The new McLaren MP4-25

The new McLaren MP4-25

A cool, clean graphic by Andrew Blenkinsop

Yesterday the McLaren team unveiled the 2010 car for the new F1 season

Jenson Button, last years champion, has joined the previous champion Lewis Hamilton

For the first time in a long time, there will be two bloody good drivers in the same team, competing for top spot, and winning points for the constructors championship

Normally lesser drivers are chosen to drive alongside the big guns, like Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna

Could be an interesting season. Richard Williams writing in the Guardian today says

"I actually called Martin and said, 'What do you think about Jenson?'" Hamilton said during today's launch of McLaren's 2010 grand prix car. "It was before the negotiations started. I was ­calling to ask what was happening, and I was told who they'd been talking to. I was trying to find out because people kept ­asking me. I was happy with the team-mate I already had but it seemed like they were looking for someone else. I have absolutely no input into it but I said, 'Have you talked to Jenson?' He's the best driver there is and they wanted to get the best driver possible."

Eyebrows were raised at this claim, coming from a competitor in a sport where it is acknowledged that every driver's first challenge is to grind his team-mate into the dust, as Hamilton did to Heikki Kovalainen, Button's predecessor, last ­season

[Fernando Rubio] Diario 16 infographics

Fernando Rubio Diario 16 infographics

Juantxo Cruz, the Head of Graphics at El Mundo, Madrid, has pointed me in the direction of some super infographic examples from Diario 16 which he has posted on his blog

Rubio's brutally direct examples covered the Falklands War from April to May 1982

Yes 1982, almost 28 years ago

Please take a look at the examples on Juantxo's blog

The work is very graphic, and remind me of the great infographics that were produced by the Sunday Times in the 1980's and 1990's under the direction of Peter Sullivan and Gary Cook

Thanks to J+

Daily Telegraph then and now

Daily Telegraph then and now

A little under thirty six years separate these two front pages

The first from August 1974, the second from January 2010

The format then was 394mm x 600mm, and is now 371mm x 575

On clearing out her mother's house, my neighbour found old copies of the DT. This front page happens to present one of the biggest political stories not only in the US, but around the world

Our newspapers have physically changed so much

Colour page one, to colour throughout

Multi-sections and glossy magazines

Photographic reportage, infographics and free DVDs

The only constant over the years has been the need for a strong lead story, like the MPs expenses investigation by the Telegraph

Here are today's front page leads from the quality press in the UK:

The Times: 'Tories plan leadership revolution at the BBC'

Daily Mail: Off-duty police paid £100 to pick up phone'

The Independent: Israeli commander: 'We rewrote the rules of war for Gaza'

The Guardian: Climate chief: I won't say sorry for glacier error


Strong stories sell newspapers

In rememberance: Fernando Rubio

In rememberance: Fernando Rubio

Head of Infographics at ABC newspaper in Madrid, Fernando Rubio has sadly passed away

Because of his important works as a visual reporter, and as an industry leader in Spain, he will be remembered by all who have worked with Fernando at ABC, and all who met him, as I did at many Malofiej awards dinners in Pamplona, and evenings in the Jumping Jester

Not only a friend, but more importantly as a husband and a father, he will be missed

Goodbye mi amigo

Emerging from recession?

Emerging from recession?

Britain yesterday officially crawled out from recession, and our glorious media presented the same data in many ways and guises

Which is great

Even in the Daily Telegraph we have to graphics, from the front of the Business section, and the other from inside the main News book, showing differing display methods using the same quarterly GDP data

Squire John Bradley rather smartly compared sector against GDP in the Independent, meanwhile on the front page of the FT, a red line showed GDP historical over a map of Britain

Maybe more information – both visual and textual could have emboldened the FT's graphic

The Guardian produced an incredibly clean looking and impressive global recession map online, and presented their beloved and world-altering circle volume/data display – combining complex data in a fantastically simple manner – nothing new at Michael Robinson's graphical data studio

Lastly at the Telegraph, Andrew Blenkinsop produced a beautiful and dramatic graphic for the front page of the Business section, and Caroline Dewar's 'Timeline of Britain's session' added journalistic value to the News section

All great stuff and cheers!

