Showing posts with label Intellectual. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Intellectual. Show all posts
20 May 2013
Mediocrity Rant
28 June 2011
Type Triangle
I wanted to make a graphic about fonts. Then I realised that placing a few letters on a regular —and inevitably square— two dimensional plane would only give me two variables to play with. Boring. So this post has become more an experiment in graphing than a perfect commentary on typography.
Here, I've tried to represent a plane with three scales on it (formal–informal, masculine–feminine and classical–modern) that explains some fonts. Each point represents the extreme of a different scale, the opposite extreme being approximately spread over the adjacent edge. I found that it does not work so well unless the three points are polar opposites, which does not work in itself if the three points represent ends of different spectrums. But the real trouble with the triangular plane is that not all combinations of the attributes are possible, for example you cannot place a font that is feminine but neither classical nor formal. (Such as Curlz MT?) Nevertheless I think it is an interesting thing to look at!
If you fancy yourself a type buff, see if you can name each font shown without looking them up. The ones I've included are: Century, Futura, Garamond, Gill, Helvetica, Minion, Modern, Optima and Times.
Here, I've tried to represent a plane with three scales on it (formal–informal, masculine–feminine and classical–modern) that explains some fonts. Each point represents the extreme of a different scale, the opposite extreme being approximately spread over the adjacent edge. I found that it does not work so well unless the three points are polar opposites, which does not work in itself if the three points represent ends of different spectrums. But the real trouble with the triangular plane is that not all combinations of the attributes are possible, for example you cannot place a font that is feminine but neither classical nor formal. (Such as Curlz MT?) Nevertheless I think it is an interesting thing to look at!
If you fancy yourself a type buff, see if you can name each font shown without looking them up. The ones I've included are: Century, Futura, Garamond, Gill, Helvetica, Minion, Modern, Optima and Times.
28 May 2011
The Information Adventure Begins
We live in a world of information. The trouble is, it's encrypted.
In the western universe, we are exposed to over three thousand advertising messages a day, each encrypted with hundreds of subconscious pieces of information within them. Our brains can store approximately one thousand terabytes of information and can process over twelve hundred megapixels of visual information a second.
So we experience a lot of the world's information, but it is encrypted - coded - so that we have to translate it to our brain's individual language before understanding it. But we can't analyse it all. Most of the information we consume is stored as raw data. We simply can't keep up so long as all that information remains encrypted.
Enter StatBag.
Information design. That is what StatBag is about. Decoding some of the world's information and reconstructing it so that we can understand it better. And find some new meaning in it, too. It's not just a Bag of Statistics, but a Bag of Decoded Statistics. It should probably be called DecStatBag. But then again probably not.
So by reading this blog you're going on an adventure with information, statistics, design and statistical information design. And what better way to start an adventure than by drawing up a map of where we are going. Below is such a map. This is the compass for what will be contained within this blog, and will be referred back to at various intervals along the way. So if you're confused by the above, hopefully the following will shed some light on what this blog will contain.
In the western universe, we are exposed to over three thousand advertising messages a day, each encrypted with hundreds of subconscious pieces of information within them. Our brains can store approximately one thousand terabytes of information and can process over twelve hundred megapixels of visual information a second.
So we experience a lot of the world's information, but it is encrypted - coded - so that we have to translate it to our brain's individual language before understanding it. But we can't analyse it all. Most of the information we consume is stored as raw data. We simply can't keep up so long as all that information remains encrypted.
Enter StatBag.
Information design. That is what StatBag is about. Decoding some of the world's information and reconstructing it so that we can understand it better. And find some new meaning in it, too. It's not just a Bag of Statistics, but a Bag of Decoded Statistics. It should probably be called DecStatBag. But then again probably not.
So by reading this blog you're going on an adventure with information, statistics, design and statistical information design. And what better way to start an adventure than by drawing up a map of where we are going. Below is such a map. This is the compass for what will be contained within this blog, and will be referred back to at various intervals along the way. So if you're confused by the above, hopefully the following will shed some light on what this blog will contain.
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