Let's talk about Scientology

Today we learn something about Scientology - or how to depict its history in a pleasing way. What i really like about this information graphic is the clear distinction and confrontation of the two dimensions - facts and myths of Scientology along a timeline. The shapes are qickly to identify, those of the aliens even funny in this context. The arrows ensure a clear hierarchy, but could too interlooped and create some density. The use of colours (those green and brown shades seem to be quite popular at this time) appears very homogeneous. The graphic makes use of abstract (the bar charts) and figurative (the depiction of the brain) features and resignes too much decoration. A kind of magnifier improves the readability. There exist no unfamiliar elements.  

Graphic source: http://visual.ly/scientology

The American Civil War

Today i want to present an information graphic about the American Civil War. I like it because of its "old-fashioned" look using yellowed colours and half-transparent black and white photography in the background, as a reference to the topic. The graphic appears very tidy and light because there is enough space between the elements. As well, the hierarchy is very clear due to the use of numbers and a timeline which leads the reader's view. The blue background in the lower part of the graphic containing some further information enables a hierarchy as well. The decoration seems to be adequate and not too much.
The aftermath and the comparison of a former and a recent soldier give the graphic some more dimensionality, but mostly it concentrates on the war's conditions and its procedure. Naturally, the timeline and pie chart are abstract features of the graphic, but despite of that it uses photographies to figurate the personas. 
Because of the use of familiar elements and its redundancy between the texts and the graphic features, it is rather easy to understand.

Graphic source: http://visual.ly/american-civil-war

Fascinating complexity

People normally are curious. They have a need of cognition, want to decode information and are gratificated by the brain, if they succeed solving the puzzle. 
The graphic you can see above surely is one thing: different. When you look at it, you probably get irritated because it only seems to contain dense chaos, but at the same time, it appereas aesthetically because of its high contrast (colour) concept. Because you don't understand it immediately, you will address to the graphic. 
It is about ideological divergence and convergence of British politicians. It is quite origin a circel shape is used to polarize the only two ideological dimensions: Role of the government and Economic Policy. Hierachy isn't necessary in this case. So the idea behind it is not too complex once you know how to read the very abstract and no decoration containing graphic. Because information partially is repeated in the (con-) text, it shows some redundancy. But only mentioning the politicians names would be too little. 
Of course, there is a fine line between catching a recipient's attention and overcharging him so he turns away. In my opinion, here it works.

Graphic source: http://www.litmustest.org/infographic_of_UK_politics.html

Left vs. right

The next graphic treats the left and right ideology and the associated parties. At first glance it appears very dense and to have a lack of hierarchy. But the symmetrical structure opposing the same, multidimensional aspects of the ideologies helps to orientate, as well as the distinction by the red respectively blue colour, which is associated with the left respectively right ideology easily. The graphic also focusses on buzz-words. For decoration and figuration, it only uses simple shapes, which are recognized easliy (like the one of the US Congress). I like its modern, clear design. It looks quite origin. 

Graphic source: http://designrelated.com/inspiration/view/karahannkiser/entry/4108/effective-political-graphic-design

The (graphically) pleasing new cabinet of Merkel

In these hours, more and more names of the new German government get known. Time to present the vita of the established and probable ministers in a graphic - done so on the website of the German weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT. The different phases in the careers of the politicians are depicted in timelines, divided by the use of colours. This abstract graphic relinquishes any decoration and has a very simple, white background. Moving the mouse over the timelines invokes a pop-up with more detailled, partially redundant information of the politicians. This "outsourcing" of data in pop-ups ensures the graphic appears not too dense, but rather clear. The multiple dimensions of information are additionally grouped in several tabs, which is a usefool tool, but uses further redundancy because of the repeating timelines.

Graphic source:http://interactive.zeit.de/bundeskabinett/#/merkel-iii/0

It's getting even more complex - if there wouldn't be an information graphic

Here is another graphic dealing with complex, multidimensional, abstract information in a pleasing way. At first fance, it appears quite complicated and dense, but the concept is simple. The size respectively colour of the bubbles vary depending on the party's budget and political position. Ideologically similar parties are visibly grouped by colour and their position in the coordinate system. So it is easier to distinguish between them and the reader will not to be overcharged. Probably with the same intention, the designers resigned any decoration. The arrows indicate interrelationships in form of support cash flows between the parties. Use your mousecursor to get in-depth information including pie-charts and graphs concerning the single (micro-) parties. Maps depicting political landscapes are nothing new, but the one presented here connects several ideas - relating to the use of bubbles, arrows and overlays - in this very specific topic.

Graphic source: http://palmares.lexpress.fr/financement-micro-partis/

I love democracy - when it is explained easily

Today i present a very clear solution of how to present complex, multidimensional political data in a way easily to comprehend: A project created by arte, a french-german public-service broadcaster. Actually, it is not a single graphic but an quasi-interactive collection of several. Use your arrow keys or mousecursor to navigate between them. This not only enables to distribute the high amount of data and to decrease density. It also allows to compare the values of the variables of the presented states immediately. The signal colour red is used to indicate the country you are informing about, as well as in the bar on the right to indicate the recent variable (from the term of office of the head of state to the GINI-Index). Red also serves to stress the manifestations of the variables of the single countries. Other colours besides red and grey rarely are applied. Decoration is used sparely in a kind of Pop art style. In contrast, the varierty of implemented graphics is high: Bar charts, radar charts, pie charts, pyramids ans so on. They are applied properly, depending on the amount of levels of the variables. The last page contains a summary and causes a little bit of redundancy.

 Graphic source: http://ilovedemocracy.arte.tv/de/