Guardian spreads the data

Guardian spreads the data

A comprehensive data report out in the UK today shows the state of our nation

Harriet Harman calls it an 'Inequality bible'

Over a double truck, the Guardian in print, and in their data blog, have created the space to visualise the data, and reported on by Tom Clark

You can also download the data from this link

Nice work!

Infographics News

What are you sending to Malofiej 18?

Chiqui Esteban, the genius at la informacion – Mario Tascon's online news project – wants designers and infografista's to send examples to his blog Infographics News in English, and Infografistas en Español

Ciaran Hughes, genius at the Telegraph, is sending Señor Esteban great examples

The will be shown on Chiqui's blog on Friday

Esteban says:

...many departments decide not to participate. Some great graphics won't get wards and we won't know about them.

So, I encourage you to send what you are sending (or you would send if you would participate) to Malofiej. (You can send them to my email address, chiquiesteban@gmail.com)

Why? I think it's a good way to share what we're doing with no need to wait for the awards or the book, to discuss which are the big favourites of this year, or just for watch what's being done around the world nowadays.

There will be no awards. This is no contest. It's just sharing

Haiti disaster cartography

Haiti disaster cartography

They've done it again at the New York Times

To coin a phrase from my good friend JAG at Innovation, this is pure infographic caviar

Super text and visual reporting, supporting a very impressive topographic relief map

However does the wonderful rendering of the mountain range enable us to understand which areas of Port-au-Prince are badly effected by the earthquake?

Is the mountain range and the visualisation of the 'valley' important in the story telling?

Maybe!

Whatever the answer, now I know what the Port-au-Prince area looks like

Please leave comments below, I think that this is an interesting debate to have

Cheers

Malofiej18: World infographic Summit

Malofiej18: World infographic Summit

Its time to send your finest infographics to Pamplona – the location of the world infographics summit in Navarra, Spain

As they are called the 'Oscars' of visual journalism, all eyes for the prize will be on SND-E from the 7-12 March

The call for entries 2010 has a deadline of 5 Feb, and the pdf can be downloaded here

Al-Qaeda fully restructured?

Bin Ladens network cracks on

Always basing themselves where there is trouble and strife, are al-Qaeda back in town?

According to Con Coughlin in the Daily Telegraph:

while intelligence officials say it is impossible to estimate the total number of al-Qaeda activists worldwide, the emergence of Yemen as a major terrorist training and recruitment centre... is now major concern

I'm not doubting this at all, as only before Christmas Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was discovered on Flight 232 to Detroit, trying to detonate an explosive device near his bollocks

And that Yemen is now an integral part of our fight against terrorism, as our graphic reports

But what trick are we missing, and why is intelligence always two steps behind?

And if I can be stopped at an airport for carrying an almost empty bottle of water, then why can't dozens of angry migrating militants hell-bent on blowing up the innocent?

Apple tablet mania

New emperors clothes?

A good friend and colleague at the Telegraph comments

In an ageing population, as we have in the UK, and in the middle of a financial crisis, an object that whilst a marvel is quite unobtainable financially to the young, and intellectually to the elderly. Plus why do they always scroll down? If it is going to be a giant ipod touch when will someone produce a website that scrolls right to left as most of the western world does, instead of a giant virtual parchment

cheers and amen to WOODY!

Britain's big freeze

Baby its cold outside

I took a few pics with my mobile phone around my small village in Oxfordshire

The very county, where which the village of Benson, as reported in the Telegraph, that residents today awoke to find the outside temperature a teeth-chattering -17.7C (0.14F)

Popular opinion says that it is lunacy to try and get to the local train station for London

Many are staying indoors, working from home or drinking a wee dram in the local, The Frog. Thank the Lord that Rebellion have just delivered some beer

Whereas the local store has no bread, milk or charcuterie and no newspapers

But we have beer, and whisky (Scot), or whiskey (Irish) and sweet images. SND entries can wait another week!

What a start to the year, and a Happy New year to all!