CITY IN FLUX
THE CITY IS ALWAYS CHANGING
U1458749 Matt McGough
RESEARCH
Define: FLUX
Definition: FLUX could be defined as: continuous change or movement. Sample sentence: ‘The situation is in a state of FLUX.’ ‘The situation is in a state of continual change.’ See also/synonyms: Fluctuation, changeability, fluidity, variability, instability, irregular, alteration, modification.
evolution
transformation instability
fluid
change
FLUX variation modification
transition
fluctuation
mutable
flow
alteration
mutation
conversion
continuous
inconsistent
RESEARCH
Photo comaprisons Walk through the city
Maps
Architecture
Photography/Film overlaid on maps
Time lapse video
Outcomes/ End Products
population circles Infographics bar charts replace bars with buildings from the city Jonathan Barnbrook
Population change Population density
Harry Beck
Changes between two parts of the same city
Change in language/signage
Long/short periods
CITY IN FLUX
Photographers Matt Stuart Martin Roemers
Animators & Filmmakers
Time Periods
1800’s
Modern day
Manchester
70’s/80’s/90’s
Pre, during and post war(s))
Huddersfield
People to Look at
Pre 1800’s
1900-1919
Inspired by the city
Designers
Site Specific (one spot)
Change
Animation population pyramids
City & suburbs
Changes between two cities
20’s/30’s/40’s
New York
Cities
London
Chernobyl
Fukushima
Leeds Pripryat
50’s/60’s
Ghost towns
LEEDS Research
Circa 1875; corner of Albion Street & Commercial Street, was insurance offices, now a Starbucks.
Left - an older pencil sketch of the Leeds coat of arms. Above - an up to date coat of arms incorporated into the city councils branding.
Leeds Town Hall from the Headrow (Circa 1800/1900’s)
Leeds Town Hall from the Headrow (modern day)
Town Hall and The Headrow c1955. Building on the right is now a bar and a hotel, part of the Light. The Tetley, was a brewery but is now a arts and learning centre.
Victoria Quarter (modern day), Victorian architecture with a modern glass roof(?). Looking along Boar Lane c1970, with the Church spire in the middle and the Saxone store which is now a McDonalds at the bottom of Briggate..
Looking up The Headrow modern day, noticeable increase in traffic and high-rise buildings.
(Roof of) Trinity Leeds, the UK’s newest shopping centre (2013) with the spire of the Holy Trinity Church, consecrated 1727, on the right.
Hyde Park Picture house, built 1914, Edwardian Architecture surrounded by Victorian housing, in an area now populated by hordes of students
Briggate c1951. Tudor style buildings in the left foreground have since been replaced. First Direct Arena, opened in 2013, could be argued that this is now the main entertainment destination for the city’s population.
Leeds Market, modern day, looking at ‘the 1904 hall’ extension, origins can be traced back as far as 1875. Interior has had many renovations and refurbishments throughout the years, with extensions also being added to the original hall. Left; Grand Theatre, Leeds (modern day) once the centre of entertainment in Leeds and surrounding areas. Opened 1878.
Mat t STUART Web
mattstuart.com
Facebook www.facebook.com/ pages/Matt-Stuart/ 256034902132 Twitter
@mattustu
RESEARCH Profession: Street and Commercial Photographer and Video maker. Location/Nationality: Born; Harrow, North West London Based, and primarily works in; London, some work shot in New York . See also/influences: Robert Frank, Henri Cartier-Bresson, skateboarding
Stuart often tries to inject humour into his work. Often catching objects that coincide to make one humorous snapshot, in a city where most of the time the commute to work is dull, uneventful., and full of routine.
A lot of Stuart’s work fuses elements in the foreground and elements in the background that might not be straightforwardly obvious. Some of his work is obviously funny, others require a bit more thought and Stuart shoots in both colour and analysis before you ‘get the joke’. black film. He uses a Legia 35 mm camera because he doesn’t want A lot of his work may be impossible to hide behind technology or the to repeat, reproduce or imitate as ability to use Photoshop to boost many of his shots were once in a his work; he wants to capture a lifetime coincidences. A rare and genuine moment and a moment often humorous snapshot into one that people know is genuine when of the worlds busiest cities, an ever they look at the final outcome. changing metropolis that is forever in flux. He does, however, use a digital camera (Canon EOS 5D) when Whilst I like Stuart’s work, and the he is shooting commercial and fact he is capturing one snapshot commission work and video into the lives of people in a constantly changing city, and that projects such as adverts. he uses the city as his inspiration and playground, it does not feel as if he has set out to capture the city in flux, or document how the city is or has changed.
Mart in ROEMERS
Web: martinroemers.com
Profession: Documentary Photographer. Location/Nationality: Born; the Netherlands Works around the world including Europe, and Asia.
