Data viz standards from 1915, Job market announcement, South Manchurian Railway Company postcards, Book series update
Standards for Graphic Presentation
In 1915, a group of men from American engineering, scientific, government, and business societies published seventeen general suggestions for the visualization of statistical and quantitative data. The committee hoped their recommended standards would improve how complex information was “imparted and interpreted.”
I spent a day over the holiday photographing and re-mastering images from their data viz standards. See them at infowetrust: link
Considering New Projects
After finishing nearly two years of civil service helping with pandemic stuff as a staff fellow at the FDA, I am considering new information design projects for 2022. I appreciate all referrals for work, including:
data strategy & communication development
novel encoding system creation
design critique and teaching
Please reply directly to this email, DM me on Twitter, or use this contact form.
One of the most popular (public) FDA data stories I worked on concerned diagnostics testing data. Watch its presentation at the Diagnostics Evidence Accelerator: link
This week's inspiration: data viz postcards
The South Manchuria Railway Co. published data viz postcards in 1937, including "Population of Manchuria" (left) and "Railroad Network" (right). Their colors, Neurath-inspired pictographs, and overall form factor makes for nifty little compositions.
The postcards are preserved in the Hakodate City Central Library Digital Archives, where you cans see three more: link
Information Graphic Visionaries updates
Our book series featuring Florence Nightingale, Emma Willard, and E.J. Marey is out of copy editing and nearly through design. We will soon be planning production. You can read detailed updates about the book series on Kickstarter.
These books will be beautiful—and packed with insights and discoveries. I occasionally share some previews on Twitter. For example, close digital scrutiny of a Nightingale draft diagram revealed a pencil note reference to the charts that inspired her work.
For all who missed the original crowd-funding campaign, you can sign-up to be notified when pre-orders begin: link
I am grateful for your support and emboldened by your enthusiasm.
