Rip it Up and Start Again

The Info Graphic that was to be deconstructed was Death and Gravestone Symbolism.

          The Info graphic is quite easy to understand as an overall concept but the symbols are not clear unless you know what they are meant to mean. The symbol require you to go up close and read the small print underneath to fully grasp what they all mean. I also believe that there is a lot of information in it that may not be necessary. I would say that there is a clear focus on death and symbols on gravestones, but at the bottom you discover it is do with a LIfe Insurance company which is not perfectly clear. 

I learnt that there are a lot of symbols that can be put on a gravestone / to do with death, each having its own unique meaning.The small text underneath the symbol was the main area of learning as this is what we had to read in order to understand what was going on in each symbol.

The designer uses a consistent theme throughout the design which makes it visually interesting. Although due to the length of it would probably put most people off reading the full thing. We believe the target user would not be any group in particular, due to the content being very negative. Some people would like it and some people wouldn't. 

The design is set out over 5 A4 pages in a vertical layout. The graphic uses very little white space which means there is information in every area of the design. The viewers eye is led down the page by the fact that it is set out like a long list. The lack of white space means that it is very hard to focus on a specific part of the design. 

Title conveys something gruesome which relates to the topic of the graphic. The hand drawn quality is quite messy and uneven which relates to death. 

Title of Info Graphic

The subheadings are set out in Gill Sans which conveys no meaning but provides a clear subheading and divides it into sections. The symbol text is set out in courier which looks very much like a typewriter. This fits well as the background looks quite old and rough. 

Title - Hand Drawn

Sub Heading - Gill Sans

Symbol text - Courier

The non rough quality of the gill sans, in comparison to the other text, makes it clearly stand out and provides a definite start to a new section. 

The images are all hand drawn or have a hand drawn quality to them. At first glance, the title does convey death but the rest of the images you have to look into the text to understand what they mean. Therefore without the text, I do not get the meaning of death. The designer uses images that have been decided over years to mean certain things. Although some are symbolic, the design is being factual by using these images as they were not chosen by him. These images mean that I need to look into the text to fully understand what each of them mean.

The designer uses colour mainly for a background although it does loosely separate each section. I wouldn't say that the colours he is using convey any sort of meaning or add to the overall meaning of the design.

The images and text are very closely connected, as without the text, the symbols would not make sense and vice versa, without the symbols the text would not make sense. This means that the research done is both on the visuals and the text.

Symbol and Information

The style used is very rough and sketchy which conveys the idea that these would be seen on a grave stone but without the title text and the border, I would say that the symbols alone do not scream out death to me. I would say that this info graphic does not reference any particular style or movement as the symbols are set out in a list format. I would say that this lack of reference to a specific movement is appropriate because the design is more factual than aesthetically pleasing. The design technically gets the information across to the user but, from a design view, the information is not easily visible.

The designer would start by looking into the different symbols used in history to describe certain things. This would be done through books, visiting ancient graves and also browsing the internet. He would then take these symbols and create a common design style for each symbol. In this case he has made them all look quite sketchy. He would then play around with different layouts and try to create something that will convey the content in a visual way. The layout in this design is meant to look like a gravestone which is symbolic of the content. He would then fill in the layout with the information researched and complete the graphic by adding in background colour and choosing appropriate fonts.