RESEARCH Roemers’ previous projects saw him travelling across Europe photographing relics of the Cold War such as abandoned bunkers, cemeteries, memorials and monuments that are still visible in today’s modern world. Another project looked at ‘The Eyes of War’ looking at the wounds that had being inflicted on people’s eyes during conflicts. Roemers also took a series of black and white portraits of members of ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) forces in Kabul, Afghanistan and labelled the series ‘Kabul Portraits’. His latest project, ‘Metropolises’, uses long exposures to capture the movement of vehicles and people within cities around the world. Focusing on cities with large populations and high population densities, cities such as Karachi, Dhaka, Mumbai, and New York City are included. The effects of the long exposure, as well as the crowds of people wearing similarly coloured clothes leads to a ghost like-trails trailing the inhabitants, and their vehicles. I think his work is trying to capture the essence of human life within a modern city, whilst capturing common features of life that transcends borders and cultures. His focus on densely populated cities, offers an insight into what is could be in the future if the population of the world continues to rise at the current rate.
Jonathan BARNBROOK
Barnbrook has been quoted as saying that his ambition is to
use design “as a weapon for social change ”.
Some of his notable works include album covers for David Bowie, these include Bowie’s March 2013 album The Next Day. The artwork for this caused something of a stir Barnbrook has also worked with companies in Japan and he has upon release. become quite well known in the This was because the base for Far East, having worked on two the artwork was the artwork of high-profile projects in Japan. Bowie’s 1977 album Heroes, but the most noticeable difference was I particularly like his work for the the white square in the middle of Mori Arts Center, because it is the picture that covered most of colourful, simple, yet innovative, the image, but the title of the album using 5 lines to represent the was crossed out leaving it to read 5 different branches of the arts “ ”Heroes” David Bowie ”. The white center, with each line being given square was the main feature of its on personality by changing the the advertising campaign. Before amount of waves in each line as the release date was confirmed well as the width and height of posters started appearing with each peak or valley. Each line can white squares over what would then be taken out and used as the be the focal point of the poster, branding for each of the different Barnbrook had started to subvert sections of the centre. the posters by adding the white Each of the logos/lines are square on top. autonomous and work as logos The standard version of the ‘The on their own but when combined Next Day’ artwork is in monochrome to make the logo for the arts center – like Heroes, but there are limited it is said to represent the whole editions variations that accompany spectrum of art and society, that the vinyl copies of the album, that is within the art center, by the use are in vibrant colour and have a of the various colours from the mismatch unregistered screen- spectrum of light. printed feel about them. Also, the coloured lines are reminiscent of Harry Beck’s tube map – the underground map has become a well-known icon of London and is something that has being imitated worldwide.
RESEARCH Web: barnbrook.net
Profession: Graphic Designer, typographer, film maker Location/Nationality: Born; Luton, England Based in London, but has a noticeable profile in Japan. Barnbrook’s other well-known work in Japan is the branding for the Roppongi Hills development in Tokyo – which at the time was the largest development of post war Japan. The branding is simple and the main visual element of the logo is the 6 circles, these 6 circles is the Kanji (a modern form of Japanese writing) for Roppongi and represents 6 trees, typography can be added to make the formal logo for the branding, but Barnbrook made variants of the logo to use for the branding that fits with the various parts of the development, the more formal or less modern areas have a more formal type setting with serif and script fonts used instead.
I really like Barnbrook’s work because there is a lot of links and hidden meanings in his work. His Bowie cover uses an historic Bowie cover, his work for the Mori Arts Centre has a perhaps unseen link to science with the wavelength and colours being taken from the colour spectrum. His Roppongi hills work also traverses languages by using Japanese and English in the logo. Representing the change between then and now, between small scale businesses and the now global age of retail.
Nicholas FELTRON
Nicholas Feltron, is an author and graphic designer who publishes and produces infographics to represent data from his life. His products cover multiple aspects of his life such as his travel habits in 2011, personal communication data from 2013, and other aspects of his life such as food eaten, photographs taken and time spent with significant people within his life.
Feltron uses a mix of images, graphs, charts and text to illustrate his point. In the early editions of his ‘annual reports’ he used a two page spread for each category, one to act as a title page and introduction to each category such as travel, books or food. This page would be predominantly image with one word in a large point size to act as the title with two words in smaller point size before or after to act as an introduction and help keep a consistent theme through the sections of the document, despite having a diverse range of subjects to include in his report. The second page of the spread would then feature the content or relevant data, often split into 4 equal sections, but could be split into 3 should the data dictate this. For example a longer list required the page to be split in half vertically to make space for the list to run down the right whilst the left hand half was split in half horizontally to make two equal sized squares.
