Yanko Tsvetkov’s Mapping Stereotypes project looks at the world’s misguided opinions about their neighbors far and wide. The Bulgarian-born, London-based designer entertains what Americans — who exist in the “civilized world” — really think about the rest of the map. (Hint: California is loaded with “fake boobs and oranges” and Alaska is land of the hockey moms.) Tsvetkov’s works also poke at Europe’s stereotypical worldviews, adding what the Vatican feels about those “frigid women” and where gay men go to drink “posh beer.” Click through for some amusing impressions. Read More »
UK media group Clay Interactive lived up to the “interactive” portion of their name when they created this Periodic Table of Swearing for the comic series Modern Toss. The company built the contraption in their Hoxton Street studio over their summer holiday, where in their spare time they made 100 buttons (and all the techno stuff that goes with it) with nasty little phrases on them. Hit the jump to check out the foul elements of Clay Interactive’s awesome chart that would make for lovely (disgruntled) cubicle décor. If you ever wanted to hear a British man tell you that your face looks like a sh*tflap — and who doesn’t, really — watch this demo vid of the Periodic Table in action.
As you chow down your lunch today, ponder this: How many french fries did you eat this year? What’s your pizza to veggies ratio for the month? New York-based designer Lauren Manning has culled this project from “two years of meticulous life documenting,” adding each logged morsel to the grand opus of data visualizations, mapping her frequent dining spots across Manhattan, studying her seasonal consumption of ham with relational circle charts and presenting her yearly food intake as vibrant, pictorial infographics.
“I was inspired by Nicholas Felton’s Annual Reports but also interested in exploring the shortcomings of human memory and trying to push beyond what we can remember on our own,” Manning has explained. And why document her food consumption, as opposed to something else? “Instead of just quantity, the food had many layers of information that I could work with additionally like location, imagery, time, experiences, relate-ability to the viewer and other elements.” She served up the resulting 730 days’ worth of data forty different ways; click through for some of our favorites.
In the past few days, pundits have been debating a controversial new edition of Huckleberry Finnthat replaces the word “nigger” with “slave.” We’ve already read a number of great, smart takes on whether this was cultural sensitivity or censorship. But it also occurs to us that this is the perfect use for Google’s Books Ngram Viewer.
Turns out, “nigger” has never been a particularly popular word in books — although it did trend upwards just after the Civil War, around the WWII years, and during the civil rights movement. The history of “slave” is about what you’d expect, peaking just before emancipation and again in the ’60s and ’70s. Anyone have a guess as to why it’s been on the rise since the ’90s, though?
Like the ocean’s tide, fashions ebb and flow. Whether it’s an indie band, a type of beer, a style of facial hair, a cut of jean, or t-shirt with obscure references, all trends come and go. (And then come and go again with each new generation, so keep those keffiyehs somewhere safe for your future children.) The infographic above deconstructs the natural cycle of hipster fashion, using the example of a hat. Do our findings line up what you’ve seen?
We are a little obsessed with infographics. And we freely admit that just about no one does them better, at least on a consistent basis, than the New York Times. As music lovers, we’re especially fond of Andrew Kuo’s ArtsBeat images, which dissect various aspects of his listening experience. But yesterday, we have to admit, he confused us a little. “Chart: Glo-fi” compares four new bands… including Sleigh Bells, who, last we checked, are sort of the opposite of glo-fi, chillwave, or whatever other shudder-worthy term we’re using this week. And what is this about The Blind Side? Is this just your cute way of saying “I like some new music and don’t like some other new music”? Does the NYT readership understand Pitchfork jokes? So many questions!
Out of our confusion came the realization that this was not the first time we’d seen this happen. Infographics are supposed to illuminate complex statistics and relationships, not add to our befuddlement. But it doesn’t always work out that way. After the jump, check out five more potentially fascinating infographics that have thrown us for a loop.
Holy time lapse sequence, Batman. Iceland’s most rupture-prone and least pronounceable volcano has spurred yet another cool fact-based internet visualization. This video neatly depicts flight patterns in European airspace before and after Eyjafjallajokull spewed ash across the sky; despite the air travel disruption, patterns resume apace, with some routes open on April 18 and business as usual by the 20th. Video after the jump.
We’re not sure why Billy Idol gets the central spot in this infographic map about the world’s most influential rock bands. We’re also fairly confident that you’ll never spot us on the “E” (as in “emo”) line. Click here to view the full version and tell us: Which line do you travel on the most? [via @slate]
Can you get a contact high from just looking at a Venn diagram? If such a thing could happen, then the super-talented David McCandless would be just the designer that we’d turn to for our fix — he makes everything so pretty. Click here for the full size. [via GOOD]
Between the proposed soda tax and a vomiting Diet Coke virgin on Jezebel, it has been a rough week for caffeine lovers. We really needed this infographic by Nathaniel James to help cheer us up. Click through for the infamous caffeine pill-fueled Saved By the Bell clip that inspired it. Yes, it’s hilarious now, but we remember being kind of traumatized by this very special episode the first time it aired. How about you?
