Two and a half months after I started working for Golden Section Graphics in Berlin, we opened the doors to our fibonacciLAB. Here, we experiment with new technologies to design new ways of visualizing data. Read more about our intentions on our website!

On December 30, 2009, the German daily economy newspaper »Handelsblatt« published five unusual looking infographics made by Jan Schwochow (head of Golden Section Graphics) and me. Since it was the end of the year, the graphics were about numbers of last year’s/decade’s finances and some outlooks on this year/decade. Also, the title page featured a mashup of those single graphics.

The people at »Handelsblatt« had quite some chutzpah letting us go nuts with the mostly quite small data sets and the disproportionately generous space!

Read more about it on Golden Section Graphics Blog (in German).

Although this issue seems to be quite obvious, I frequently notice it being done the wrong way.

Comparing numerical values by illustrating them as shapes, especially circles, needs to be done with the area in mind, not only a one-dimensional value that defines this shape. A circle is drawn with a radius, so another circle depicting a multiple of the value the first one is representing may not only have this multiple radius. It should have the corresponding area.

Another more extreme example showing how a circle with 25 times the radius can’t be a symbol for 25 times the size:

On www.ionz.com.br, one can quickly make a profile infographic on preferred way of transportation, food, social networks and other stuff by clicking through some suggestions. I really like the animated icons. It’s not even necessary to understand portuguese. Here’s mine:

Found here.

Yesterday I made a trip from Berlin to Augsburg. Since this is actually a distance to travel by car or train, it’s something special when you go by plane. That’s what I did, and I thought this process is a nice opportunity to test my skills in non-interactive Infographics. See the result above.