Whilst the style throughout one report is consistent, his style between different years differed greatly. His first report in 2005 used a square page format with a 2 page spread per category with a title page and a page for content, using a full page image for the background of the title pages. The second page would then have a grey background with black, white and red text, with dotted white lines to separate the content on each page. His later work would remove the images for title pages and make the format of each page a traditional A4 ratio, but some his work continued to use the double page spread, but the taller pages saw an increase in the use of single page spreads when discussing subjects with smaller data sets. Later editions of the ‘Feltron annual report’ also start to feel more formal in tone, due to changes in layout, font, colour scheme and the increase of graphic content (charts and graphs) combined with the removal of photographic images. However his 2010 edition is used to depict the life of his father from birth to death using data collected through calendar appointments, slides and other objects in Feltron’s possession.
RESEARCH The 2005 in Miscellany spread utilizes the full page image on one side with the content on the right split into 3 sections because of the nature of the A to Z list lending itself to being in a long box. The heading for each section is smaller or of equal size to the data in the category and in black or red whilst the data is on white, on a grey background. The 2006 Food spread utilizes the full page image but on this occasion it is of a map with data plotted on it so it is used to educate rather than for decoration. The heading for each set of data is smaller than the actual data within the category and is set high against the bar that is used to separate the categories. The map uses an yellow accent colour with black text and data points, whilst the bodies of water are left to be formed by the negative space between the islands that make up New York City (Feltron’s home).
The 2009 report feels a lot more friendlier and less intense despite having more content on each page than the 2006 edition. This is primarily achieved through opening up more space and the use of sentence case copy as opposed to the all caps nature of the 2006 report. The use of Helvetica as a font, which is a bit more rounded, is easier to read. The combination of the Helvetica for the body and Georgia (or similar font) for the headings
I like the neutral colour palette that Feltron has used in his work with the grey background and with the alternating use of black and red between each data set leads the reader to which order to read the data being presented. The grainy photos also help bring the title to the foreground and the clarity of the text prevent it getting lost in the background. I find it interesting that how he has used the yellow underneath the black on the right hand side but it does not effect the legibility of either component. I also like how he was mixed a variety of options to present his work with pie charts, maps, ratios and lists yet is still very easy to understand. I think the map is a good idea is it gives you sense of two aspects of his life; where he eats most often (the bigger circles) and the spread of locations across the city. This has more of an impact than the previous edition.
increases the readability and the separation between the two components of copy because of the contrast between the sans serif and traditional serif fonts, as well as the change in point size. The colour scheme used is also an improvement as it is softer because it is black and blue on white instead of a black or white on grey, it feels friendlier and less oppressive.
Web: feltron.com Profession: Graphic Designer, author Location: Based in New York City, NY, USA.. Here I have looked at how Feltron has presented some geographical data, mainly on maps of the United States of America, which he has cropped to areas that are relevant to the data he is presenting. Note this is commercial work and not part of his annual reports.
The first chart looks at the predicted fluctuations in house prices across the United States, The larger image has been cropped to include the North Eastern states which is known as New England. Not only does this highlight specific towns within this region (such as Albany, and Pittsburgh) it also highlights how the way Feltron has presented this data. Instead of using the data within the borders of the state he has drawn a line from the city/town and from this line there’s is a banner with the name of the city in it to act as a title which both highlights the town but also gives it more importance in the information hierarchy. Underneath this is the predicted percentage increase/decrease in the average house price. This is in a bigger point size and a different style of font. This is what you notice first and the increase in point size makes it easier to gather at a glance the general
trend across the spread of states. Each number is accompanied with a arrow which points upwards or downwards to indicate the trend. The last piece of information in the set is the average house price in USD $. This is probably the least important data in the set and returns to the original font setting but has no coloured background and is set in italics I like how this is set out because I think that it clearly distinguishes each of the data sets whilst giving a consistent theme across the spread. I also like the colour palette and font combinations he has used but I don’t feel as if the same choices would be appropriate for the look and theme of my project. The second map looks at the demographics for the American Midwest, the picture is cropped to the population statistics and a map showing the politic trends of the states within the region. The population statistics are presented in a more efficient way, in a stack of statistics and figures, some of which include visual representations of the data being discussed such as the bar chart showing the percentage of the Countries population lives within the Midwest region compared with the western United States, as well as Southern and Northeastern regions.
