THEY DRAW & COOK

These interpretations are all entrires from They Draw & Cook, a website featuring illustrated recipes.

Out of Kitchen–Onto Couch

A New York Times article

"But here’s what I don’t get: How is it that we are so eager to watch other people browning beef cubes on screen but so much less eager to brown them ourselves?"

GOOD Project: Redesign the Recipe.

I wish I had found this sooner...but it's neat to see that others are intrigued by a similar project.

http://www.good.is/post/project-redesign-the-recipe/

"People are doing less and less cooking. They're flopping down on the couch and watching other people cook on the Food Network.
Maybe that has something to do with the way recipes are written. Cooking should not be like changing a tire or fixing a hard drive. It’s supposed to be fun."

FOOD Politics

Attempting to find a better angle for this project and more direct focus..I have begun reading various articles on food production, consumption and prep. One of my favorite articles has been, Food Convenience from The Economist.  Some notable areas of the article are:

"For people who think cooking was the foundation of civilisation, the microwave...is the last enemy...The communion of eating together is easily broken by a device that liberates household denizens from waiting for mealtimes...The first great revolution in the history of food is in danger of being undone. The companionship of the camp fire, cooking pot and common table, which have helped to bond humans in collaborative living for at least 150,000 years, could be shattered."

"The amount of time spent cooking meals in Britain has fallen from 60 minutes a day in 1980 to 13 minutes a day in 2002."

IKEA Minimalism

http://demo.fb.se/e/ikea/homemade_is_best/

Cooking -- Infographics

Wordless Recipes – Cooking Infographics

by Nathan Danforth on Monday, December 3, 2007

Cooking

I have been trying to think of a way to incorporate cooking/cookbooks into my original path of 3D/paper cut outs and info graphics/mapping.  I think I can finally channel everything into an interactive recipe website that offers video demonstrations (stop motion) and then an accompanying cookbook perhaps that has a 3D component.  I made a stop motion cooking related video last semester and loved making it...I feel like it could leave a lot of fun opportunities to make interesting things happen on the web page.

 

Here is an online video cooking school to look off of....http://rouxbe.com/

More cut-outs

These maps are insane...I think it would be cool to see the process behind them in a way that animated them.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/54765002/madrid-mapcut

Typographic Map - San Francisco

GOOD Magazine  | American Wealth Infographic

Crazy Paper | Architectural Cutouts

Ingrid Siliakus

Charles Minard

Minard makes a lot of info graphics and maps, one of the most famous shown above. This map is interesting becuase it shows multiple levels of information.

Prints, prints

I've been thinking a lot about fingerprints...how they are unique to everyone yet how they map out our own existence through everything we touch and everywhere we go.  For a first excercise I want to track my print...map it and then play around with how one influences the other. It is also interesting to think of while we each leave our own print on things in that one moment...how many existing prints have been stamped prior? How do our own prints intersect with those all around us?

MAP = grid

I started thinking recently about how mapping and grids used in graphic design are related and can influence one another. I came across a book on 2 x 4's webpage that uses a very visually stimulating grid work throughout the book. So I am thinking about the ability to overlay a grid over a map or vice versa....have a map create a visual grid for something else.

Here are some of the pages/grids I liked best from the project Prada Libro....

Mapping Rules...

I came across this article by a graphic designer who lays some ground rules....basically the gist of it is STAY SIMPLE.

About charts and graphs, for Impress Magazine, July 2000
By Nigel Holmes

Inspiration

AIGA Design Archives

This collection has tons of graphs, maps, charts and diagrams. I'm going to look through and post some of my favorites.

I am also going to look at Information Design

It is important to create experimental platforms–interdisciplinary forums in which theoretical and visual research merge and new content-related and visual concepts are tested in a playful manner. An autonomous research approach could help reflect upon and expand the methods of information design. This would also give new impetus to commercially oriented solutions. Artistic disciplines could provide a source of inspiration and thought-provoking impulses to this end.
Gerlinde Schuller  |  03.04.07

Here is another article on Information Design 


LATER.....

