bloodwork revitalized

david mccandless won a Wired competition for finding a better way to visualize severely outdated blood test results. they're tremendously important but tantalizingly annoying and difficult to read.


here's what they used to look like:



and here's what mccandless and his team designed:





hopefully hospitals and medical centers will use this as their standard means of presenting bloodwork... truly a matter of life and death.

stunning typography

Absolutely beautiful.
Jarret Heather's terrific "kinetic typography" for Coulton's "Shop Vac".
Jarret spent upwards of 1000 hours on this masterpiece.

college affordability

college costs have been soring at a rate higher than that of inflation and medical costs.
2010 marked a landmark in which the first public university hit the $50,000 mark (for out-of-state students) as the University of California-Berkeley increased tuition/room and board costs 6.1% to a whopping $50,649.

the world's facebook relationships

a pretty neat visual representation done by an intern at facebook that looks at the relationships that people have to one another globally.

IDEO at it again...

making music touchable again...
these guys rock my world.



c60 Redux from IDEO on Vimeo.

Google Autocomplete

A cool little infographic here about Google's autocomplete. 
It maps out all the states and tells you what Google autocompleted when you type in the state's name.

some cool design work

sorry i've been MIA with craziness at work.


i thought i'd share some cool visualization that have been popping up in my absence. 


enjoy!

27,000 text messages a month!?

a bit long, but very informative video about the current state of our high schools.


this video does a great job linking education, technology, and society.

coolest puppet show ever

Kinect is an awesome device. but even more amazing are the capabilities people are able to invent by combining it with other technologies.


who said puppet shows were for kids?
also, try emulating this on a new york subway.



Interactive Puppet Prototype with Xbox Kinect from Theo Watson on Vimeo.

plastic tubing apparel

Minneapolis artist Charlie Bucket knits plastic tubing into wearable art. that can be pumped full of colorful liquids. Pretty awesome stuff from BoingBoing



Fluid Dress from Charlie Bucket on Vimeo.

who owns antarctica

5.4 million miles.


basically inhospitable. 


why is this space so controversial then?

new york vs. the world

a pretty neat infographic showing how musical tastes of new york compare against those of the rest of the world.

social media channels

if you were ever curious (or confused) about which social media channels did what (i mean who isn't at this point?), here's a cool chart (from Viral Blog) that will hopefully clear things up:

how is your country doing?

really cool infographic here from GOOD (of course) about which countries have done the most to achieve their Millennium Development Goals.


Check it out:
(as usual click for a blown up version)

break-ups

facebook knows when you're going to break up. that's right. but don't worry your privacy is secure :).


check out this cool infographic done by David McCandless and his team. 

social media

my company, Universal McCann, composes an annual "wave" study that looks at how social media is impacting the world today. a really good, albeit long, read.

Wave 5 the socialisation of brands - report

world series champs!

so i'll take a break from my regularly scheduled program, to say...


THE GIANTS ARE WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

political NASCAR

sorry i haven't updated in awhile guys...been on vacation in NY/Boston.


with the elections coming up, i decided to show you guys a cool infographic on where political campaigns get the bulk of their funding. GOOD took the top grossing campaigns of 1 democrat and 1 republican and displayed them as race car drivers, emblazoning their jackets with the logos of their biggest contributors. enjoy!

get hyphy

did you ever want to know how every rap name is tied to another? well look no further, Pop Chart Lab has done just that...it's actually pretty awesome slash hilarious.


my favorite:
BIG - Big Boi, Big Pun, Big Daddy Kane, Notorious B.I.G. --- Biggie Smalls --- SMALL - Too Short


click the picture for a close up.

the american dream

ever wondered what it would be like to participate in the creation of a new community?

