Graphic Idea Notebook

by Jan White

  Shakespeare, As You Like It, II, vii.

  Flow of time

  Consciousness of time: Rat race on the treadmill…or just watching and waiting… or forgetting in a hammock…or waiting impatiently for the train…

  Pace

  Controlling time, timing, and rhythm is the prerogative of metronomes or conductors.

  Speed

  Hurrying (or not) is the prerogative of three-toed sloths, snails, turtles, and hares—all symbols of velocity (or slowness).

  Evolution

  Development over time is shown most naturally in a medium that actually uses time in its own sequential presentation, such as Web pages, film, overheads, slides, or computer presentations. (Their motion, music, color, and bells and whistles are additional surface embellishments.) By contrast, print may be regarded as boringly static. Therefore it demands deeper thought, more careful analysis, and subtler comparisons. What is more, the extra thought results in clearer comparison and thus faster comprehension.

  “Sequential build” in a slide presentation: Slide 1 shows a black bar. Slide 2 repeats the black bar but adds a white one. Slide 3 repeats slide 2 but adds a second white bar. Slide 4 adds one more…the audience follows a sequence of growth that is easy to understand.

  21 ways to show change, motion, development

  1. Word image

  Words flow from left to right. Reading is a lineal process, flowing smoothly and horizontally. Twisting and curling that line results in “action”—even if it doesn’t mean anything, like this one.

  2. Before/after comparison

  The simplest and most forth-right statement boiled down to the fundamentals: the beginning and the end. Cause and effect. What the beginning was like and the way it ended. The development between is edited.

  3. Cartoon strip

  William Randolph Hearst loved Wilhelm Busch’s picture-and-verse stories of the irrepressible and mischievous rascals “Max und Moritz” that appeared in Germany as of the 1850s. They were the inspiration for the “Katzenjammer Kids”—the first true cartoon strip—that he later commisioned for his comic newspaper supplement.

  4. Sequential build

  Sequence of a balloon losing its shape is a series of changes shown best in pictures.

  Shrinkage can be shown clearly and succinctly by stacking the units for immediate comparison. The universally understood implication of size makes it comprehensible.

  Sequence of change shown deconstructed and tabulated.

  Improvement over time shown by what the subject is accomplishing.

  5. Image of violent motion

  6. Stop-motion and repetition

  7. Slicing a picture

  8. Stepped series

  Sequence of the Manual of Arms using a broom

  9. Direction

  10. Diagrammed kinetics

  11. Directional arrows

  12. Change in line

  13. Tone values

  14. Perspective

  15. Reduction in size

  16. Horizon

  17. Surprise panel

  18. Overlapping panels

  19. Folded panels

  20. Stacked panels

  Flat panels, shown here as facades of doghouses (with their inhabitants) placed in front of each other, seem to recede in space. Two graphic tricks: hiding parts of the elements (the dogs), and adjusting the bottom edges to create the illusion of an illusion, i.e., perspective.

  21. Panels as arrows

  Blending the panel with the arrow shape to bring out the directional flow.

  Change

  Cartoonists are rare and special people who have developed the skill to express abstract ideas by means of visual symbols. Everybody else finds it tough. That has nothing to do with your being a lousy “artist.”

  It is not a question of artistic talent, but clear, analytical thought. Forget “creativity.” You are not looking for a visual to make a splash with. You are searching for that perfect sign that will make your message vivid and persuasive. Therefore, it is wisest to use a visual language that your target is likely to understand. That is what makes arrows so useful—clichés though they might be deemed. They are easy to draw, yet universally understood and obvious symbols of change, motion, direction.

  Arrows

  The arrows on the following pages have an infinity of interpretations. Context controls everything.

  Most are shown flat, not only because they are easier to draw that way, but because the basic idea should always be presented as simply as possible. However, the arrow itself can have its own third dimension, solidity, openness, volume. Giving it dimension adds another set of possible interpretations.

  Don’t forget to turn these pages sideways or upside down, because meanings change with the direction in which the arrow points.

  Enticing

  Turning over a corner of a page reveals a tantalizing glimpse of what lies beyond. It is a two-step process: from now to what is coming… from here to there…from this to that. But the illusion has to be realistic, in order to be believable and dramatic.

  A. Folded corner

  If the paper is folded and pressed down, then all the lines are straight. Also, the turned-over triangle must have the identical shape, size, and angles of the triangle it reveals on the page beyond.

  The white turned-over triangles are mirror images of the grey ones beyond.

  A corner of the paper can overlap into the space beyond the edge of the paper below. Try it with a real sheet of paper.

