that would engage and attract a younger audience. I wanted to challenge my existing skills to see how I could relay something non-existent to the eye into something tangible and to someone who might not understand the topic at all. That and the curiosity of black matter managed to win me over.
V I S U A L I Z I N G C O N C E P T S W O R K S H O P – 25/1/2021
The very first workshop we did for this brief was to visualize a set of text. This was so that we could practice simplifying words to imagery. The text I got was from an article on the UK Research and Innovation website that talked about how ‘STFC’s scientists were designing an instrument to understand dark matter.’ As this was something we were designing on the computer and not cutting and piecing together pieces of paper (which is how the workshop was usually done), we were given digital paper with 2 colours that represented our organizations. For STFC we were given the council’s light blue and dark blue to work with. I decided to envision this part of the text:
“This will open our understanding of dark matter and allow us to observe gravitational waves in an entirely new frequency range.”
I made a telescope that looks like a giant eye to represent the fact that they were observing and waves with alternating colours to represent the gravitational waves. Using only 2 colours was definitely a challenge but good practice for the risograph infographic as we are only limited to 2 colours for the first brief. Things like negative spaces and drop shadow helped give the design more of a depth as well.
D A T A I N H O M E W O R K S H O P – 26/1/2021
Another workshop we had was the “Data in Home” workshop in which we had to use our surroundings to display quantitative data. Again, as we aren’t in the normal class setting, we had to make use of what we had at home. I used the data off of an article on NASA that talked about what the universe was made up of. I decided to use my scarf and create a spiral galaxy-esque shape to represent each “matter”. The largest percentage of matter was dark energy which ended up being the area I focused on for my infographic. I thought this workshop was a good way to make us think out of the box of how you can manipulate existing objects to represent data. As most of the time, when we see numerical data it’s hard to imagine how big a number is until you see it visually represented. This made me start thinking of how I would do the second brief that has to do with 3D printing.
R A W M A G A Z I N E I C O N T A L K – 30/1/2021
I attended the Icon Talk by Patrick Thomas over the weekend and it was really fascinating. This particular session was about RAW Magazine by Françoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman. RAW Magazine was an alternative underground comic that ran its course from 1980 to 1991. It featured many artists such as Mark Beyer, Mariscal, Gary Panter, that all had a very unique art and storytelling style that didn’t conform to what was popular at the time (Marvel / DC superhero comic books). Patrick mostly talked about how what RAW Magazine was doing at the time (and to this day) is very innovative. Using things such as bubblegum cards, sticker sets and cutouts that showed the coloured-illustrations of the first page on a full black and white cover (in an effort to be economical). One of the covers that stood out to me the most was the #7 issue in which they ripped the top right corner of the cover and pasted a piece from another copy, which meant everyone had pieces of another magazine on their magazine. I was already thinking about making my risograph have a comic book feel to it as I wanted it to appeal to a younger audience. Feeling inspired by the talk I started drafting my risograph prints.
The Where Why, and the How: 75 Artists Illustrate Wondrous Mysteries of Science
Chris suggested 2 books to us during the first staff support we had in our respective groups. One of which was “The Where Why, and the How: 75 Artists Illustrate Wondrous Mysteries of Science”. This book showed how artist illustrated science in a contextual manner and it even had a page for dark matter and dark energy. I really liked how clever the illustrations were, you only needed a little bit of general knowledge to understand how the visuals connect to the text. It made reading the book way more fun and less intimidating.
I N F O G R A P H I C D R A F T / I N I T I A L S K E T C H
As I looked into more of what data was available to me on STFC’s website, I found that there wasn’t much, and the website was a bit hard to navigate. However, I was able to find quite a few research summaries on the Dark Energy Survey website, which was quite helpful. STFC is one of the many international organizations that is funding the Dark Energy Survey Camera, the primary instrument used in the survey. The data I focused on was how many astronomical objects were discovered in the span of 6 years of the survey. There were 2 data release overall, the first data release which was publicized in 2018 showed what was collected from 2013-2016. The second data release showed what was collected in all of the 6 years, which was publicized in January of 2021. The first draft I created showed the general layout of the data I had in three different thumbnails
The first thumbnail was supposed to show the data in a spiral imagery where in which the top half would show the first data release and the bottom half would show the second data release. The second thumbnail showed a diagram of what the dark energy camera looked like and how each element worked. In the third thumbnail, I wanted to try out layering 2 paper together to include a cutout element. The infographic would be visible through a series of cutout rectangle boxes that mimicked how the camera took pictures during the survey.
P R O J E C T S U P P O R T – 2/2/2021
The following week I managed to get project support from Chris and Steph which helped me rethink how I could use the minimal data I had. Chris suggested that I could include different elements of the survey to give more of a background knowledge to someone who would have no prior information about it. This could include the historical context of black energy, the timeline of the data that was collected, why we’re looking into dark energy in the first place? What are the things that are being discovered through this survey? He also said I should keep the infographic on one page as the requirement is one A3 page. Steph gave me advice on more of the visual aspect of the infographic. Things like using the thumbnails to visually show the growth of the data (i.e making the circle on the timeline bigger as more data is collected) or taking elements of comic book and incorporating data into it. She also suggested that I go into the draft with a colour pencil to plan out where I would use each colour.
C O L O U R D R A F T + W O R K I N P R O G R E S S
F I N A L O U T C O M E
C O L O U R S E P E R A T I O N S
P E R S O N A L E V A L U A T I O N
I was quite happy with how the infographic turned out. The information flowed together nicely. I was quite intimidated at the start as I picked an organization that I wasn't completely comfortable with since I am not well versed in Science. However, as I did more research and read up more about the topic I was beginning to be able to explain things about the survey and the dark energy camera more fluently. I was also afraid the colours seemed a little too feminine rather than neutral but playing with the different tones, layering the colours on top of each other and using about the same amount of each colour helped balance it out. The one thing I want to reconsider the comic panel that is at the top half as it is a little too congested. I would also like to include more data but I’m a little worried it might be too much with all that’s already going on.
B R I E F 1 R E V I E W – 4/2/2021
The review process for the first brief felt more straight to the point compared to the previous peer review sessions last term. It helps us understand where the issues are right away so we can go in and adjust accordingly. We also had a marker activity in which we scribbled and highlighted parts which we felt were good or could be improved. Overall, I’m really appreciative to the nice comments that were left on my infographic. I was really happy that people could understand what the infographic was about in the first place, that meant I was able to succeed in relaying the data. As for the critique, I agree with quite of them, such as the text being too small and how I could redistribute the illustration to an empty area at the bottom right corner to balance it out. There was also a comment about how I’ve used a few different typefaces when in actuality I’ve only used 2. It probably seems that way because I used different weights of the same fonts, so I might have to fix that. I would definitely be adjusting my design according to the comments on my final development of the graph.
F I N A L R E V I S E D O U T C O M E
I finally got around to editing my infographic poster. I did most of the changes according to the comments I received in the review. Moving some of the "comic" panels to the bottom made it easier to make the graphics and the fonts bigger, making it a lot easier to read now. I also made sure to remember to include a gap all around the edges so in the case that I was to print it, the colours would all align nicely and won't get messed up. I'm pretty happy with how it looks at the moment, the graphics and white spaces look well balanced all throughout the poster.