The bar chart gives the population as of July 2007, with the figure in tall numbers underneath but underneath this is the figure as a percentage of the total in a serif font - contrasting and complementing the style of the tall numbers. The map on the right side of the image maps political information which is relevant to the feature it appears in. The graphic presents 3 sets of information and groups it by state, such as the number of electoral votes each state gets, the margin of the vote each candidate got in the previous presidential election, and the party of the candidate who got the most votes in that last election (represented by a blue or red bar, blue for democrats, red for republicans). I like how this is presented in a way that isn’t too information heavy and overloads the eye. It uses a nice colour palette and font combinations that contrast but are still easy to read. I also like the way Feltron has used the yellow colour in this graphic to contrast with the blue, red, white and black that used across the different elements. The only problem I have is with the layout in that you’re not too sure where to go after you’ve read the title, do you go down the column on the left then under the map or do you read the map first? In my opinion; the page is too cluttered for a single page spread. The final spread shows a route for a Southwest Airlines flight that would be more beneficial to the environment, or ‘greener’. The page on the left of the spread shows proposed the flight plan between the different airports in
the west and southern united states, with more information on the left side of the right hand page. These stats are also styled in a dot to dot style similar to the flight path of the plane, but are listed instead of being spread out. I like how this is presented with the plane symbols (and the shadows underneath the planes and the lines for the path subtly add depth to the graphic), and the circles around the dots to highlight the points on the journey or the list, and how these dots are coloured up to contrast with the colour of the map. Another element I like is that he has put the 3 letter airport code next to each airport, whilst putting the full name of the city underneath in a smaller point size. Thus, again, allowing the reader to take a quick glimpse at the proposed route, and if they are unfamiliar with the airport codes they can take a more detailed look and find out the city. So there is scope for the reader to learn more than one thing whilst looking at the infographic. However, I feel that this infographic is the least relevant to my project and is hard to see how elements such as the flight paths and shadows will translate. But things like the coloured circles can easily be used to represent the growth in population.
“Internet GEOGRAPHIES”
The Oxford Internet Institute (part of the University of Oxford) has looked in depth at certain aspects of the Internet and how Internet use can change depending on where in the world you are. They have looked in depth at most of the world’s population and their relationship to the Internet.
Web: geography.oii.ox.ac.uk Product: Infographics.
RESEARCH
Produced by: The Oxford Internet Institute, part of the University of Oxford.
Most of the OII’s work is presented in a way that represents Geography – making it easier to understand the differences between different regions or countries around the world. This first map uses a traditional map, with different regions shaded to match the findings of how much of the region uses the Internet; the darker the region on the map, means that more of the population within that region uses the Internet.
Another type of map that the OII uses is one that changes the shape of the country and the size then changes on the data that is being represented. In this case the size of the rounded rectangle is representative of the amount of Wikipedia articles that have been Geotagged (with longitude
This map looks similar to a light map, but each dot on this map represents a photo that has been geo-tagged on Flickr. The more photos a location has the pinker the dots become. This tends to highlight tourist hotspots and locations that might have a particular influx of people for an event such as a music festival, a major sports final or occasion. Great Britain and Europe in particular are highlighted on this map, along with the population centres in Australia
(Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane) and The United States is covered despite most of the central states within the US not having much in the way of tourism hotspots. A problem with this kind of map may be that it doesn’t take a count multiple tags by the same person, and photos can be geotagged even if they aren’t of a particular event or place – an empty field can be geotagged 6 times by the same person in order to be represented on this map.
and latitude co-ordinates) within the borders of that country. The shading of each of the countries depends on the ratio of articles within that country compared to the population. The darker the colour the higher the ratio of articles to million of population.
The OII represent their data in a very interesting manner. Infographics in general interest me, as they are an easy way to data that if often of a scale that is hard to comprehend, and could be a great way to represent data on change. Infographics have become increasingly popular with the rise and introduction of more data tracking technologies, and I think that using an infographic would be suitable way to represent data from an urban city or on an ‘urban issue’. The only issue may be in finding a suitable style (or type) of graphic to represent my chosen topic of change in the city.
IDEAS and Concepts Initial IDEAS LANGUAGE - always changing, formal and informal language, street signs, advertising, change in purpose and audience.
PEOPLE - different origins and cultures, how has this changed over time, different locations and different parts of the city.
ARCHITECTURE - change in how buildings look and have looked, and how this changes between different parts of the city,
‘SNAPSHOT’ - difference in footfall, change between night and day in the same location, whole city or one spot, in a smaller time scale.
SYMBOLIC - looking at symbols/ icons that signify change in cities i.e. cranes, builders, destruction and construction.
DEVELOPED ideas Idea 1 - Language Change Video About the written communications of the world around us. Looking at the centre of Leeds/Huddersfield and how the language of things such as adverts, posters and street signs can change depending on the tone, context, location and target audience and highlighting the changes. Presented in video format.
Idea 2 - Population Change Infographic Looking at the population of Leeds and its suburbs and how it has changed over a longer period of time and link these together using a line and dot style system similar to Harry Beck’s London Underground map. Presented as a series of prints or as an animation.
