Prius’ console allow users (and passengers) to see what happens under the hood. The console sports an energy monitor (among other controls) that transparently provides information to the user (and passengers) so they can understand how the ups-and-downs of gas and break pedals impact the hybrid’s fuel usage and battery charging. Using simple visuals and […]
“Pig 05049” is a background story in reverse: This book starts from the initial ingredient (a pig) to tell the (future) story of everything that the pig becomes after slaughter. Book by Christien Meindertsma. Images from julie joliat.
First: show it all. Then let people zoom into the pieces of information that interest them. A visual story can be overwhelming if it doesn’t provide some context. A good background story makes it clear what information is found in what part of a product’s background. This example makes excellent use of spacial relationships to […]
‘The story of stuff’ is an animation/video that strolls through the ‘big picture’ of the production/consumption life cycle. Story of Stuff exposes the connections behind products (and really behind our whole economic system). It paints a relatively dreary outlook, and thereby inspires action. It has been out for a while, and fortunately they’ve recently added […]
Consumers can track the back story of their Icebreaker product through a portal on the company’s homepage. Entering a ‘baacode’ reveals pictures and video clips of the people that raise the sheep and the place they roam. The information for the sample code paints only a picture around the actual beast (sheep) that the wool […]
Here’s a quick sketch done on the map of a pre-printed coffee cup: Shows the journey of the coffee beans from origin to consumption. Small text reads (from top): Consumption, Minneapolis, MN; Processing, Texas; Production, Costa Rica.
Details on the eco-efficiencies of the company that produced this cup are printed right on it. (Along with an intriguing blank world map: which could lend itself to some sketches to show where the coffee inside came from.) I’m not sure that many take the time to read the details of eco-efficiencies on the back […]
This t-shirt tells its own back story: the t-shirt tags are cut from the inside and stitched into the screenprint graphic of an imagined life of the product. The shirt was put into production in 2006 by Droog Design. This is a more illustrative, conceptual version of a background story – less data based. The […]
The economics of this (fair trade) chocolate bar are molded into it. The consumer can readily see what percentage of the money they paid went to the farmer vs. transportation. On the reverse is another set of the same text; this time representing non-fair trade chocolate (the farmer gets only half as much as the […]
How Electricity Gets to Your Home. Context is everything. Without a direct connection with the interests of the intended audience, any information graphic – no matter how well-rendered – will fall flat. This graphic came with a newsletter that my electric company sends out. But they missed the boat: What do I, as a consumer […]