Hi guys! We’ve been asked by a lot of people in the past couple of day where was our Term 3 Infographic. We took a couple of days to refine it and it’s now online for your viewing pleasure. click on the thumbnail below to view the video and don’t hesitage to visit our blogs and leave comments.
It’s funny when they (faculty) tell you stuff like “Network, Network, join a forum, post your stuff on blogs…” well I just posted a link on the mograph forum yesterday and there you go, one day later, somebody writes an article about it!
Some of you may have heard of a quarterly literary journal called Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, or simply, “McSweeney’s.” It is a bit of an unusual one too. The first issue printed only pieces that had been rejected by other publishing houses. From there, there have been many other odd creations! I particularly remember one which was about riding a rollercoaster and consisted of several paged of “eeeeeee” and “aaaaaaaaah.” Quite brilliant.
In any case, the man who runs McSweeney’s, Dave Eggers, is also in charge of a non-profit called, 826 National, which is “dedicated to helping students, ages 6-18, with expository and creative writing.” To achieve this goal, they offer “tutoring, field trips, workshops, and in-schools programs” all totally free to students and schools who need their assistance.
Now, the reason why I bring this up is part of how they pay for all this; through themed stores. Namely, a Pirate Supply Store in San Francisco (the original), a Superhero Supply Store in Brooklyn, a Spy Supply Store in Chicago, a Space Travel Supply Store in Seattle, a Monster Union (much smaller store) in Michigan, and finally a Cryptozoology (the study of creatures that may not be real) store in Boston. The Boston store is not quite open yet, but the 826 location is already running.
Each of these stores is brilliantly designed, down to the last detail. A case in point is that of 826LA, a Time Traveller themed store that opened just last year. Here are two of the “unique” products they sell:
After all that exposition, I would like to point you to the blog of the designer for the Time Traveller store, Stefan F. Bucher, who wrote a fun piece about his involvement. There are tons more pictures to enjoy too!
For those of you who haven’t had the chance, be sure to try and get to one of these stores! I visited the one in San Francisco and simply loved it (well, I like pirates too^^), but all of them look to be a blast. Check them out!
I would like to invite you to checkout and be apart of my final project titled “the Organic Web.” Here is a brief explanation of the theory behind the project.
“An Organic Information Visualization System is a system that aims to improve the typical experience on the internet. It has been developed by looking at that complex world we live in, studying the way information is presented to us daily on a subconscious level, and applying it to information visualization on the web. Its origins exist in the cells of living organisms, where life grows and decays, where its colour or size might tell us about its health or age. And where its skeleton will leave a story of what was.
In an Organic Information Visualization System there are two key factors that separate it from others systems. Those two things are, change over time, and user effected environments. The environment, referring to the space where the information is represented, is created with a set of rules. These rules are similar to the laws of nature. What lives must eventually die, every action has a reaction, and there for an effect on the environment.
What this means is that the actual site should change with the passage of time and as users interact with it. In essence it should exist as a living organism. Data should all be created with equal visual presence, and let a ratio between age and user activity to determine the visual presence within the site’s structure. Content that receives more activity from users should appear healthier and more prominent within the structure, while data with little activity should lose presence over time. As long as the environment exists this evolution should take place. The result therefore is unpredictable, but completely logical.”
I am still working on some optimization and content for the site, but feel free to check it out here
