February 2008
Refused by His City, Man Jailed for Painting a Crosswalk. “Whitney Stump was tired of drivers ignoring stop signs at an intersection in his Muncie, Indiana neighborhood. After futile attempts to get the city to install crosswalks, Stump took matters into his own hands and painted one in at the corner of Dicks and North streets. Then he got arrested.”
Visualizing Information for Advocacy: An Introduction to Information Design is a booklet I wrote and designed to introduce advocacy organizations to basic principles and techniques of information design. It’s full of examples of interesting design from groups around the world in a variety of media and forms. It has tips, excercises, and even recommended Free Software packages to help polish up your graphics.
I worked with the Tacitcal Tech collective who provided editorial feedback and helped track down reproduction rights for the images. They’re also coordinating printing and distribution to NGOs. The project was funded by the OSI Information Program. The booklet is Creative Commons licensed.
Download the full booklet at http://backspace.com/infodesign.pdf
The Open & Closed Project. “A new research project headquartered in Toronto. Our main goal is to improve quality by setting
standards for the four fields of accessible media –
captioning,
audio description,
subtitling, and
dubbing. We’ll develop those standards through research and evidence-gathering. Where research or evidence is missing on a certain topic, we’ll carry it out ourselves. We’ll test the finished standards for a year in the real world, then
publish them. Then we’ll develop
training and certification programs for practitioners. ” Not much there yet, but I like this direct approach. I hope legislative advocacy will follow.
The Howling Mob Society. A collaboration of artists, activists and historians committed to unearthing stories neglected by mainstream history. The current project consists of official looking signs posted around downtown Pittsburgh commemorating the events of
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, a 45-day national uprising.
Changes. Excellent video montage of the 2008 U.S. presidential candidates pushing "change."
On to March.
Back to January.
25 February 2008 | 