Idea 3 - Snapshot Video Time-lapse Video about change but on a micro-scale. Change on a small scale, looking at how things can change inside a small period of time, such as what the variety of the things that can happen in the same space within a day for example.
Idea 4 - Urbanisation graphic Study of the increase in urbanisation across world cities around the globe, using a bar charts to represent the data. The bars then can changed to match the shape of iconic buildings from each of the cities in question.
CONSTANT - looking at things that constantly changing such as population, unemployment, industries and other statistics.
Infographics RESEARCH
Population RESEARCH
This table looks at the history of the population of Leeds using data found for each of the wards of Leeds at visionofbritain.org using historical data such as The Census. The chart also includes data found for Leeds as a whole district for the same time period. Some cells are empty as the relevant data could not be found for all the wards for within the period - 1801-2011.
Deve l o p m e n t & EXPE R I M E N T A T I O N
Having gathered the population statistics for Leeds and the constituent wards of the city I needed a better way to store the information and make it easier to look at so I put it into this table. But as part of my intended idea I would need to figure out the percentage change in population. After I calculated I thought it would be easier to get a quick overview of the trend if these percentage changes were colour coded; red for a negative change (the population shrunk) and green for positive change - or growth. Plotting this on a black background made it look like the stock exchange - which links to Leeds’ financial quarter and the growth of Leeds as one of the best places outside of London for financial services.
Development & EXPERIMEN TATION
Once I had found the relevant data for my project I needed to find a map to plot it on for my infographic. I found one that had all 33 wards of Leeds on it as this was how the information is gathered by.
But the one I found had a garish colour palette and didn’t have the name of each of the wards on the map, so I roughly traced around each of the wards (but I merged 19 & 20 together because historically the data for Morley had gathered as one ward until the mid-20th century when it was split into Morley North and Morley South). The wards of the council are split into area’s of roughly equal population (nowadays this is equates to roughly 22,00), hence why some wards are smaller than others.
Once I had traced around the wards I used a colour palette of white and grey on a black background. I then added the names of each of the wards on top of the corresponding shape. I then proceeded to add the names of each of the wards before adding a circle which was proportional to the population within the ward, for the year 1871. A circle with a 10 pixel diameter represents 1,000 of the population, so bigger circles represent a bigger population. Areas with no circles represent areas where I found no data about that wards population for that specific year.
The next step in the process would be to make this graphic for the rest of the years that I have gathered the information for and add more information (such as a list of the area’s that I haven’t found the information for that year) and add a title. If I were to animate this I would need to animate each of the circles individually as well as animate the year to match the progression with the circles. Although I think that this looks good I don’t feel that it is that informative as an infographic, it only serves to give a general overview
of the size of the population within the wards that information could be gathered for. It can be used to draw comparisons between the area of the ward and population and comparisons can then be drawn between the wards, but it fails to give enough specific information to be truly useful for those wanting to know more in-depth information. It could be improved by adding the figures of the population and how its changed to match the circles, the colours could also be changed to improve the contrast of the smaller circles because on
this scale the circle that represents Alwoodley is not visible, as would the areas where the population is less than 500. The problem with using circles at this scale to represent this data is that when the population balloons to the modern day figures where each ward has 20,000+ inhabitants is that the legibility of each circle make decrease. The highest population on the above map is 19,712 in Beeston and Holbeck and it has already encroached on the 5 neighbouring wards.
Gradient Map of Leeds, split into 32 wards of Leeds City Council, the closer to white the lower the population of the area.
This idea is a simpler and traditional in terms of presenting data, than the previous graphic. It presents the data in a similar manner to that of The OII Internet Geographies in that it splits the map into different areas and then colours them in accordance to the data they are wishing to present, in this case it is the population of the wards in 2011. This works because it is simpler and features less text and graphic elements. It also allows for easy comparisons to neighbouring wards by comparing colours either side of the border. However, because of the nature of the graphic and the limited space within some of the innercity wards such as “Hyde Park & Woodhouse” and “Headingley” it means, the viewer has to deduce, or guess, the figure of the population by the colour of the ward and its corresponding position on the scale in the bottom left hand corner.
Also without animation it would be hard to grasp any change year to year/decade to decade because of the similar populations of some areas throughout the area. Having a series of prints side by side may prove difficult in comparing the same area over the years.
A similar map of Leeds, split into the 32 areas, but colour coded by green, red or white. Green for growth, red for a decline or white for no change or no data.
