About Leo Patterson

Second year graphic design student at Huddersfield University

Systems human map

Final

Each set of icons represents the different topics I mentioned:

(from top left going down)

  1. Food
  2. Internet
  3. TV/radio broadcasts
  4. Electricity use
  5. Drugs
  6. Power and sourcing
  7. Mobile communication
  8. Transport

The reason the human is the centre piece as the message I’m trying to get across is that everything in the world revolves around human beings, we make the world go round.

Processes and associated icons

Here is a list of what I will show on the design, and what the symbol/icon will be for each. Bold italic text will be used for the symbol/icon detail.

 

Food

  1. Animal/crop – Cow/maze
  2. Harvested – Dead cow/plough
  3. Manufactured – Cut meat/row of corn
  4. Packaged – Packed meat
  5. Transported – Lorry
  6. Purchased – Pound symbol
  7. Prepared – Cut up meat
  8. Eaten – Mouth

Mobile communication

  1. Create text –mobile with ‘hello’ being typed
  2. Send text –mobile with send on screen
  3. Packages of data transferred to recipient’s phone – two mobiles connecting
  4. Message received – new phone receives message

Tv and radio broadcast

  1. Original sound/image, is then filmed with receptor (microphone/camera) – microphone/camera
  2. Sent to a transmitting antenna – Antenna
  3. Radio/TV receives data – Radio/TV with ariel blinking
  4. Sound/image is reproduced on radio/TV – Radio/TV produces sound/image

Transport (multiple branches)

  1. Fill up fuel tank (linked to power/energy topic) – petrol pump
  2. Each mode of transport goes from point A to B – car with arrow pointing

Car, bus & trainaccessible transport for everyone, and personal travel. –  car,bus,train – crowd of people

Ships & lorries (linked to food topic) – Industry, shipping routes. – ship,lorrie, with arrows

Aircraft – point A to B (long distance), global access for everyone. – plane around globe

Spacecraft point A to B and beyond, access outer world locations. – spacecraft orbiting earth

 

Electrical appliances (linked to power/energy)

  1. Use electrical appliance – Kettle plugged in to mains
  2. Electricity travels through wires in your home – wires
  3. Mains electricity travels through power lines – power lines/pylons
  4. Electricity travels from the power station – power station
  5. Power stations obtain energy from fossil fuels, nuclear power, or renewable energy sources. – mining/pick axe

Internet

  1. Device connects to internet via ethernet OR ethernet cable
  2. wifi – wifi icon
  3. Connects to modem/router – router
  4. Connects to Internet Service provider Computer hub
  5. Connects the user to the internet World Wide Web

Drugs (linked to transport)

  1. Grown/produced – poppy
  2. Refined – powder
  3. Sold in bulk – packages of heroin
  4. Transported – Ship
  5. Sold to smaller drug dealers – Pound symbol
  6. Cut with other substances – toxic powder added
  7. Sold to even smaller drug dealers – Pound symbol
  8. Cut with other substances – toxic powder added
  9. Sold to consumers –  pound symbol
  10. Drug is taken – injecting needle into vain

Power/energy (linked to transport)

  1. Raw materials are mined/drilled/sourced – oil, gas, coal, nuclear, solar, hydro electric – pickaxe, drill, solar panel
  2. Raw materials are refined – factory
  3. Refined product is transported – ship
  4. Product is sold to various industries – oil for petrol, plastics. Coal & gas for power stations, gas for heating – pound symbol
  5. Product is used – petrol pump, gas stove

Water (linked to power & industry)

  1. Water taken from water source – sea, lake, reservoir – water
  2. Water is purified – water drop made of two arrows
  3. Stored and –  water tank
  4. pumped through pipe network  -transports and distributes – pipe network
  5. Water is used
  • homes: toilet, baths, shower, taps, garden 
  • commercial: kitchens and restaurants, bathrooms, cleaning and maintenance
  • Industrial: hydroelectric power, power station cooling, manufacturing (pressurised water), car wash

Industry/world trade

  1. Raw materials are grown, harvested, mined – meat
  2. Refined – factory
  3. Manufactured – factory
  4. Mass produced – duplicated object
  5. Transported (from different stages) – lorrie
  6. Shipped – imported and exported – ship
  7. Sold to companies – pound symbol
  8. Purchased/used by consumers – hand and pound symbol

Money

  1. Money is minted/printed by whomever controls money creation in each country – bank note
  2. New money is sent to banks who remove old, worn out bills for exchange – old bill & new bill
  3. Money circulates people withdraw money – money in hand
  4. Money is spent – Pound symbol
  5. Money circulates through the country until it is traded again for renewed money – three notes with arrows (circulating)

Kickmap by Eddie Jabbour

The New York Subway map is an extremely overwhelming looking piece of design which makes it very difficult to work out where you want to go to, that’s why Eddie Jabbour, Creative Director at Kick Design NYC, decided to devote years of his own time to redesign the map. Like Harry Beck’s concept, Jabbour placed the needs of the user over geographic precision, removing any irrelevant information and focusing on the routes passengers want to know.

 Image

Image from ‘The Information Design Handbook’ by Jenn and Ken Visocky O Grady

Transit maps

Amazing transit maps created by a duo of graphic designers out of Seoul called Zero Per Zero.

These maps have a similar vibe to what I aim to create, but not so complex, more simplistic. These are incredibly busy looking designs, they look great but seem impractical.

