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animation cartoons infographics presentations Scott McCloud video

Connect the Dots, La La La

MondayDots is a new blog with a promising focus: explanatory videos built around simple dots. Creator Jeff Monday’s inaugural video explains why General Petraeus was uniquely suited to effect change in the Iraq War.



Monday credits cartoonist explainer extraordinaire Scott McCloud with inspiring the people-as-dots approach. One of McCloud’s key notions in Understanding Comics is that making a character more “cartoony” can make the character more accessible. Essentially, the less specific a character image is, the easier it is to project yourself into that character.



Monday is sprinting with this idea, making his character images as open ended as possible. He explains the approach in this video:



I like this hook, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of the series. Also, bravo to Monday for explaining how he produces his videos using only Apple’s Keynote and iMovie:



[via Presentation Zen]

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books computers cutaway exploded illustration pop-up

The Pop-Up Computer

Major Goodwill score: on a recent trip, Jon Ryan found a clever 1985 pop-up book explaining how a personal computer works. I’m hereby challenging the pop-up tycoons out there to publish an updated laptop version.



The binary decoders look especially cool.



If your local Goodwill is fresh out, you can order your own copy from Amazon.

[via Neatorama]

Categories
activism infographics science

The Trouble with Fisheries, Explained

This tidy site promoting alternative approaches to fishing exemplifies how to get a political message across: explaining the issue clearly and fully trumps hot air rhetoric every time. Nearly all the text on the site is integrated into crisp infographics, which gets you over the hurdle of making sense of a complex set of problems.



[via Dave]

Categories
graphic design maps

NYC, Horizon-Free

Designers Jack Schulze and Matt Webb have created a fantastic image of Manhattan: a surprisingly natural blend of a street-level view and an overhead view.

Jack Schulze explains:

The projection works by presenting an image of the place in which the observer is standing. As the city recedes into the (geographic) distance it shifts from a natural, third person representation of the viewer’s immediate surroundings into a near plan view. The city appears folded up, as though a large crease runs through it.




What a fantastic approach to a “you are here” explanation. Imagine having a dynamic version of this on your phone as you walk around in addition to a traditional map.

In this post, Mr. Schulze explains the many influences that informed the project.

[via information aesthetics]

Categories
funny graphic design

How Amused Are You?

I’m a “haha” person via instant message (rather than an LOL or heh person), so this is a most welcome meter.



[via ffffound]

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Vidja Game X-Rays

Here’s some Sunday explainist eye candy: x-ray images of gaming hardware and media from an x-ray technician/gamer.



[via PicoCool]

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art charts writing

Dear Gretchen

In the book project Dear Gretchen, artist and designer Gretchen Nash found a wonderful way to explain part of her childhood. Here’s the concept in Nash’s words:

An extensive book that investigates letters that I have kept inside a luggage case since my childhood. The process of the book included finding the word and phrase frequency of the letters, categorizing them by sender, by date, and finally writing personal reflections about each of the senders. Graphs were constructed to reveal the word frequency and each of the 187 letters were thoroughly documented inside of the book.

Most of the charts are sculptural, which creates a wonderful contrast of warm craftiness and hard data.



[via ffffound]

Categories
charts infographics money

Where Your Tax Dollars Go

I suggest carrying a copy of this folded up in your back pocket, as heavy artillery against vague “my tax dollars” rants.



Categories
activism animation good explanations law video

Why Stop Signs Should Mean Yield…

… for bike riders in Oregon, that is. I really like this simple animated video by Spencer Boomhower that explains the rationale behind a proposed law to allow bike riders to execute a “rolling stop” in certain situations.



Bicycles, Rolling Stops, and the Idaho Stop from Spencer Boomhower on Vimeo.

Wouldn’t it be great to have this sort of elegant explanation for all the propositions that end up on ballots every November? In my explainist utopia, they would be playing in a continuous loop at polling places.

[via Nutintuit Studio]

Categories
activism icons infographics law

Know Your Street Vendors

Dave came across this remarkable piece of explanation from the Street Vendor Project (SVP). As part of their mission to champion and empower New York’s 10,000+ vendors, SVP members teamed up with designer Candy Chang and The Center for Urban Pedagogy to create a series of infographic-heavy brochures that demystify regulations and other challenges for New York vendors.





Many street vendors aren’t fluent English speakers, so it’s essential the imagery in these brochures does the heavy explanation lifting. This is work from the front lines of infographics.



The full brochures aren’t available, but you can download two PDF samples from the Street Vendor Project Web site.

[via information aesthetics]