xkcd - Tall Infographics

The Tall Infographics design from Randall Munroe at xkcd literally made me laugh out loud.  As he mentions in the text:

“‘Big Data’ doesn’t just mean increasing the font size.”

Very similar to something I repeat here on Cool Infographics all the time.  “Big fonts are not data visualizations!”

However, the format of the Tall Infographic is here to stay.  The tall format fits nicely in the content area of most websites and blogs, and the user experience of scrolling vertically is much easier than scrolling horizontally.

Found on Gizmodo and Stats Chat

Comic Tribute to Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes)

Calvin & Hobbes is easily my all-time favorite comic, and Bill Watterson was able to beautifully offer thousands of life lessons through the 10 years of C&H comic strips.  Freelance cartoonist Gavin Aung Than has designed this fantastic Comic Tribute to Bill Watterson, and posted it on his site, Zen Pencils.

The quote used in the comic is taken from a graduation speech Watterson gave at his alma mater, Kenyon College, in 1990. Brain Pickings has a nice article about it. The comic is basically the story of my life, except I’m a stay-at-home-dad to two dogs. My ex-boss even asked me if I wanted to return to my old job.

My style is already influenced by Watterson, but this is the first time I’ve intentionally tried to mimic his work. It’s been fun poring through Calvin and Hobbes strips the past week while working on this comic and it was a humbling reminder that I still have a long way to go.

The quotes I’ve used in the write-up above are taken from the introduction to The Complete Calvin and Hobbes collection, which sits proudly on my desk.

So, why am I posting this on Cool Infographics?  I want to pose the question: Should we consider this to be an infographic?

There’s no numeric data.  No charts.  No data visualizations.  No call to action.

However, there is information.  The information source is Bill Watterson’s speech from 1990, and the illustrations do a great job of communicating the message visually.  The image layout follows the tall infographic style that is easy to share online.

My own opinion is that “Yes” this is an infographic.  What do you think?

Found on LifeHacker

  I miss Calvin & Hobbes…

The Geek Zodiac

Very cool poster of the 12 aspects of geekdom.  The Geek Zodiac was designed by James Wright & Joshua G. Eckert from the GeekZodiac.com.  

Soon to be available as a poster on The Geek Zodiac Store.

I was able to find the poster image on the Doctor Who and the T.A.R.D.I.S. feed on Facebook, but not on the GeekZodiac.com site.

Is Elon Musk The Real Life Tony Stark?

With the new Iron Man movie in theaters, everyone has Tony Stark on the mind. But have you noticed the scary similarities between the fictional character and Elon Musk? The Is Elon Musk The Real Life Tony Stark? infographic from vcars.co.uk gives us the breakdown on each guy and then summarizes the similarities and differences.

Definitely a fun design.  I wish they had visualized any of the data for easier comparison, like height and net worth.

Thanks to Meilen for sending in the link!

Evolution of the Batman Logo

The Evolution of Batman poster designed by Cathryn Lavery from Calm the Ham is a visual history of the Batman symbol over the years.  I can’t think of any consumer logo that has changed this much, but the Batman logo remains a very powerful and recognizable brand.

A comprehensive and extensive chart of the Batman logo evolution, spanning over 72 years from 1940 - 2012 to map the transformation of a timeless hero.  Thanks to DC Comics for creating this cultural icon that we can all obsess over, all logos belong to them.

The infographic timeline covers 72 years (1940-2012) and shows different version of Mr. Wayne’s logo so the reader can easily distinguish the different iterations.  Additional information like the year and media publication format are listed in text.  I would have liked to see them spaced out along an actual timeline, but this design format fits better on a standard poster.  Three different size posters are available from the Calm the Ham site.

I found this design on the FastCoDesign site, but a few other designers have also tackled this specific history.  Cathryn Lavery mentions this 2008 video from Rodrigo Alejandro Rojas Sandoval as being the first one she knows of that had attempted this:

I saw this design on Nathan Yau’s FlowingData site in 2010, but he wasn’t able to cite the original source.  This one shows fewer versions, and doesn’t include any additional information.

The X-Men Family Tree #infographic

Joe Stone just posted his design of the X-Men Family Tree.  Connection lines styles and colors reveal the type of relationship.  Silhouettes or minimal illustrations give the reader just enough visual cues to identify each of the mutants.  How many can you identify?

A little Illustrator-drawn infographic I’ve been playing around with. I probably could have included more characters, but I had to draw the line somewhere.

Joe has also made a high-resolution version available for anyone that wants to print it out!  Thanks Joe!

The (Visual) Evolution of the Batmobile

This is a really TALL infographic, but fun to read through nevertheless.  The Evolution of the Batmobile from Carinsurance.org (I wish they would credit the designer) is a visual timeline in the form of a comic book page looking at many (I’m sure they missed some, but not many) versions of the Batmobile from 1941 to 2010.  They also cover different versions from comics, television, movies, ads, posters and computer games.

The Batmobile has always been the trademark vehicle for Batman. However, throughout the history of the comic, the Batmobile has undergone some changes to its design and gadgets. Here’s an overview of some of the evolutions of the Batmobile.