tausiroko.com

Data Visualisation

Tau — Sun, 02 May 2010 21:05:24 +0000

The use of data visualisation has exploded in recent years as evidenced by books such as Data Flow which have become increasingly popular. The reason for this explosion is fairly simple, we now have more data flying around than we know what to do with and the general public is so incredibly bored with being told that 5% of this and 80% of that should make them think again about how they live their lives. This constant barrage of data has made people switch off whenever statistics are brought up at all and so data graphics are employed more and more frequently to catch their attention.

This Infographic from Phil Gyford’s flickr page shows us what happens when everyone and their cousin with a pirate copy of photoshop tries to produce data visualisations. There is a skill to creating effective data visualisations that many ignore, choosing to make something pretty over something that actually adds value to the raw data represented.

Lee Byron’s Last.FM data graphic for instance, reveals patterns about users listening habits that are unlikely to come across simply through raw figures. I was lucky enough to talk to Lee whilst working at Teague and his data lead approach to design is a fascinating new direction for designers to explore. We must all remember when employing these techniques that the information is the most important part, much like the message is the most important part when designing typography. Simply adding a flashy layer to otherwise useless data won’t get us anywhere.

News Media Experiments

Tau — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 12:20:53 +0000

Here is a selection of some of the experiments from the news media project. A chance to take a look deeper into the creation process and see the different directions I explored.

Train Journeys

Tau — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 17:07:09 +0000

For some reason I can’t entirely comprehend, train journeys are quite a reflective time. Most probably due to the large amount of time with little to do except think (or sleep as my wife is choosing to do). We’ve both been through a lot of stress recently due to the fact that she’s an American immigrant and we’ve had to apply for a live & work visa, but that’s all sorted now and a great weight has been lifted that should allow me to get back to working hard.

Since my return from the states I’ve developed significantly as a designer. I’ve always been passionate about producing good design and put a large amount of my own personal energy into developing that. Since being back at university I’ve finally grasped the space and freedom that it gives you. Spending the last year and a half developing new working practices and approaching design from a more structured and engaged direction. I feel this process is now almost complete and I can finally return to enjoying the making process. As Alan Fletcher said: “I can’t understand designers who leave projects until the last minute, if you truly love design then you’ll enjoy the process as much as the outcome.”

Flat

Tau — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:22:10 +0000

This is a quick one day project investigating the idea of flipping optical illusions on their head. Instead of making a flat object appear 3D I sought to make a 3D space feel 2D.

Welcome

Tau — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:35:34 +0000

Welcome to the brand new website. It’s still very much a work in progress, everything works reasonably smoothly, however there are a few issues to smooth out and interactions to complete. You should be able to find your way around fairly easily and all the links and navigations should now work, but if for some reason you find an issue, try again later as I’m working on most of the bugs and testing most browsers. Hopefully you’ll enjoy the new work on show.

Design in the Post Post Modern Age

Tau — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:52:53 +0000

Outlined bellow are some thoughts on design, they are ideas and that is all.

Design in the twenty-first century, an era where we are past the modernist principles of structure, past the rebellion of fighting against these principles and now entirely free to do whatever we want, so long as someone is willing to fund it of course, puts the designer in an ever more confusing position. The designer is expected to be both a creative talent and a restrained character, free to create unimaginable and boundary pushing work, whilst being restrained by ideals of budget and function.

Some, many in fact, would argue that it’s impossible for a designer to fulfill their creative potential when placed in these metaphorical box. Perhaps they are right, but in all honesty, it depends on how you define creative potential. It is very creative to presume that jumping off a ladder with a tin of open paint may produce a mark so beautiful in it’s abstract nature that the entire commissioned project could be based around it, however this would never be considered as part of a designers billable hours, mainly because it’s daft, but also because it would quite probably lead to the injury of the designer in question. It is unprofitable and in my eyes, not creative potential, but simply irrational behaviour justifying itself as “creative”.

What then does a design for a product, a poster, a advertising campaign, truly need to do? In essence, shock and awe. Good design within todays expectations and market place needs two important factors to be truly successful. The first is “shock”, in other words the design has to attract instant attention, for whatever reason, by being particularly beautiful, or daring, or minimal. A wow factor is what is needed. The second and even more important necessity is “awe” either through use, or extended exposure to the design. An appreciation of how smooth and perfected the design is, how well balanced, functional and in most cases, enjoyable to use the creation is.

This of course, all sounds a bit absurd, long winded and impractical to use in day to day creation of work. So I will outline my case with the design hero of the hour, Apple. Apple’s products tick both of these boxes as well as any current consumer electronics product can. Shock, apple’s designs always attempt to surprise and amaze their consumers, wether it be by perfectly sleek lines, lack of buttons or overly engineered packaging. Awe, every product created by apple also has long staying power, impressing the user by the layout of buttons, the ease of use and solidity of the product. Follow these two principles and I’m sure they will bring you much success.

Tea!

Tau — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:29:13 +0000

As a huge amount of you will know and possibly have experienced, us Brits love tea. It is a wonderful substance which for centuries we have fought wars over, done many a morally questionable thing and in the end, generally been quite obsessed with.

I realised just how much of a British thing tea and the way we treat tea is, when I spent the last year living in America. I realise that some of you, poor misguided fools that you are, bless you, believe that America has tea. America, in no way, shape or form has tea. The hot water with floating leaves in a bag that you serve is a travesty of naivety and tastes more foul than I could ever have imagined the sweet nectar that is tea to have tasted. I went to great lengths to find real, good, heart warming tea, the good stuff in short and eventually realised my only option was specially imported loose tea, mixed to my specific blend ideas. This of course, is a huge amount of hassle for an englishman who just wants a good cup of tea!

Tea, as my now extremely informed and quite wonderful long term (and sadly at the moment, long distance) misses once remarked, is like a loving hug in a mug. It raises the spirits more than coffee ever could and wraps itself around the heart as if it was the amber of life itself. And as I close this post, mug in hand I hope that you all find the joy of tea, it has become a small obsession of mine, I feel I become more and more of a traditional English gent by the day, something that perhaps is actually a positive thing.

Go! Drink Tea! And be merry!