This idea is a simpler and more basic in terms of presenting data, than the previous graphic. It again presents data based on colour but the colour palette is much more reduced and stripped back to the basic and symbolic colours for growth and decline. It presents a slightly different set of data, the previous model showed the population of the area in that year alone, whereas this model shows the change in population in relation to the previous set of data, for some areas this was 2001, for others it may have been the 1961 census. The white areas are areas that don’t have any previous data, and therefore no previous data to be compared to in relation to growth or decline. This is likely due to these area’s may have had name or boundary changes because of the population within the old boundaries becoming too large. This idea works because it shows the change
in a clear manner, by colour and written figures. But, the data is presented in a very crude way and does look very basic because of the limited colour palette, it does not look very pleasing aesthetically. Although it does show the change in comparison to the data most previous to it, the map does not show the actual figures of the population within each area of the city.
This variant shows the outlines of each of the wards, and shows the percentage increase/decrease in the population in the style of the stock exchange.
This idea is presented in a manner much closer to the way I presented the data in a stock exchange theme. This looks much more stylish with the outlines of each of the wards which again have been coloured up to match the growth or decline (green or red). This idea looks much more professional when compared with the previous idea. It looks much more modern as well because of the minimalist design. This look is achieved by removing all the unnecessary text namely the ward names, and the majority of the colour. This mainly black design matches my population data table / stock exchange idea. Removing the rest of the text elements from the graphic leaves the viewer to focus on the statistics, but doing this has also removed the some of the information that made it easier to place the data geographically. It also feels less informative and more
of a graphic art piece. In order for the viewer to know which ward was which during which time the person would need to look up which time and ward matched with the data on the hand at the time in the table which might not be next to it all the time. To improve this I would need to consider adding the name of the wards in place either at the end or start of an animation (should this be animated), the year, and consider changing the font from century gothic to a font more fitting the theme.
1901
1891/
Pop: 147
UNKNOWN, NO data
N/A
-16%
6.93%
11.15%
Pop: 2,043
33.45%
16.99%
8.15%
wetherby
Chapel Allerton
bramley & Stanningley
Guiseley & RAWDON
moortown
N/a
Pop: 5,841
Pop: 17,299
Pop: 7,156
Unknown, no data
ADEL & WHARFEDALE
-4.84%
Gipton & Harehills
Pop: 1,475
ALWOODLEY
-16%
weetwood Pop: 147
N/a
.93%
Roundhay
N/A
HORSFORTH
9.6%
11.15%
Pop: 7,784
Unknown, no data
bramley & Stanningley
16.99%
Pop: 17,299
Calverley & Farsley Chapel
Allerton
14.49%33.45%Kirkstall 38.95% Pop: 5,841
Pop: 8,258
Hyde Park & Woodhouse
N/a
Unkown, No data
38.95%
44.91%
13.22%
Chapel Allerton
bramley & Stanningley
8.15%
burmantofts & Richmond hill
moortown
N/a
Pop: 5,841
N/A
Kippax & Methley
3.1%
Unknown, no data
Pop: 17,299
Pop: 7,156
Pop: 31,572
11.15
Pop: 2,04
33.45%
16.99%
Guiseley & RAWDON
33.83%
wetherb
23.02% Pop: 1,368
Pop: 16,289
Unknown, No Data
Killingbeck & Seacroft UNKNOWN, NO data
Pop: 147
6.93%
N/a
Pop: 2,625
N/A
-16%
OTLEY & YEADON
City & Hunslet
Beeston & Holbeck
-2.23%
Gipton & Harehills
ALWOODLEY
Pop: 41,561
Farnley & Wortley
TEMPLE NEWSAM
UNKNOWN, no data
N/a
Pop: 27,521
Pop: 5,353
N/a
Headingley
Unknown, no data
Armley
-17.61%
CROSSGATES & WHINMOOR
moortown
Pop: 41,561
Harewood Pop: 580
Pop: 2,043
1901
1891/
91.48%
Pop: 1,842
wetherby
UNKNOWN, NO data
Pop: 4,492
Unknown, no data
Roundhay
91.48%
Pudsey
12.50%
ADEL & WHARFEDALE
Pop: 14,907
-4.84%
14.49%
ARDSLEY & ROBIN HOOD
middleton park
ROTHWELL
GARFORTH & SWILLINGTON
Pop: 21,623
Pop: 6,226
Pop: 1,268
Pop: 6,829
Pop: 4,087
15.48%
9.6%
N/a
Unkown, No data
38.95%
44.91%
Pop: 27,521
-17.61%
Morley
38.54%
I think this idea looks better not have fitted. It also helps withHORSFORTH colour is then used to match up weetwood compared to some of my the legibility of the text with the line and the box previous ideas because because they are Pop:with 7,784 the corresponding Unknown, no data it presents each of the different from the data in it. data sets in clear and map elements and Each of the Calverley & Farsley consistent manner confined to their boxes contain Kirkstall Headingley across all the areas own box. the area name, Pop: 8,258 in the map, without The use of colour the percentage cluttering it up or also separates Pop: 41,561 change, the current Pop: 41,561 being confined to each of the different population and an some of the tiny spaces areas, because each arrow which matches Hyde Park & Woodhouse of some of the inner-city area is a slightly different the change (upwards for Armley wards, where all the text would shape of blue or white, this growth and for a Citydownwards & Hunslet
N/a
Harewood
Pop: 1,842
Pop: 1,475
y
5%
Gipton & Harehills
OTLEY & YEADON Pop: 16,289
YEADON
6,289
ALWOODLEY
38.95%
N/a
Unknown, No Data
10.06% 2.59% CROSSGATES & WHINMOOR
N/a
UNKNOWN, no data
Pop: 580
19.12%
1901
TEMPLE NEWSAM 1891/
-2.23%
