Graphic design
Readings
- Chapter 5 in Alberto Cairo, The Truthful Art1
- Chapter 4 and Chapter 22 in Claus Wilke, Fundamentals of Data Visualization2
- Summary of CRAP graphic design principles from Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen.3 These principles are from Robin Williams’ The Non-Designer’s Design & Type Books,4 which you should really get if you’re interested in doing anything design-related ever. Her stuff is life-changing.
- Typography in ten minutes. The rest of the Practical Typography book is phenomenal and you’d be remiss if you didn’t read the whole thing and bookmark it for life, but for now just read this quick summary.
- “What’s the Difference Between JPG, PNG, and GIF?”
- “File formats explained”
Questions to reflect on
- Why does graphic design matter when conveying truth?
- What makes something well designed (vs. poorly designed)?
Slides
The slides for today’s lesson are available online as an HTML file. Use the buttons below to open the slides either as an interactive website or as a static PDF (for printing or storing for later). You can also click in the slides below and navigate through them with your left and right arrow keys.
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Fun fact: If you type ? (or shift + /) while going through the slides, you can see a list of special slide-specific commands.
Videos
Videos for each section of the lecture are available at this YouTube playlist.
You can also watch the playlist (and skip around to different sections) here:
Alberto Cairo, The Truthful Art: Data, Charts, and Maps for Communication (Berkeley, California: New Riders, 2016).↩︎
Claus E. Wilke, Fundamentals of Data Visualization (Sebastopol, California: O’Reilly Media, 2018), https://serialmentor.com/dataviz/.↩︎
Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, 1st ed. (Berkeley, California: New Riders, 2008).↩︎
Robin Williams, The Non-Designer’s Design & Type Books: Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice, Deluxe Edition (Berkeley, California: Peachpit Press, 2008).↩︎