In the age of digital distribution, when news travels ever further and faster and media outlets compete for a fleeting slice of online attention, information graphics have swept center stage. This far-reaching compendium looks at the rich history of this infographic form, tracing its evolution from the Middle Ages right through to today’s computer-based visualization.…
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The book “Print Punch” presents a collection of punch cards which were used in early computing machines. I contributed a chapter about their graphic design…
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With the advance of digitalization, the many Middle Age manuscripts preserved in our libraries and archives have now become increasingly available to the public. The intellectual and aesthetic wealth that they offer is staggering, and they contain loads of elaborate diagrams…
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I am especially happy and honoured that four experts on the history of information graphics have contributed to my upcoming book: David Rumsey, Michael Friendly, Michael Stoll, and Scott Klein. This post is a preview of their individual chapters…
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With the early modern age in Europe began a long-term process of intellectual development that brought with it an increasing appreciation of individual expertise as compared to the authority of traditional knowledge…
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In the 19th century there was tremendous growth in the use of information graphics, such that by the end of the century a natural proliferation of maps and diagrams can be noted across many areas of media culture…
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From the start of the 20th century the popularization of information graphics continued just as had been observed in the century previous. New contexts and uses for info graphics included illustrated magazines, popular science books…
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Charles-Joseph Minard was the engineer behind THE most famous historical infographic: The flow map tracing the loss in soldiers during Napoleon’s Russian campaign in 1812/13. Drawn and printed in 1869, the map was only the last of Minard’s sixty large format statistical maps. For the first time, my book presents all data maps by Minard’s…
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Urban cartography has long been an authoritative matter: companies or authorities invested time, energy and money in researching the data and information to be published in city maps. The wide use of mobile internet is about to change this set-up dramatically. Smartphone users today collect data about how they move through the city, they comment…
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Almost 44 million objects. That’s how many digitised objects are available through the grand European digital library Europeana today. The digitisation of our cultural heritage is an almost mythical project which has been going on for about 15 years now. Despite all the big challenges and despite the almost impossible task of making digital reproductions…
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Yes, I am quite excited to announce the release of my second collaboration with TASCHEN publishing, “Understanding the World. The Atlas of Infographics”. Looking back at months and months of doing research, collecting material and meeting professionals from the field, I have to say thank you to everyone who was involved in this project. Also,…
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I can hardly exaggerate my excitement on the release of my first book earlier this week: INFORMATION GRAPHICS, published by Taschen, is out. It was an honour to work with the very talented and experienced team at Taschen, who supported me in editing, collecting and commenting this large collection of work from the field of…
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