Digesting & Designing Data

I’m a complete nerd when it comes to data design. It holds such high importance in communicating real-time facts, that it’s hard to ignore the visual trends of the category. If you take a gander at Pinterest, you’ll see endless styles that have emerged, to decipher the numerical chaos. This past weekend, Benedict Carey of The New York Times devoted a significant analysis to the topic, in relation to perceptual learning:

And so it is in many fields, whether predicting climate, flagging potential terrorists or making economic forecasts. The information is all there, great expanding mountain ranges of it. What’s lacking is the tracker’s instinct for picking up a trail, the human gut feeling for where to start looking to find patterns and meaning.

As we become more attuned to mapping data and translating it for the masses, we’ll be more equipped to embrace and evolve into the future. Never before has the art of tracking patterns been this important.

March 31, 2015 | By: Shayna Kulik

Focusing on the Female Form

Rachel Levit is an illustrative force you should all be aware of. Her drawings are simple, yet carry immense storytelling through line, pose and profile. Her repetition feels a bit like modern day hieroglyphics as she swings from professional realms. One day she’s producing artsy leggings and the next, an illustration for the New York Times. Have a look at her blog, you’ll find delight in the scroll.

July 21, 2014 | By: Shayna Kulik

Type Trends from New York & London

The weekend before last, Deborah Needleman and her editorial team unveiled their first issue of T Magazine. While it got some flack for it’s lack of diversity, I was mostly stuck on the logo and type treatments. Yes, they’re glossy, sharp and modern. Yes, they look like every other fashion brand marketing their goods on Fifth Ave or Columbus Circle, so why, when you’re pushing the needle forward under the umbrella of the New York Times, don’t you go a bit more unexpected? The execution seemed uncharacteristically safe. Nonetheless, it’s clean, elegant and on trend for what we’re seeing both locally and abroad.

Then there’s Jessica Hische, who I’ve forever been a fan and have been following since her early Daily Drop Cap days. Her abilities with type are far-reaching and her originality is addictive to follow. I may be bias here, but it seems like she’s responsible for the evolution of this 3D block technique over the past few years. This type treatment makes a timeless statement and the enlarged real estate allows for color, shading and pattern blocking.

Revealing the playful direction one can take, here’s London’s Carnaby Street Shopping Guide from 2012. Fun, bright and noncontroversial.

February 27, 2013 | By: Shayna Kulik

The Art of Illustrative Journalism

Illustrative journalism is a pretty big deal in my playbook. When I was a kid, my grandfather would subscribe to a different magazine every year and I’d fall in love again every January.

Art directing a story isn’t a simple task and the creative minds in charge of hiring talent always amaze me. Much like the power of a good book cover, a great illustration tells multiple narratives.

Above are a few selected images from last week’s New York Times. We have I Love Dust, Adam Hayes and Josh Cochran. These artists have created texture and depth using an assigned storyline. Personally I love the busyness of it all- do these work for you?

July 30, 2012 | By: Shayna Kulik

City Perspectives from Above

It’s always fascinating to see how illustrators, photographers and editors choose to portray a city. Recently a crop of overlapping interpretations have been surfacing online and in print. Vasco Mourao is an illustrator-turned-architect with an arsenal of highly detailed drawings. This Mourao image of Manhattan recently appeared in The New Yorker.

Stepping into a more commercial category, the Blackberry Bold campaign has chosen to express mobile diversity by taking an overhead shot of a city intersection on a rainy day. Rounding out the category with the overhead image frequent flyers are all too familiar with, we have a photograph that was recently published in The New York Times T Magazine (photographer unknown).

June 6, 2012 | By: Shayna Kulik

Shopping with the New York Times

So, this happened yesterday! The whole process was really fun and such a treat to be able to team up with the New York Times. Rima Suqi and I shopped for fair isle and dove into it’s history, it’s market presence, and how it’s adapting to industry trends. Click here to take the tour and read the article.

April 13, 2012 | By: Shayna Kulik