What is a Line? - Complex Infographics

NY Times - India & Pakistan. Available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blprnt/3362941433/in/photostream/

"This graph charts the frequency of articles mentioning India and Pakistan in the NYT between 1981 and 2009. It also indicates weighting of stories - the darkest line shows front page stories while the lighter lines indicate stories buried deeper in the paper."

The limited colour scheme focuses your attention moreso on the data itself. Although it seems complex at first glance, the only text displayed are the years and the data is represented through different weighting and heights of the lines. As you can see, 2001-02 consisted of the most articles relating to Pakistan due to the increase in height whereas 1985 was most prominent for articles mentioning India.

NY Times - Russian Presidents. Available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blprnt/3363757710/in/photostream/

"This graph charts the frequency of articles mentioning Russian Presidents in the NYT between 1990 and 2009. It also indicates weighting of stories - the darkest line shows front page stories while the lighter lines indicate stories buried deeper in the paper."

Available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaellevi/3349638282/

Countries vs. Continents vs. GDP vs. Population

Adaptation infographic. Available at: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Adaptation-Inadaptado/194191

An infographic based on the film 'Adaptation', trying to define the characters actions, actions and the flashbacks/flashforwards in the film.

What is a Line? - Six Degrees

"This installation consisting of two spinning wheels was on one wall of the work area. It was intended to provide inspiration to us advertising professionals when we had hit creative roadblocks by throwing different two-word combinations our way. Each word was 6 degrees from the next - the distance between inspiration and a wow-I-wish-I'd-thought-of-that idea!"

Communication is a Virus - Bram Vanhaeren

Source: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Black-and-White/1104207

Communication is a Virus - Inspiration

Source: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Quotes-personal-project-/904226

What is a Line? - Six Degrees of Separation PROVEN

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/aug/03/internet.email

In a world of 6.6 billion people, it does seem hard to believe. The theory of six degrees of separation contends that, because we are all linked by chains of acquaintance, you are just six introductions away from any other person on the planet.

But yesterday researchers announced the theory was right - nearly. By studying billions of electronic messages, they worked out that any two strangers are, on average, distanced by precisely 6.6 degrees of separation. In other words, putting fractions to one side, you are linked by a string of seven or fewer acquaintances to Madonna, the Dalai Lama and the Queen. The news will come as no surprise to film buffs who for years have been playing the parlour game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, in which they link other actors to Bacon in six films or fewer.

Researchers at Microsoft studied records of 30 billion electronic conversations among 180 million people in various countries, according to the Washington Post. This was 'the first time a planetary-scale social network has been available,' they observed. The database covered all the Microsoft Messenger instant-messaging network in June 2006, equivalent to roughly half the world's instant-messaging traffic at that time.

Eric Horvitz and fellow researcher Jure Leskovec considered two people to be acquaintances if they had sent one another a message. They looked at the minimum chain lengths it would take to connect 180 billion different pairs of users in the database. They found that the average length was 6.6 hops, and that 78 per cent of the pairs could be connected in seven steps or fewer. But some were separated by as many as 29 steps.

The researchers wrote: 'Via the lens provided on the world by Messenger, we find that there are about "seven degrees of separation" among people.' Horvitz told the Post: 'To me, it was pretty shocking. What we're seeing suggests there may be a social connectivity constant for humanity. People have had this suspicion that we are really close. But we are showing on a very large scale that this idea goes beyond folklore.'

A 'degree of separation' is a measure of social distance between people. You are one degree away from everyone you know, two degrees away from everyone they know, and so on. The concept was popularised by John Guare's 1990 play, Six Degrees of Separation, which was turned into a film starring Will Smith, Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland and Ian McKellen. One of the characters says: 'I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet. The President of the United States, a gondolier in Venice, just fill in the names. I find it extremely comforting that we're so close. I also find it like Chinese water torture, that we're so close because you have to find the right six people to make the right connection ... I am bound, you are bound, to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people.'

Then in 1994 students at Pennsylvania's Albright College invented the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, in which the challenge was to connect every film actor to Bacon in six cast lists or fewer. Bacon thought the joke would die out, but when it didn't he launched a website, sixdegrees.org, bringing together people interested in helping good causes. He said: 'I thought it was definitely going to go the way of eight-track cassettes and pet rocks. But it's a concept that has sort of hung around in the zeitgeist.'
Attempts to prove the theory stretch back further and keep coming up with six or thereabouts. In a 1969 study, researchers Stanley Milgram and Jeffrey Travers asked 296 people in Nebraska and Boston to send a letter through acquaintances to a Boston stockbroker. Only 64 of the letters reached the stockbroker. Of those letter chains that were complete, the average number of degrees of separation was 6.2.