decline in population, for areas portion that is set in italics and the information as well as implementing Pop: 2,625 of the font means OTLEYof& YEADON with no change or no data shape some form information the arrow points to the that it maintains the hierarchy means that side). The addition of information hierarchy the space around the Killingbeck & Seacroft Pop: 16,289 the arrow makes it whilst setting each outside can become bramley Guiseley & RAWDON easier to read the element of the box quite cluttered, and Pop: 1,368 trend is one of the to work on its own the overlapping Po dominant aspects or in combination lines can become Pop: 7,156 burmantofts & Richmond of each of hill the boxes with 1 other piece misleading. Another of data. I think that Kippax of information. alteration to consider & Methley the boxes look good, One of the is changing the colour Unknown, no data due to the combination problems with this idea palette to warmer/more Pop: 4,492 of the shape of the arrow, the is that due to the amount of suitable tones. ADEL & WHARFEDALE
23.02% N/A
6.93%
8.15%
3.1%
-4.84%
1
Deve l o p m e n t & EXPE R I M E N T A T I O N
This idea is more abstract than previous ideas and uses only circles to represent the population data of the city as a whole over the time period (1801 - 2011) and as such does not require the use of any geographical data, making the use of a map redundant, and in doing so clearly only represents one set of data - the population of the City other the decades, rather than the population, the ward of the council, and some times the change in population. This idea is much simpler and streamlined. As the population grows so does the circle that represents that particular year. The circles
are randomly arranged but are then connected in order to try and give some the viewer some sense in what order to read the data instead of allowing the viewer to find each of the circles independently and order them chronologically. However whilst having each of the circles randomly arranged maintains the more abstract nature of the graphic, it does mean that it is harder to follow the sequence of the circles and the connecting lines make it look messier and the more cluttered than it needs to be. Potential remedies to this could include:
- removing the lines would make the piece feel less cluttered but could still leave the viewer confused as to the sequence the circles belong in - arranging the circles in a line (similar in layout to a timeline) - arranging the circles in a bigger circle or a spiral to remove the need for any connecting lines whilst maintaining a less ‘linear’ approach - considering another method of imparting a sequence such as changing shape or colour
This idea is loosely based on the previous idea and shares the same layout and format, and uses the change in colour to progress time, whereas the increase in size is proportional to the increase in population. This idea is much more preferable to the previous one as it is much more cleaner and easier to understand. This idea could be improved if some of the type was changed to fit around the circle, if the circle is pretty small, to avoid the overlapping text which is present on this graphic. Something else to consider would be to change the colour palette,
but it is hard to find a colour that works in various shades, from light to dark in order to maintain the effect.
This idea is a development of the first idea on the page across. This version removes all the lines and rearranges the circles into a spiral. The spiral then grows outwards as time elapses and the population grows. The only slight change I would make to this, is to wrap the text around the circles that are in the middle of the spiral, because it is not entirely clear as to which of the number belongs to which of the circles, it could be called a little bit cluttered and confusing.
Website/UI Research
WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT
Initial IDEAS Full Page
Infographic Website Design Navigation
Concept 1
Infographic page
Infographic page
Navigation
Infographics
No Scroll Homepage
Infographic Website Design
Concept 2
Homepage Navigation Infographic Page
Full Page
Infographic Website Design
Concept 3
Homepage Development I chose my second concept to move on with and develop, as I think that the ‘no scroll’ idea is much more interesting than the other two ideas. I used Adobe’s Dreamweaver software to create the web pages using html and CSS coding. Considering that I used circles so much in the more abstract infographic ideas, I continued to use circles in my web site design, because they fitted in with a more modern style, that matched some of my infographics. In order to keep with the more modern style I was aiming for with my design, I used a clean, sans serif font - Century Gothic both for headings and body copy. I chose this because the C is almost a circle and blends with the the buttons that take the viewer to the different pages. Some of the characters within the font set would also contrast with some of the more angular aspects of some of the less abstract concepts used for some of the infographics. I chose to use a light blue for the heading because I had used blue a lot in the production of the infographics and, I felt that using a blue would contrast with the background colour whether this be black, white or a variant of grey. I also wanted to use quite a neutral colour for the background because I didn’t want this to overpower infographics and the navigational buttons, which would move from greyscale to full colour on when the cursor rolled over the button, apart from the home button which would be in the same blue as the title.
