Information About Information — nostrich: The person that made this infographic...

nostrich:

The person that made this infographic noticed my rubbishing of it. How exciting! Here’s the good news: it was just an art project. Whew. Bad news: she’s pissed.

I’m glad that you enjoyed destroying a FAKE infographic that was designed for my Advanced Typography class. There is no truth behind anything on that infographic, as I scooped up some statistics from websites and put this piece of work together in a few hours (don’t you feel silly?).

That’s good to know! I apologise for mistaking your infographic as real. You’re right: I do feel a little silly. In my defense: its title on Flickr is “Infographic Design for magazine spread.” So, you can’t really blame me for thinking it might be real. (I also reblogged it from a guy with a medical degree, who I had hoped I could trust to pass on accurate information.)

Though, I must at least commend the extensive research you conducted to prove this infographic’s information as false and its statistics blown up.

Thanks! But it probably took about as long as it took you to make up some numbers. You say “extensive,” I say “went to a website and looked at some words.” And art project or not: I think it’s important that people know the truth of the matter — whatever the matter is. There’s enough misinformation going around already, a lot of which is presented as fact. Admittedly, as a smoker, I have a horse in this race.

As for the graphical components of the infographic, which you also tore apart (surprise, surprise), I scored an ‘A’ on (in case you were wondering).

I’m glad you got an A! (I wasn’t wondering; I didn’t know it was an art project.)

The cigarettes are larger than the other icons because, guess what! The infographic’s purpose is to place emphasis on the dangers of smoking in comparison to the other high causes of death annually. In this type of infographic, where the purpose is to sway and convince, shock value is a good thing, so I’m glad that you picked up on that.

I disagree: in this case, the infographic’s purpose is to lie. (Even if the numbers were correct.) One does not place emphasis in infographics, one presents all the data in a measured and fair format, and allows the data to speak for itself.

At any rate, I hope that you’ve had just as much fun destroying my piece of artwork as I have had reading all of the negative things you’ve had to say about it.

Genuinely: I had no idea it was an art project, and that wasn’t really my fault. Nevertheless, I apologise. Congratulations on your A! (Ps, you might like to read this.)