LA's Skirball Cultural Center is doing exactly that with the help of the British Theater Company Subject to Change, called "Home Sweet Home". Museum visitors get to influence what gets built, who lives where, and what business are allowed in. Here's an excerpt from GOOD:

Visitors were of course drawn to the beach and to Hollywood. Watts Towers was decorated but no one moved into the neighborhood. Participants created numerous business and civic ventures: movie theaters and coffee houses; organic farms and food stores; an art gallery complete with miniature paintings; a hospital, and an In-n-Out burger fashioned from a banana. Unsurprisingly, high-schoolers contributed a marijuana dispensary. And as further evidence of Angelenos' political passions, protests were organized against everything from the BP oil spill to a fish shop that was selling whale meat.

It's a very interesting concept that obviously invites the discussion of immigration (especially given that it's LA). Without getting into the politics, here are some numbers on the impact and magnitude of immigrants in the US:

Interesting to note that Nevada has a higher percentage of their labor force that is illegal than California does.

relationships of all shapes and sizes

ever wonder how monogamy, polygamy, and everything in between interact with one another? well neither have i! but here's all you ever wanted to know (and probably more) anyway:


my hero david mccandless and his partner in crime laura sullivan created this awesome infographic 2 years ago for his book "The Visual Miscellaneum" (click for full sized images)






He's since updated it with help from Franklin Veaux (via QuietRiotGirl).





Enjoy!

green brands

yet another inspiring yet creative GOOD infographic. what importance do consumers place on the "greenness" of a company? and which countries care more about this than others?


(click the image for a blown up version)

sausage factory

"everything you didn't want to know about sausages"


discretion advised...



Infographic by Food Coupons

the art of presenting

yesterday, I attended the RogenSi skills presentation training - an all day work session in my office aimed at helping people become better presenters. we learned my important things, but my key takeaways were:


* when referring back to a PowerPoint, follow the "touch-turn-talk" rule. glance at the screen (touch), face the audience (turn), and speak to them (talk)
* in presentation mode in PowerPoint, if you press "B" the screen will turn black and if you press "W" the words and images on the screen will disappear and the screen will turn white. simply press that button again to reactivate them. GENIUS
* there are 4 types of people you will present to in your life and you plan your presentations accordingly
Expressives - big picture. visionaries. high energy. dominant
Amiables - empathetic. team players. harmonious. uncomfortable with conflict.
Drivers - results oriented. BLOT (bottom line right on top). direct. concise
Analyticals - rational. pragmatic. data/detail oriented. risk averse. accurate
* when giving a conference call presentation, stand up and exaggerate your hand gestures to emphasize your words and relay your enthusiasm.


It was all very informative and i truly believe I am a better presenter because of it. in attempting to find a way to relate just how important being a good presenter was, i stumbled across this article from CNN.

Why we hate PowerPoints -- and how to fix them

Nancy Duarte, CEO of Duarte Design, a presentation design firm based in Mountain View, California explains the importance of a good presentation, why utilization of PowerPoint is important, and examples of how it's made or broken good and bad ideas. She brings up the examples of the army, Enron, and NASA. Re: the army, check out this infamous "presentation" of US strategy in Afghanistan. clear right?

the world of data

i'm sure many of you have wondering this at one point or another. well look no further, GOOD has compiled a beautiful visualization on how much data we create or consume whether it be email, tweets, downloads, etc.


check it out here for the full sized image.

calling all infographers!

GOOD is hosting a competition to see who can come up with the best infographic for the upcoming election.

Here is the deets:

the OBJECTIVE
Create an infographic about the 2010 midterm elections.

the ASSIGNMENT
For this contest, we're looking for infographics about who is running, who is voting, who is paying for campaigns; anything you can think of about the election.

the REQUIREMENTS
Please email us your submissions to projects[at]goodinc[dot]com with the subject "October 2010 Transparency Contest." It should be a JPG, exported at a high enough resolution that it can be printed at 300 dpi. Since we're a little pressed for time, we’ll take submissions now through October 24. As with our last contest, we'll be giving out three awards: best use and presentation of information, best aesthetics, and best overall infographic. The winning entries will be selected by GOOD and winners will be announced on October 27, featured on our homepage, and printed in the next issue of GOOD. We’ll send GOOD T-shirts and a free subscription (or gift subscription) to the winners.

