A map of the wondrous Isle of Manhattan, by Charles Vernon Farrow. 1926

Here is one of our favorite resources, a site you could browse for hours at a time and always discover something amazing. Over several decades, David Rumsey has patiently amassed the most impressive private collection of maps in the world, with around 150,000 historical maps and cartographic artifacts. The former real estate developer and investor, retired at the age of 50, has a passion for cartography and believes in making his collection available to the public as a free resource. He created a website, the David Rumsey Map Collection, that houses over 71,000 maps and images online (a bit less than half his collection). It’s an incredible resource (Click on any of the images in this post for a larger view).

Universale Descrittione Di Tutta la Terra Conosciuta Fin Qui, by Donato Bertelli. 1568

Novissima, et Accuratissima Leoni Belgici. 1611. Claes Janszoon Visscher.

360 panorama from the summit of Gross Inselsberg peak, Germany. By Paul Ahrens. 1860.

San Francisco, the Exposition City, by the North American Press Association. 1912

Map of New York City for the Herald Square Hotel, by Richard Edes Harrison. 1932

Feltrino and Bellunese, by Heinrich Caesar Berann. 1936

The Collection covers cartography from rare 16th century maps to present. In addition to classic maps, it includes thousands of pictorial maps and other types of images including some charts and diagrams. For example, you can find over 100 beautiful timelines, ranging in date from 1770 to 1967.

The Histomap of Evolution, by John B. Sparks. 1942

Viewers have access to high resolution images of maps that are extensively cataloged, and free to use for non-commercial purposes (and for commercial use, typically is enough to email them, most files are in the public domain anyway). The site also has a tool for georeferencing (correlating points in different maps, which is useful to compare and even overlay old maps that were not standardized or entirely correct with new maps).

To digitize and display the maps at high resolution, Rumsey developed a new company, Luna Imaging. The company’s software, which offered a new way to display large images, is still used by libraries and museums around the world today.

Rumsey donated his entire physical and digital map collections to Standford University in 2009. Last April the David Rumsey Map Center opened at Stanford in the Bing Wing of the Green Library. The online library at www.davidrumsey.com continues to operate in parallel to and integrated with the resources available at the Stanford Rumsey Map Center.

David Rumsey

(All images from the David Rumsey Map Collection, www.davidrumsey.com)

A few years ago we had the honor to participate in the making of the most beautiful cook book ever made. It was called Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxime Biletand. It consist of 2,430 pages divided into five massive volumes that weigh a total of 43 pounds (including 4 pounds of ink). It includes thousands of gorgeous photographs, and 36 of them are annotated cutaways. The authors actually cut through pans, barbecues, ovens and pressure cookers (just to name a few) and photograph them beautifully. We helped make the photographs into annotated infographics.

Now Nathan Myhrvold is doing it again. A new book, titled Modernist Bread: The Art and Science will hit the bookstores in March 2017, and will include some of our graphics. Four years in the making, the company’s website cites some impressive stats:

“The culinary team has developed more than 1,200 recipes from around the world that are both traditional and avant-garde. At over a million words so far, Modernist Bread will total over 2,000 pages and feature more than 3,000 new photos”.

It will be, we think, the definitive book about bread.

It is a nice late-summer morning. You wake up, make yourself a nice cup of coffee, sit down at your computer (or lay down with your iPad), and navigate to your usual news outlets to see what’s new with the world today. Then you see it, just there, staring right back at you, the cup of coffee stopped in mid-air in its trajectory to your lips: an infographic so massively bad, so wrong, so ignorant of the most elementary principles of information design, it defies your sense or reality.

It is amazing how in some organizations and newsrooms the idea is still alive that anyone that can more or less use a drawing program on a computer can do an infographic, despite a complete lack of training and experience in the field. The results, often ignoring even the most fundamental principles, are sometimes unintendedly funny.

In our workshops we show a few superbad graphics in order to illustrate some basic principles (the lack of). We thought it would be interesting to show here some of them, perhaps as a public service, in the hope we will be able in the future of having our morning coffee in peace, free of disturbing infographical surprises.

Enjoy!

iPhone math blackhole:

Wait, what?:

The infinity pie:

This is not going to end well:

I think I am going blind:

Nice (insane) metaphor:

Obviously:

Agreed:

Even the Masters:

These are just a few random examples. There are so many bad infographics out there a simple Google search produce thousands of them. Here and here are other compilations of horrible infographics you may enjoy.

That’s right: following the success of previous workshops in Washington, D.C. and New York City, we are pleased to announce two new 5w ACADEMY workshops in Las Vegas!

Our first two-day workshop is a comprehensive introduction to the creation of infographics and data visualization. With a mix of theory and practice, the workshop is aimed at professionals and students interested in developing the skills to produce engaging, insightful visual storytelling with their content.

Our second workshop is an introduction to the creation of interactive data visualizations with Tableau. This workshop is aimed to anyone that wants to explore and learn the possibilities of this amazing software, and no previous experience with Tableau is necessary.

Finally, we are offering a great discount for those who take BOTH workshops. And don’t miss the early bird discount! It is valid until May 31st.

See you in las Vegas!

We arrived in Seoul on Monday. It’s 5W’s seventh trip to Asia in the last year, but our first time in South Korea. The Government has invited us to participate as one of a small handful of foreign companies to participate in the Korea Design Businees Fair, one of the largest design events in Asia. It includes several hundred exhibitors, and also features the winners of the Red Dot Design Awards, Design Excellence Awards, and Good Design Awards, among others. It’s open to both the general public and product design buyers (largely from China, Korea and Japan).

The Fair is mostly dedicated to industrial and product design, but this year the organization was interested in bringing in a firm specialized in information design. Its a great opportunity to witness the design boom in Korea, a highly developed market with a tech-savvy public and an interest in quality design products. Korea is quickly changing from follower to trend-setter in the design world, finding and showcasing its unique sensibility. We are looking forward to seeing and learning more.