The Center for Graphic Facilitation

The Instructoart of Airline Safety

Via Josh Rubin's Cool Hunting, I found Matthew Vescovo, the artist and self-proclaimed "master of the obvious" behind award-winning MTV spots and the book Instructoart, which is full of wry observations illustrated with vector graphics, airplane pamphlet-style.

My favorites include how to air kiss and how to do the Hokie Pokie. Listen to the rap version of the party favorite.

Now then. Any world-weary travelling designer tends to notice the unique diversity of on-board "In Case of Emergency" pamphlets that abound.

Each airline, from Korean Air to Kentucky Air, is required to illuminate what the hapless chattle-- er, passengers--should do in the unlikely event of a sudden loss in cabin pressure or, even more exciting, an evacuation of the fuselage after a crash landing at sea.

SketchUp

Although my family business was construction and architecture, I have always been intimidated by the idea of doing a "real" rendering of a building.

The family of CAD programs seemed a bit too maniacal on the details; but a new version of SketchUp seems to be the closest thing to "hands on" construction--it is the best synthesis between drawing, computer-added design, Silly Puddy® and playing with wooden blocks!

Winner of MacWorld's 2005 Expo Best In Show Award, this software has built-in intelligence to allow for super-easy manipulation of compnents (doors, windows); shadows, colors and even lighting changes due to time-of-day or complete seasons. Rendering and shading seems instantaneous. Check out the wonderfully conversational tutorials in an elegant Flash interface.

Read a more detailed review at Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools.

Montage-A-Google

Leah Silverman sends us this fun visualization tool, Montage-A-Google, writing, "This is a cool little program - don't have to download anything- just launch!"

These Keys Say What They Mean

When's the last time you saw new technology and just went, "whoa!"?

The Elements Take a New Shape

Philip Stewart saw things differently. In 1951, Stewart saw Edgar Longman's spiraling depiction of the periodic table at the Science Exhibition at the Festival of Britain. The elliptical take on the elements resonanted more than the "boring version on the wall of the school lab, which had the grace of a pile of bricks" More than fifty years later, he's refined that that periodic table into the "Chemical Galaxy."

ARTSomerville Infoposter

Graphic facilitator and information designer, Kelvy Bird designed this timeline for ARTSomerville, to mark the one year anniversary of the Nave Gallery and for their table at this summer's ArtBeat, put on by the Somerville Arts Council.

Click for larger view of map.

London Tube Maps Attacks

Globalsecurity.org displays maps from satelite imagery detailing the sites of the four bomb blasts that ripped through London.

The BBC coverage on-line does a great job of detailing the geographic locations and areas hit and the routes taken by the bombers from Kings Cross.

[Note: Please submit any other links to information graphics that are trying to make sense of this horrible situation.]

Post-It Pixel Art

And you thought Post-Its were just tools for facilitating brainstorming sessions, losing phone messages and displaying curt reprimands for annoying roommates or spouses!

This article titled Elvis Spotted in the Conference Room by Charles Mangin of CapStrat, a strategic communications firm in Raleigh, North Carolina.