  B. Curled comer

  The process is far more complicated if the comer of the page is not folded but rather curled over. The proportions should be the same as in the folded version, though some leeway must be allowed for the curvature. If you want to calculate it by descriptive geometry, or let the bézier curves do the work, fine. But doing it by eye is likely to be satisfactory under one condition: the line of the fold itself must be straight. It is physically impossible to bend a sheet of paper in two directions at once, unless you are constructing a hyperbolic paraboloid. (Don’t even try.)

  Hyperbolic paraboloid roof of house in Raleigh, NC by Eduardo Catalano, 1955.

  The fold is always straight. The edge of the curled-over paper can, of course, be curved.

  Make sure the rendering of the folded or curved paper is realistic by actually trying it out and looking at it.

  Revealing

  A closed door is secretive. Uninviting. Yet in the right context it could be hiding something interesting. The door ajar implies a promise of something in there, whereas a fully open door holds few secrets (unless a part of an object seen in the space beyond the wall may hold further delights?). Think strip-tease.

  Displaying

  Starting with synonyms can spark visual ideas. Check the thesaurus: showing off, advertising, announcing, flaunting, trumpeting…each of the endless variations suggests a different visual metaphor. Peacock’s tail? Nightwatchman with trumpet raised high? How does time come into this? Signs point to the promise of the future.

  Ideas in fact

  Condition

  Statistics

  Relationships

  Location

  Detail from Perspective, by Jan Vredeman de Vries, Leiden, 1604. The original version is shown at left, but I have simplified it, cleaned it up, personalized it, and flopped it left-to-right to fit in the space better. Is such manipulation legitimate or an insult to Art (even if it is in the public domain)? Good taste, context, and conscience are our only guides.

  Condition diagrams

  Diagrams are renderings of any shape or format that allow the plotting of facts in relation to each other. Their purpose is to show relationships of elements in time, space, volume, sequence, value, etc., whose facts can be compared visually. They can be manipulated to indicate status quo, past performance, future development, or any other changes deemed important in the message.

  Statistics

  The basic shapes of statistical charts and graphs shown on t
hese and the following pages can be combined and elaborated ad lib and ad infinitum. However, they should fulfill their function clearly and simply. Don’t embroider. Avoid all graphic exaggerations or trickery—unless “pictorialization” makes the message more vivid and thus more accessible.

  Directions lead to different interpretations: quietly lying down, thrusting up arrogantly, standing with dignity, etc.

  Hierarchy

  Authority and responsibility…who does what and where does it belong in the scheme of things? Graphic handling can clarify the meaning while enriching the visual flavor.

  Examples of variety of effects possible by graphic handling of lines and cells whether in outlines, areas, shadows, planes, or dimensions.

  Flow

  Flow of thoughts (in boxes as at left) or flow of materials from place to place (in blocks as at right) are easy to study, follow, and understand.

  Segmentation

  Cutting up the whole into its component parts. The “whole” can be a statistical concept usually expressed as 100 percent, or a square or round pie.”

  Assembling

  The process of bringing elements together by stacking them on top of each other, interweaving and knitting them together, to make 1 plus 1 equal 3.

  Varying line thiclznesses creates tone values that give flat patterns infinite interpetations:

  Clustering

  Crowd several units such as photos together, like flower petals growing outward from the center. Tighten the spaces between rectangles and keep them equal. Emphasize the solidity of the group by casting a three-dimensional shape as though each rectangle were a segment of a common slab. With that as the idea, invent your own format.

  The width of the line defining the box affects the look as well as the interpretation: crisp and precise, or fat and mourning-bandish.

  Ambiguous shapes

  They look natural, but look again, and the shapes twist and change. “Seeing is deceiving,” says M. Luckiesh in his Visual Illusions. The great master of the ambiguity of figure and ground was the Dutch artist Maurits C. Escher. Much has to do with mathematics and crystallography, but the application of the tricks is easy. We just need to be aware of what we are showing and how the viewer is likely to perceive it.

  How many Legs does the elephant have?

  What is inside and what is outside?

  Draw three equidistant parallel lines to create the desired shape. Join the “wrong” ends, and then lop off the “wrong” corners.

  Combining formats

  Using the modes of expression that each of the different chart types allows can make complex messages easier to grasp. Hybrids make sense only when they explain rather than decorate.

  Statistics and images

  The image is the context or subject and the diagrams superimposed upon it or inserted into it are the statistical facts that describe it or are described by it. These examples are merely symbolic of the infinity of arrangements. But what is more important: the image or the statistics? What will lead to understanding? What will lead to misunderstanding?