The New York Times, 1995

I really like the idea of fingerprints associated with mapping...using each unique print as a grid. I can't decide if this would work well or not...but just a thought.  The graphics included below I liked for their different approaches to representing information. Perhaps I will start moving toward the info-graphic direction? Not sure yet...

The Orchestra, Boston Globe, 1981

The Pre-Election Pulse, TIME Magazine, 1980

Reading response...

While doing reading from the visual research book assigned for class, I realized that there is a chapter mapping information. The map I like most from this section is a combination of a traditional map grid with text overlain instead.  I like the idea of combining this typography with a map in a 3-D way. Perhaps layering a bunch of different maps over one another so that the viewer can look down through all of them (if they were on a transparent material).

Visual Research  |  page 75

I think this map is successful becuase it is using a strong grid method and the text is ordered and restrained from becoming too dominant or out of order...

Doing further reading on the web on information mapping...I came across some graphic design guidelines which I found useful...also got me thinking about using coordinates to map infromation or creating an individualized system with boundaries I would have to follow.  I don't want to put too many constraints yet, this early...but definately something to think about.

The Elements of Graphic Design: Space, Unity, Page Architecture, and Type  |  Alex W. White

3D Maps??

I stumbled across these and thought they were really cool...http://observersroom.designobserver.com/marklamster/entry.html?entry=21968

They are three-dimensional build plans for lower Manhattan...extremely complex yet so simplistic in materials, and so precise. I definately like them and want to explore this direction further...however I still don't know what exactly I would want to represent in this manner..or in any type of mapping. I feel like the topic posibilities are endless.

I also came across the classic Subway map...which ofcourse is an approach completely different than any of my previous findings. I love the use of line, and color and repetition. It's both functional and visually draws you in... here's some more subway maps from other global locations

London Underground

Mexico City

Seol Subway Map

Tokyo Subway Map

The Old

I have stareted to look at ancient maps...finding a lot from this website, Ancient Maps, offering maps from various regions. Research has shown some of the oldest known maps to represent constellations and not geographic regions. However, I am more interested in the visual qualities of primitive representations in a time where people were just beginning to discover their surroundings and where there was not a great exchange of ideas, design methods and artmaking. Therefore, many of these early methods are completely unique to themselves and are very interesting to look at.

The above map is a 12-13th century copy of a Roman map dating back to the 4th century. It has unique divisions of information which make it appear somehwhat abstract.

 

 This map dates to the 1500, made by Sebastian Munster, one of the first cartographers to explore multiple continents. It is a woodcut, with interesting use of pattern, and imagry and scale.

While I enjoy looking at historical examples, for this project I want to explore mapping in a modern light, exploring the use of concepts, imagry, ideas....areas beyond just geography.

Preliminary Research Idea

Phase one of this project involves research, analysis and proposing different directions I would like to explore for this project. After thinking about possible avenues for the first part of senior year, I have a few specific interests. First, I have a great interest in stop motion which I have already explored in some of my classes. I am also interested in differences between 2D and 3D representation. I like finding ways to represent things in a 3D way, especially through using paper cutting and folding to create pop-outs. Finally, I really enjoy maps of all types, old and new, realistic and abstract. At this point I want to begin researching the many variety of maps in the world, both geographically maps and more abstract forms of mapping urban areas, ideas, concepts, etc.

While skiing in Vermont a few days ago, I liked looking at Stratton's specific way of representing their mountain through font choices, symbols, colors and overall illustration. The map has a ton of information being presented to the viewer, and also needs to be legible in a small space since it folds up into a pocket friendly guide for users.

This also reminded me of a trip I took to Norway this past summer where my mom and I attempted to navigate hiking trails on a mountain with a Norwegian map....it was very difficult to read it strictly based on symbols/trails...is there a better way to make maps transcend language barriers?