Category: Design

Aren’t we all sick of the standard bar and pie chart? I think it’s always a good idea to make your reader work a little bit for information – to learn something – and to get that zing of knowledge once they have successfully deciphered an info-graphic.

It is not easy to create a unique-to-the-information info-graphic, in fact, it requires a little bit of planning, tiresome experimentation and the willingness to get to the end of it all only to realise it doesn’t work.

Catalog Tree is a great example of a studio that has great vision for info-graphics and here are some of theirs amongst others.

   

I am into my second week of the flu and on my 3rd day of medical leave over these past 2 weeks.

For some inexplicable reason, I am sitting here in bed – feeling extremely guilty about missing work and sensing some animosity from my boss about it. Of course, “missing work” is used loosely here because I still have  a ton of work to finish up and I still being contacted by people from office.

Being sick is no longer considered sacred.

I have been coughing, increasingly so, over the past 2 weeks – and everyone has noticed, including him. Yet, I have not once received a “Have you seen the doctor” or “You need to rest”. In fact, he still insists on my presence at presentations regardless of me delivering one cough per sentence.

In this time of H1N1, I must appear completely socially irresponsible to be out in public, coughing incessantly. Not to mention, another 2 to 3 people have now started coughing in the office.

When my doctor told me he was putting on me medical leave, I said, “ok, at least I can work from home”. He actually responded with, “that’s not what medical leave is for. You are supposed to rest”. Yeah right. This is not a comfortable situation for me, especially since I fall sick at the drop of a hat. If someone sneezes in Tampines, I get a sore throat.

So, here I sit, 11am on Thursday, groggy from Dhasedyl with a pile of designing to do. What about that “rest” now?

Have you ever felt like you’re about to kill everyone around you and then slit your jugular wide open with a 250gsm piece of paper? My work rage is growing by day and I am often torn between wanting to inflict harm on other or on myself – the lesser of 2 evils – whichever would end this daily madness.

What is it with people who place themselves in the position to do nothing other than comment – and when asked to help/make helpful suggestions/provide alternative solutions – they disappear or throw it back to you? Am I that old fashioned that I believe – when you confront someone with a problem, you should also have a viable solution – instead of just criticising and ripping things to shred willy nilly?

My past two work weeks have been painful, tiring and hard. Every hour on the hour, I am resisting the overwhelming urge to just get up, take my bag and leave. It is a very sad thing when you career becomes a job solely because of where you work. And it’s even more sad when the money you get is not enough for the compromising design choices you have to make. I know it sounds terribly dramatic, but designing even the shittiest thing requires soul and when that is given away, you feel pretty ripped.

Wow, what a rambling.

This is the cover of the Dexter Season 3 box set (don’t quote me on this). I am not a Dexter fan, not because of dislike but because of lack of opportunity/interest to watch it – plus is it too late in the game? I have a fetish for serial killer stories (have had it for almost 2 decades now) so I might jump on the Dexter bandwagon soon.

Regardless, love this cover – the play on American Idol, the GQ styling. Smart.

I managed to rush down to 8Q, at the Singapore Art Museum before dance class (don’t I sound nice and active?) to catch the exhibition, “This Is Not A Print”. I got there at 6:30, half an hour before it closes so the place was completely empty which was perfect for me to ooh and aah to myself. It’s a great exhibit and I encourage everyone to have a look at it – make it an additional thing to see before your shopping/lunch trip at Raffles City.

I took a couple of shots (like a loser) of the pieces that froze me for more than a minute at least (I have a short attention span).

David Hockney \\ An Image of Gregory (absolutely gorgeous, split frame artwork)

Robert Motherwell \\ Bastos (I absolutely adore paint lashings and this one had a huge pack pasted over it)

Jasper Johns \\ Colour Numeral Series (And finally, the piece that knocked me over. Numerals in multiples, wow)

This Is Not A Print! runs till 26 July 2009.