:: I heart INFOGRAPHICS

Iv just received the latest edition of IDN (International Designers Network) and it's FABULOUS!!!
I'm currently putting together a presentation for when I begin my final year of my graphic design course. Basing it on what my proposed plans are for the final year and the experiences I've had over he summer.
I'm encouraged to think about my design practice, what do I want to be? Who might I want to work for/with? What kind of work would I like to produce etc.

Juan Velasco, graphics editor of 'National Geographic', describes infographics as...
1. A visual explanation that helps you more easily understand, find or do something.
2. It's visual, and when necessary, integrates words and pictures in a fluid, dynamic way.
3. It stands alone and is completely self-explanatory
4. It reveals information that was formerly hidden or submerged.
5. It makes possible faster, more consistent understanding.
6. Universally understandable.

We are surrounded by infographics - in the media, in published works, in road signs and manuals. They act as a visual shorthand, they illustrate information that would be lots and lots of text. It's the content plus beauty.



I think I want to be an INFOgraphic designer!

I somehow want to incorporate this new direction with the subject of my third year dissertation, 'Can Graphic Design be sustainable?' I think it can, it just needs understanding more, it needs to be made clearer in some way. So many written facts and figures about how we as people are ruining everything but all so confusing, but we as designers have to ability to improve things. we are trend setters. I want to instruct and explain, I just need to find a balance between beauty and effective communication.
I just need some clarity, I need to be clear on what I'm trying to communicate. Not to over-complicate or over-simplify, just to show everything I need to and nothing else. i would need to consider who it's for? What is the most important statement.

This is all just an idea, it's just got me thinking whilst putting this presentation together....what direction do i ACTUALLY want to go in!?!?!
It's something that I am really interested in, cos i think me as a person needs things simplifying sometimes, so make it clearer. So it's something I could relate too....but could we all! I'm just concerned that a lot of it would include stuff I should have learnt in maths classes at school, which unfortunately wasn't a subject I attended very often...oops.
But this is something I definitely want to look into some more.
We'll see what happens...