Last night Newsnight had the much needed discussion about graphic design doing what it was created to do – convey information and image.
The program discussed how politics might adopt better graphic design to help people understand complex or perhaps boring ideas.
The case studies in question were David McCandless's beautiful information graphics and he chatted to veteran graphic designer Neville Brody who took a lot of convincing.
The concept is simple you just need to apply the rules of visual design to information!
Design should be used to enhance visual information so that the data can be better understood. Text, numbers and tables are often boring and hard to understand, unless they have been thought about and presented properly. Often the person reading them does not have time to spend absorbing the information and particularly with regard to politics, the window of public concentration is often limited. Messages must be communicated quickly and with energy.
McCandless's work is experimental, but the designs are simple and clear allowing the message within to be communicated and understood.
Take a look at https://www.informationisbeautiful.net and let us know what you think.