Go here to visit their website for more information

propagation planning

propga? what? if you're wondering what this is, so was i. Griffin Farley and Mike Monello, a planner at BBH and a founder of Campfire respectively explain the importance of word of mouth and influencers. oftentimes targeting those who influence your actual target is more effective that targeting your actual target.


for example: for the launch of the movie Coraline, propagation planning was used to create "Coraline Boxes" which were a collection of oddities, dolls, and props about the movie which were then sent to online "influencers" who would blog and share about it.
another example of propagation planning is the "Great Schlep" in which the Obama campaign targeted jewish grandchildren in attempts to convert their older grandparents. both were wildly successful.


take a look for yourself:

How To Do Propagation Planning

View more presentations from Griffin Farley.

the true size of africa

stumbled across this gem from the good blog. funny that even though we are taught in high school about the disproportions in Mercator maps, many forget the sheer magnitude of said distortions. africa is effectively larger than the US, Europe, China, India, and Japan...combined. take a look:





view the blog here

Scale of the Universe

Some of you may have already seen this, but an updated version of "The Powers of 10" (any of you guys remember that video?)
The guys at Primax Studio take us from a Quantum Foam to the Observable Universe.

Thanks Kyson!

How to Motivate

Dan Pink explores the value of intrinsic motivation at TED:





In it he compares a boss's motivation in the workplace to a mother's expectations after a Thanksgiving meal. Basically saying that putting any sort of dollar amount on that dinner would cheapen its value. In the same fashion, employees are better motivated with intrinsic manners over monetary ones. I think this is an excellent point, and that most successful business relationships extend beyond their dollar amount. 


(thanks Nathan Adkisson)

map of online communities

visfound this clever little map from "design language news":



my favorite part is the "unethical bay" that's settled right in the south tip of the farmville region.

color me crazy

Who remember's playing with Crayola crayons? I distinctly remember tearing off their paper wrappings so that I could color using the sides of the crayons instead of just the tips. Why? I have no idea - I was a kid.


Anyway, if you're curious as to how the colors of Crayola have evolved over the years, here's a neat visual representation from "Weather Sealed"



Apparently, the number of colors doubles every 28 years! Rad!

using the ipad to create content

a bloody brilliant article about how the ipad can be used not only to consume content, but to create content as well.


here are some videos from it demonstrating that:






Making Future Magic: iPad light painting from Dentsu London on Vimeo.





Enjoy! :)

suing in the mobile space

a cool visual representation of who is suing who:



A few quick hitters: 


- Nokia is the most active litigator, with 6 companies targeted, compared to 2 incoming writs (from Apple and Qualcomm).
- Microsoft is the latest culprit - suing Motorola over its line of Android-based smartphones, claiming the manufacturer infringes a number of its patents.
- Google, intriguingly, only has 1 writ on its doorstep, from Oracle - but that pertains to Android. And so do all the lawsuits from Microsoft.


Oh America...it's sue or be sued.


edit: here is a better representation by "Design Language News"

google strikes again

amazingly beautiful yet simplistic ads from google. i think combined with the parisian love, they're really giving apple (ipod commercials) a run for their money.




enjoy. and try not to cry too much.

shower time

A visual representation of what I spend my time in the shower doing.

For some reason I spend most of my time just standing around and letting the water run down me. Warm water...

it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

5 Marketing Lessons from Mr. Rodgers:

1.) Relationship-Building Trumps Flashiness
2.) Don't Promise More Intimacy than You Can Deliver
3.) Be Consistent in Who You Are and What People Should Expect from You
4.) Customers' Questions Are Worth Answering
5.) Brands Can Take a Stand


5 Marketing Lessons From Mr. Rogers


My favorite line: "It's hard to imagine a children's show getting less flashy than Fred Rogers"

awesome is always scary

I stumbled across the BBH Labs blog the other day and saw this great post by ex-BBH planner Ben Malbon who's leaving his post there to join the Google Creative Labs. He mentions that "The vast chasm between really good and extraordinary is filled with fear. If you push yourself to the extent that you’re deeply uncomfortable, you’ll be fine; if you’re comfortable, you’re not pushing hard enough." This really hit home for me because at times I feel like I'm too comfortable at my job here. Pushing your limits to that feeling of discomfort is what breaks boundaries - this is something I learned as a competitive gymnast years ago so it's natural that I should be applying it to my work ethic as well.