Tokyo

Transit Maps from Zero Per Zero public transportation maps infographics city cities

Seoul

Transit Maps from Zero Per Zero public transportation maps infographics city cities

Osaka

Transit Maps from Zero Per Zero public transportation maps infographics city cities

New York

Images from http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2011/01/transit-maps-from-zero-per-zero/

Map transformation

Map Portraits by Matthew Cusick

Matthew Cusick cuts apart maps to create stunning collages and sculptures, including these portraits. Cusick collects maps and then cuts them apart according to colour and shade, pasting them into these compositions on a board backing.

These pieces are amazing, they show that art can truly be made from anything!

Matthew Cusick  Inlaid maps, acrylic on panel

Oceania, 2012

Matthew Cusick  Inlaid maps, acrylic, on panel

Shauna, 2011

Matthew Cusick  Inlaid maps, acrylic, on panel

Course of Empire (Mixmaster 1), 2003

Images from http://mattcusick.com/paintings-collage/map-works

 

Head Sculpture by Nikki Rosato

Delicately interwoven like veins, the tiny green, blue and red strips of maps used to create these incredible sculptures are molded around a packing tape form to create a three-dimensional shape. Artist Nikki Rosato removes the land masses, leaving nothing but the roads and rivers behind, reinforcing the paper with wire as necessary.

This is a very nice approach at working with maps, by dissecting certain parts of the maps, you are left with many different parts to play around with, evidently Nikki Rosato played around with this.

Images from http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/nikki-rosato?before=1305215731

 

The World by Paula Scher

The names of countries, cities and geographical features like deserts and mountains make up the hand-painted text-based map. “The World is a painting about information overload. It depicts the world as swirling information that is always changing, often inaccurate, while somewhat illuminating. It is expressionistic information.”

A different medium to what I have previously looked at it maps, the way this has been done looks extraordinary, I think this may be due to the artist’s personal handwriting, I feel this makes it even more unique.

Images from http://www.paulaschermaps.com/

 

Typographic World Maps by Nancy McCabe

Nothing but text and dreamy splashes of watercolor paint make up these hand-crafted world maps.

I love the minimalist approach, it’s so simple and yet there is so much to see!

Typographic World Map typography maps etsy

Typographic World Map typography maps etsy

Typographic World Map typography maps etsy

Images from http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2011/03/typographic-world-map/

 

Maps, Reorganized by Armelle Caron

These works take the components that make up a city and lay them out according to size for a more tidy-looking result. The French artist displays the original maps alongside the decontextualised shapes, also providing wooden cut-outs that can be arranged by visitors.

These are like meaningless maps for the obsessive compulsive, and they look amazing! The images lined up almost look like lots of people standing next to each other.

Image from http://absterabbi.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/reorganized-cities-by-armelle-caron/

 

Patterns in Pieces of Maps by Shannon Rankin

Little discs of maps are used to create installations, collages and drawings “that use the language of maps to explore the connections among geological and biological processes, patterns in nature, geometry and anatomy. Using a variety of distinct styles I intricately cut, score, wrinkle, layer, fold, paint and pin maps to produce revised versions that often become more like the terrains they represent.”

The patterns created are incredible! I really like the idea of cutting up maps and creating new things.

Images from http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/shannon-rankin?before=1339798987

Loulou and Tummie maps

A selection of illustrated maps by a dutch illsutration duo: Loulou and Tummie.

The colours that have been used blend in beautifully with each design. The softer colours that are incorporated into the country landscapes give them that natural and organic look, where as the more vibrant and pronounced colours used in the city landscapes give it more of a buzz and urban feel.

Images from http://www.behance.net/gallery/Cities-Roads-Factories-2/3016159

Blinking City

BlinkingCity is a project investigating the inadequacy of traditional maps for cityenvironments characterized by fast pace transformation and urban growth. Assoon as the map is done, the city it describes has already gone. We transferredone of the Blinking City pattern, based on a collage of several Hutongneighbourhoods of Beijing, onto a wall of a dilapidated courtyard house inXianyukou district, located in the core of the city.

I really enjoy the vibrancy of this design, the way it’s designed and fitted into a circle makes it actually look like a map too, I feel if it was within another shape such as a rectangle it wouldn’t have the map feel, the circle gives it a sort of globe feel.

Images from http://www.behance.net/gallery/BLINKING-CITY-stencil/2676289

Megatrend Documentation

Megatrends are long-term change processes which have an enormous impact on transformations within a society. Therefore they cannot be considered as a temporary phenomenon. The megatrend documentation presents the eleven, most important megatrends of our time. A booklet for each megatrend contains information based on real data and is supplemented by 18, well-grounded infographics. The poster of the megatrend-map was designed in form of an underground plan in order to interlink various megatrends. This should reflect the complexity and variety of factors which act in the context of a megatrend. This documentation also subserves as a tool-box for companies in their strategic reorientation processes and offers the possibility to expand it with individual supplements using a matrix system.

 

This design gives me options to consider when it comes to format:

  • Categorisation
  • Poster
  • Leaflet
  • Book
  • Digital

This work uses a map in the same way I wish to use it; to have information presented and showing it’s links.

Images from http://www.behance.net/gallery/Megatrend-Documentation/923811

Layout of map

After looking at a variety of different maps, I’ve noticed the fonts used and their layout on the map. I need to consider what font will be used, the colour of it, and how it will be set out on the map; will it all be in the same direction, will it follow the lines?

Silesian tram lines map

Designer: Ola Krupa

Images from http://www.behance.net/gallery/Silesian-tram-lines-map/5444157

Designer: Paulina Urbańska

Images from http://www.behance.net/gallery/Silesia-Tramway-Map/2434411