Chapter 8 is rather useful especially for a freshman like me, when I was really baffled with the current project. It gives a quite clear process of how to create a project and some specific advices, I just simply retell it as follows :
1. Confirm the topic of project at first, in which there should be something illuminative for audiences.
2. Do a solid research whether it is primary or secondary depending on the topic.
3. Determine the graphic forms on the content we want to cover and the function of the certain charts, maps, and diagrams.
4. Complete your research. Flesh out your sketches and storyboards.
5. Think about the visual style. Choose typefaces, color palettes, etc.
6. Transfer the design to the computer. Apply software tools to polish it.
One thing should be highlighted is that sometimes we may have a rough idea or a blurry image in mind, then we become too impatient to do research and collect data, just want to make it on the computer immediately (actually, that is what I’ve done last week 😢). That is risky and arbitrary. First, we cannot make a topic just depend on self’s hypothesis, a feasible topic does need a solid research base. Second, if we go graphic first but ignore the statistic for thinking we could find it later, we may have to overthrow the graphic organization since we may fail to find the full datasets.
Collecting data could be difficult (as the example of fertility rate in Brazil), but it is definitely needed. A good narrative should give an organized hierarchy of storytelling, like give a comprehensive illustration of “what it is” at first level, then “why it comes like this and what its trend could be in the future”, finally “the predicted conclusion and how to solve it”. Anyway, the choosing of hierarchy all depend on what the project want to cover.
Another thing we should take care is that learn to “imitate” works of professional infographic designer. It doesn’t mean that we plagiarize other’s fruits of labor, but select its essence serving for our purpose of project. Nobody born to be an infographic designer except they’re genius (BTW even genius needs practices also!); we need learn from others to improve ourselves skills.
Then I read the profile 3 of Steven Duenes and XaquÃn G.V., which is a really good interview with spontaneous rich conversation, short question & long answer, and most important, new understanding. For me, the grain is that career choice in this filed. If interested in this area, we should get a full self-recognition, like the goal to be a generalist or a specialist should depend on self’s disadvantage and advantage; as far as I’m think, if someone is good at taking control of the big picture, maybe he/she should go generalist. Also, the classify of profession. It’s sketchy, but still a good advice as necessary composition of an infographic department needs a reporter, a good traditional designer, a high-end CGI artist and animator, and an excellent programmers and UI designer. We could take it for future career choices. Last but not the least, since the theme of this interview is about how New York Times keeps a high quality, the answer could be summed as rational division of teamwork (or creative and efficacy culture of teamwork), enthusiasm towards the field, and nondisjunction of design and report (well, high skills and abundant experiences is needless to say).
P.S. Inspiration graphic from reading:
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