The art of storytelling at its finest:

http://bbh-labs.com/wonderful-storytelling-from-hbo-in-a-trailer-for-their-boxing-programming

I don't think this guy would have made it this far if had "played it safe" and didn't push the edge of the envelope.

are YOU using your brain enough?

So I'm obsessed with the website information is beautiful. They recently did a piece on how the world brain power is just waiting and wanting to be utilized. Take a look at this:





This is crazy isn't it!? Imagine the insane innovations that could advance our society if people just used their brain more. It ridiculous to think that people spent 100 million hours on making Wikipedia the substantiated website it is today. However, its PALES in comparison to the time that people spend watching TV. And that's YEARLY. Now obviously people need a break every now and again to kick their feet back and relax. But if everyone just cut the amount of TV they watched in a quarter (or even a tenth), just imagine all that could be done to fix our fucked up world? World peace? Eliminate hunger? Suffering? Prejudice?


You know you're just itching to be the next Mark Zuckerberg. Then you could have a biographical movie that you didn't approve made about you! Awesome!

"complexity breeds confusion and dissatisfaction"

- Henry David Thoreau


I really love this quote as I think it encapsulates current Westernized culture. How did Thoreau foresee this over a century ago? A more modern day example is Barry Schwatz's book Paradox of Choice. It has inspired many ideas that are constantly swarming through my head. Choice is obviously a good thing, but at what point does it hit that ceiling or reach that threshold where it becomes too much? Too confusing, too overwhelming, and too overbearing. 


I certainly experience this paradoxical phenomenon when it comes to finance. There is just too much "financial data" out there that it becomes difficult to discern how much information is enough information. Additionally, being able to figure out which information is credible and which is faulty, whether intentionally or unintentionally, adds another layer of confusion. I'm sure I'm not alone in echoing the sentiments of foreigners who came the this country and were absolutely floored at the amount of choice from seemingly functional-only goods such as toilet paper, toothbrushes, and milk. And while I don't see this changing anytime soon, I think it'll take a whole industry to corroborate together to limit the number of choices available for that specific product. Unfortunately I think it's an idea valued ideologically but not practically. As long as free market economics is in place, competition will always exist. Fewer competitors breeds future competition.


Further evidence on this issue can be seen here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/25513687/Iyengar-When-Choice-is-ing-Can-One-Desire-Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing
A study done by Columbia and Stanford professors about having too many choices. The study explores how subjects given many choices of chocolate are not as satisfied with their choice as those only given a few choices. The basic premise being that the opportunity cost of not choosing the plethora of other options actually hinders their satisfaction.

data visualization

So I have an very intense interest in finding clever and creative ways to represent mundane sets of data. Most of this interest was sparked from stumbling up David Mccandless' website Information is Beautiful.


http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/


He's right. Information truly is beautiful. It caused me to pause and think why so many Powerpoints created daily, even at a supposedly creative advertising agency, continue to be dull. The obvious answer being that employees don't have the time to focus on the aesthetics when they need to be providing the data that the client actually cares about. But wait! Spend a little extra time thinking of ways to provide that very same data creatively (and subsequently concisely). Why you may ask? Well with that added time spend on getting your point across creatively, you are now spending less time in meetings convincing clients that your data satisfies your hypotheses. And everyone knows that it's the time in meetings that really matters. I think that even a little extra time spent on formatting and finding new ways to show old points (pie charts...really? barf), that clients and co workers around will be amazed at why they've never paused to look at data the way you do: creatively.


Also check out David's great talk at TED: http://www.ted.com/talks/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization.html

first post

Sad news unfortunately for my first post:


Cal men's gymnastics team cut:




On a brighter note, Star Wars 3-D announced!




Just interviewed a bright Stanford/Oxford grad the other day. We'll see how things matriculate. I always find it helpful to review online blogs about interview tips.