Going through some older bookmarks, I re-discovered this little gem created by Ben Mautner of Wider Angle:

Population One: One Pixel is One Person

While I’m ordinarily not a fan of web pages requiring horizontal scrolling, I found this to be a terrific application for a too often frustrating task. In fact, in this case, I found the very act of scrolling (…and scrolling…) to the right to be integral to the delivery of the message. For me, it helped convey the enormity of 6.5 billion – the Earth’s population (current estimate, U.S. Census Bureau).

A simple, yet unique design, providing a powerful and humbling experience…and a reminder to make the most of my pixel.

Fellow Graphic Alliance member John Emerson recently shared a wonderful free resource, a PDF booklet entitled Visualizing Information for Advocacy: An Introduction to Information Design. The manual is intended to introduce advocacy organizations to basic principles and techniques of information design. It provides some excellent examples of designs from groups around the world in a variety of media. It also has tips, exercises, and even recommended free software packages to help groups develop their imagery.

Among the booklet’s many fine examples is the graphic below, designed by the landscape architecture firm Field Operations as part of an effort to convert an abandoned railway along the edge of NYC to a public park. These two timelines depict the likely succession of flora and fauna, and public usage, over the course of four years.

Visualizing Information for Advocacy was written and designed by John Emerson, Principal at Apperceptive LLC. It was coordinated and produced by the Tactical Technology Collective and funded by the OSI Information Program. This publication is Creative Commons licensed.

Download the full booklet at http://apperceptive.com/infodesign.pdf.

I’ve long been inspired by examples of effective use of visual imagery to represent quantitative information. It was this inspiration that initially drew me to Chris Jordan’s photography, but it is his ability to spark introspection through his images that makes them stay with me.

Jordan’s latest exhibit, “RUNNING THE NUMBERS: An American Self-Portrait“, is appearing this month at the Von Lintel Gallery in New York City. From the Von Lintel Gallery: “This series focuses on contemporary American culture through the unassailable lens of statistics. Each intricately detailed and astounding image, assembled from thousands of smaller photographs, portrays a specific quantity of a particular object.”

For me, aside from provoking thought regarding cultural practices that generate such numbers, these photographic works leave a lasting impression of the the enormity of the numbers they portray. As a “visual person”, the works also get past the often mind-boggling effect of such numbers when they appear in their standard numerical form, allowing me to grasp them a bit more.

Here is a sample piece:

Above: Plastic Bottles, 2007 (60″ x 120″) 5′ x 10″
Depicts two million plastic beverage bottles, the number used in the U.S. every five minutes.

Above: Partial Zoom

Above: Detail at Actual Size