  Storming a castle is a risky business. Casualties are inevitable. The pies show the likely proportions of foulups of the various weapons. Arrows go in the wrong place, sword tips bend, guys fall off ladders (or something like that). The “meaning” doesn’t matter: this is just a bombastic example of the technique that combines statistical images with realistic illustration.

  Explaining

  Simplify complex physical objects and structures and explain them by graphic techniques such as expanding, exploding, peeling away layers.

  The “what” and the “how” combined in one image (an “extension drawing”). The photo shows the credible reality, the drawing expands it into a diagram that explains how that reality is achieved, what it is made of, and how it goes together.

  Decide which units of the object need to be shown, draw them so they are related to each other in terms of position, but add space between them to make each a discrete free-floating unit. That way the components are shown how they fit into the overall, yet each remains defined as a self-contained element.

  Draw the object in outline, stacking components above and behind each other, then define and highlight the important elements by tint, color, texture.

  Balancing

  Equilibrium is static by definition, so it is not likely to be surprising or interesting. However, achieving balance with unequal objects can be compelling indeed.

  Size

  Unexpected contrast of scale yields startling effects that make the viewer look. The surest technique is to compare the unknown to the commonly known. Everybody has a sense of how big hands or feet are, so the apparent size of the object is affected by the context in which it is seen. Dinosaurs came in a variety of sizes, but measurements in feet or centimeters don’t mean much. Numbers are not very impressive, unless they can be translated into something more familiar. Comparison to the human body as a scale figure is immediate and vivid. Also, the comparison of the object to the page on which its picture is printed can be used. The page is a miniaturized world and any life-sized object on it becomes startling in its enormity.

  Businessman Gulliver beset by Lilliputian problems. His big Brobdingnagian ones are too big to fit on the page. (Drawing by Richard Erdoes.)

  Proportions

  Greeks and Romans carefully guarded their rules of Design. Corinthian: much taller and decorative. Ionic: graceful. Doric: squat and simple. Doric column shafts were fluted; others were smooth or fluted. Might as well get them right.

  Scale

  Scale is the proportions of sizes to each other. Things appear right and natural when they are in scale—and incongruous when they don’t fit.

  The people look tiny because the room they are in is too large.

  The chicken looks like a monster contrasted to the city background.

  The fly is scary because it is bigger than lifesize and even overlaps its frame.

  Location

  This is the first of a dozen pages devoted to images and diagrams that indicate placement in space. When you think about it, there’s much more to it than just “maps.”

  Each of these mediæval woodcuts says something different about the Sun: friendly, threatening, quizzical, happy.

  The world; moons; comets; astronomy; compass points; armillary spheres; graphic riches packed with symbolism and implications.

  The globe can be interpreted in any guise or form that helps the story: spinning, as a person, pixilated, naturalistc, hollow, in the shape of a polyhedron, north-polar cone, or cube, verbal, as an object, as symbol using lines of latitude and longitudes, as didactic diagram indicating trade routes. The sky is the limit.

  Left-handed cartographer working in a meticulous study. Methodus Geometrica, Paul Pfinzing, Nürnberg, 1598.

  Maps were more than dry attempts at placing places in the right relationships or naming them. They embodied the romance of exploration, the fear of frightful fearsome fauna found, the excitement of the unknown, the winds that blew them there…

  … and it was by no means certain that the world was not flat (or at least cubic), and you might fall off its edge on the way to Xipangu (Japan). One good thing: At least there were no Americas to get past on the way to the Far East (or is it West?)

  From a map by Olaus Magnus, Swedish cartographer, 1539.

  Tampering with maps, distorting shapes, and altering expected proportions can produce vivid communication. It is hard to be statistically “correct,” but the point can be made more vivid and dramatic. It becomes credible and comprehensible if it is accompanied by explanatory words—both in the headline as in the caption.

  The trick is based on recognizing shapes and directions. North points upwards, though in Australia, the much-loved “MacArthur projection” has it pointing downward, thus placing Australia proudly Up-above instead of Down-under.

  You can play with graphic variations on the Mercator projection because the shapes are so standard an
d immediately recognizeable. Stylizations and even exaggerations like these based on various angles are acceptable as symbols for “worldness.”

  Slicing the globe. Pick the version of the world map that helps tell the story most efficiently. Each choice yields positive attributes while demanding a certain sacrifice. The map’s unusual shape should be taken into account, but its cuteness is not the first reason for choice.