As part of the development of the design and style of the website I experimented with different background colours, using white, black and two variants of grey. Initially I started with the lighter grey (hex code #4D4D4D, rgb 77, 77, 77) and I felt that it was to close to some of the greyscale navigation buttons. So then I tried white (hex #FFFFFF, rgb 255, 255, 255) and black (hex #000000, rgb 0, 0, 0) and compared the two. I felt that the black was too dark and again clashed with some of the nav buttons, whilst the white over powered the rest of the content and the amount of white space on the page made the page feel too big whilst making some of the content feel smaller. Seen as I liked the black better than the white I went for a dark shade of grey (hex #242424, rgb 36, 36, 36), in order to avoid the clash with some of the tones of the buttons and increase the contrast between the background the white text and some of the blue features, as well as maintaining the identity of each of the nav buttons.
White / #FFFFFF / RGB 255, 255, 255
Grey / #4D4D4D / RGB 77, 77, 77
Dark Grey / #242424 / RGB 36, 36, 36
Black / #000000 / RGB 0, 0, 0
Infographic pages The next step was to produce the pages that would host the infographics. I attempted a style to the homepage but there wasnt space to hold the graphic and the nav buttons under each other without having to scroll down to fullly reveal the nav buttons so I moved the nav buttons along the side, whilst moving the graphics to the right of the nav buttons. I also had to alter some of the dimensions of the graphics, in
order for them to fit onto the page without needing to scroll. In order to the maintain the dimension ratio, I deleted the width value in Dreamweaver and locking the width to height ratio before adjusting the height value to fit onto the page. With each page I also changed the nav buttons to remove the button that linked to the current page, again in order to preserve the ‘no scroll’ aspect of my design.
Ward block change % from 2001-2011
Ward population circles 1871
Population Spiral 1801-2011
Ward population ‘flags’ change from 1891 to 1901
Ward outline population change to 2011 from previous data set
Population tones circles 1801-2011
Ward population gradient 2011
Table, with population data
EVALUATION
Overall I have really enjoyed this project, as I feel I have learn a lot about myself, and my city, as well new skills and ideas that will help me in the next project and future outside of university. Firstly - research. In regards to this particular project I felt like I spent too much time doing research into areas that, in the end, didn’t have any influence on, or relevance to, my work. In future I will need to focus my research more on relevant subject area so that it can inform my work more. However having said this I do feel that during the course of my research I do feel that I have learned a lot about how different people can tackle the same issue in a variety of different ways, depending on the artists/authors background, as well as how the same medium can be used in a variety of ways to get a message out to an audience. Secondly, during the production of my infographics I used a few different styles and if I were to do this project again I would try to ensure that each of the infographics that I produced would have the same style, by using the same font and colour palette (if applicable). Doing this would have made the website feel more cohesive and professional, as well as upholding a stronger identity. I also feel that some of the graphics don’t contain enough information to be informative, so I would add more information to them such as the ward name and a year. During the production of the infographics I feel as if I have learned a lot about the layout and composition required to make infographics engaging and informative at the same time. Producing the infographics was one of the more enjoyable aspects of the project because I enjoyed trying to visualise the data that
I had gathered, I also enjoyed coming up with the different ways of visualising the data including the abstract and non-abstract ways (even though some of them do look very basic). Thirdly, the website isn’t exactly as I imagined it. I had trouble trying to get the header and other content to span the width of the page and remain centred to the middle of the page. Given more time I would have also had some text to accompany the graphics in order to explain some of the details associated with it, and I would have liked to have put this on the right hand side of the page in an attempt to fill some of the space on the right hand side. Using Dreamweaver has given me a greater insight into the work of web development and a greater respect for web developers and coders, but it does feel like a skill that will be handy to know in the future and may make me more employable in the future. It has also given me a greater knowledge of the requirements of designing for websites and digital platforms. Finally, throughout the project I have collating my research development and experimentation in this document, and i feel that the page layout could be improved. Some elements were either too close together or it was hard to associate text with the image, sometimes the text would be aligned right to try and associate it with the image but this looked awkward to read as it wasn’t with the traditional convention of english text reading from left to right. There was also times where the layout just doesn’t look quite right. The positive side of this is that I am learning more and more as to the conventions and traditions of page layout, as well as what I want to do as a designer in the future.