In 2003 researchers at Columbia University in New York experimented using the internet as the ultimate laboratory of the connected world. More than 24,000 volunteers tried to send an email via acquaintances to one of 18 target people in 13 countries, including a police officer in Australia, a vet in the Norwegian army and a professor at an Ivy League university in America. Only 384 of the chains were completed, using an average of four steps. But the researchers estimated the average length in all the chains was between five and seven steps. Facebook, the online social network, has a 'six degrees' application to test the theory through the connections of Facebook users. That may reduce a degree or two: Barack Obama already has well over a million Facebook friends.

Communication is a Virus - Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer was brought up in our initial crit as she works primarily with text projections, something we mentioned in our various methods of delivery. She projects large scale, quotes/sayings using a heavy, sans-serif typeface which immediately stand out, especially as night as photographed. Although unusual, they are thought-provoking and in turn creates a lasting impression.

Communication is a Virus - Public Poster Project

The Public Poster Project was a campaign set up by various artists. Although there is no premise behind the posters, they evoke a sense of mystery and ambiguity. This one comment sums up, in my opinion, the reasoning behind the project: 'Your work makes no sense to so many that that´s exactly why it makes so much sense to everyone. Is touching minds, not only walls.' It influenced our own idea as we too, want to display quotes that seem out of context and initially confusing in order to engage and encourage people to read.

Communication is a Virus - Primary questionnaire

Just a few questions I quickly thought up and asked online to gain insight into people's views/opinions regarding books in general and what entices them to read.

1) What encourages you/discourages you from reading? For example, is it a fantasy story line that captures your imagination? or do you lack in patience/time?

2) Do you ever judge a book by its cover in the literal sense? or does the cover not affect your decision to read it?

3) What what would entice you to read more (if anything)?

1) encourages - i'll read read if it's something i'm really interested in like music or an biography on someone i like and i also like more realistic stories
discourages - i hardly read because it's something i just have to be in the mood for and i need the time so if i'm on holiday i'm more likely to read a couple of books

2) Yeah i'm more likely to pick up a book that catches my eye

3) If someone stole my laptop

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1) i'm obsessed with books on angels, werewolves, sometimes vampires and mermaids and that sort of thing. so anything on that immedietly captures my interest and then if the story seems plausible and not like your typical "love story" or anything like that, then i'll be encouraged to actually read it but if it's like an adult trying to write like a "typical teenager" and it's all really cringy then i'm discouraged from reading it.

2) yeah. e.g if a book has a stupid cringey kind of picture on the front (like i find real photographs of real people looking all dramatic really cringey) then i'm less likely to read it.

3) i think i read alot already and i get them from the library. maybe if i could order them online from a library and send them back in the post or something that might be easier

i don't like the idea of books that aren't actual books because i can't really concenctrate unless all of my hands are occupied by holding the book

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1) I find books allow you to use your mind a lot more than films/other multimedia sources, both nonfictional and fictional. That, and it's easy to whip out a book if you're sitting around waiting for something, easy to put away and store, et cetera.
I think libraries are the most ingenious things, if the idea of free books, whenever you want, doesn't encourage people to read more, I don't know what will.

2) Yeah. I do. It's usually indicative of the genre and prose, you sort of have to use judgment on the cover, in my opinion.

3) I already read a lot.

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1) encourages - i find that books can really bring your imagine to life, whereas with a film you don't need to imagine anything because it's already all there.
discourages - it's not the fact i don't have time, it's just that i'd rather be doing other things with my time and to be frank i'd rather read a magazine like nme or whatever as i like factual things. i also need to be in the right mood to read a book.

2) i think you've got to judge a book in some respect in order to get an idea of what the book is about, but the cover doesn't affect my decision to read it.

3) my mood

Communication is a Virus - Apple's view on its iBooks

iBooks - A novel way to read books


You’ll be even more well read once you get your hands on iBooks. Download the iBooks app from the App Store. Load up on books from the iBookstore. Take them to more places than you’d ever take a regular book. And right when you pull one out on your iPad, you’ll be pulled right in.

The iBookstore is just the beginning.

Start with the bookshelf to buy and read your books. With a tap, it flips around to reveal the iBookstore, where you’ll find over 150,000 books and counting — many of them free. View what’s featured on the iBookstore and the New York Times best-seller lists, or browse by title, author, or genre. When you find a book you like, tap to see more details, peruse reviews, even read a free sample. Once you download a book, it appears on your bookshelf. Just tap and dive in.

Illustrated books. Brilliant beyond words.

Download gorgeous, full-page illustrated children’s books, cookbooks, and art books. Or flip through Enhanced Books, where words, pictures, audio, and video come together. Listen to an author read a favorite passage, watch supplementary video, or flick through a library of photos or unpublished excerpts.

It’s a really great read.


Reading on iPad is just like reading a book. You hold iPad like a book and flip the pages like a book. And you do it all with your hands — just like a book. But once you tap open the first page, you’ll see it’s nothing like a book. Read one page at a time in portrait. Or turn iPad on its side and view two pages at once. Either way you look at it, the bright LED-backlit display brings crisp and colorful detail to every page, without using illumination. So illustrations and images — and brilliant writing — appear just as the author intended.

Always find your place.

The page navigator shows you where you are in the story. And you can use the bookmark feature to highlight text and make notes — perfect for students. When you take a reading break, iBooks saves your place across all your devices. So you can start a book on your iPad and pick up where you left off on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Put PDFs on your bookshelf.

Organize your bookshelf by your collection of books. PDFs — user guides, business proposals, project plans — all go on your bookshelf, too. When someone emails you a PDF, open it in iBooks. Or sync the PDFs on your Mac or PC to your iPad in iTunes. Then go to your bookshelf and tap to open one.

Source: http://www.apple.com/ipad/built-in-apps/ibooks.html

Communication is a Virus - Do you need to read books to be clever?

It's the National Year of Reading. Just as well, as one in four adults say they haven't read a book in at least a year. With so many other ways to get information these days, do we still need books? When did you last pick up a book to hunt out a nugget of information instead of Googling it? Or read a novel instead of powering up the PlayStation or the telly? Some time ago, quite possibly, especially if you're a man and aged 16 to 24 - half haven't read a single book in the past 12 months, making this group the least likely to read books, according to government statistics.

Yet books are hyped as life changing and a way out of crime, poverty and deprivation by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who launched the National Year of Reading on Wednesday. Quite simply, they have the potential to open up new worlds for the reader. So why don't more of us make use of these repositories of knowledge and, with so much information to be gleaned online and from the TV, do we need to read books any more?

"They're vital to learning. Half the population don't go to football matches but that doesn't make football any less important," says Professor John Sutherland, who has chaired the Booker prize judging panel. Books are essential because at their very heart is the storage of information, he says. "The best storage system we have is the book. Few artefacts have lasted as enduringly - and few will. If you dropped Chaucer into the middle of Oxford Street today he wouldn't have a clue what was going on, but if you took him to a bookshop he'd know exactly what they were, even be able to find his own work."

And every book has a part to play in our accumulation of knowledge, right down to autobiographies by the likes of Peter Andre and Kerry Katona. "Books are an eco-system, the bad ones make the good ones possible," says Prof Sutherland. "Victoria Beckham's autobiography pays for likes of Andrew Motion." But while books have great cultural value, others argue that you don't have to read them to be intelligent and knowledgeable. "I didn't read a book last year and don't know when I will read one," says Jamie Sharp, 37. "That doesn't make me illiterate or stupid, I just get my information in other ways. "I read a paper everyday and use the internet. That probably makes me better informed than a lot of book readers out there. They may read a book but it's just as likely to be David Beckham's autobiography as it is Shakespeare." And reading involves intellectual snobbery, he says. "It always has to be about certain types of books. Often people just read them because they think they should, not because they want to. Sometimes they pretend to have read them to look intelligent."

He has a point - 40% of people admit to lying about having read certain books, according to a study published last year by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. And half read the classics just because we think it makes us look more intelligent. Basically, not everyone is a natural reader. Books have also lost their "chic", according to some. "If you try and sell your house, estate agents will tell you to get rid of the books, they are viewed as tired and middle aged," says Prof Sutherland. Despite this, book sales in the UK are huge and on the rise. Last year we bought an estimated 338 million books, at a cost of £2,478m. This was 13% higher by both volume and value than five years ago, according to the Book Marketing Limited's latest Books and the Consumer survey. It appears that while books might be disappearing from our homes, they are still a treasured part of our culture. "Britain produces more titles per person than any other country in the world," says Prof Sutherland. "That's the real measure of how important they are to us."

Books are important, but it's reading itself is an essential skill, says Honor Wilson-Fletcher, project director for the National Year of Reading. "It's not for nothing that books have been burned over the centuries," she says. "They are repositories of ideas and ideas empower people and broaden their horizons. "But because the cultural landscape is changing so much we need to recognise every variety of reading and acknowledge being able to read has never been so important. "No medium is less important than any other, be it a classic novel, Scott's last message from the North Pole, one of Morrissey's lyrics or graffiti on a wall - they can all educate and change lives. This is not a year of worthiness, it's a year of reading."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7178598.stm

Design is About Doing - 3D Stop-motion

Impressive video combining 3D typography and imagery with light painting to form a stop motion video. The use of modern technology keeps the design contemporary and 'fresh'.