The Brief
For this brief we were asked to create a feature article filling a large double page spread for a publication that focuses on communicating a specific news back-story to a readership. Data visualisation and diagrammatic display need to play a key role in explaining, clarifying complex matters to the reader. The visualisations need to be integrated in an editorial design context. Strong layout skills and typography excellence are essential. The chosen story must have a political, economical, social or environmental angle and it needs to be backed by a study that contains a dataset. It mustn’t be breaking news but something that has been an issue for some time.
The Concept
I decided to look for a story with an environmental background for this project and I came across various articles expressing what would happen if honeybees became fully extinct. Before this research, I had a brief understanding of this issue but I didn’t realise the full extent. I think more people need to be aware of this issue and pursued this theme for my editorial. After I decided on the theme for my article, I began collecting datasets relating to the story. I found a dataset for the percentage of honeybee colony decline in the UK during the winter. I decided to combine this data with the average rainfall and temperature each winter to create a graph as my main visualisation.
The Outcome
The final design needed more than a graph, title and body text so I incorporated another visualisation to inform the audience of the percentage of UK food crops dependant on pollination and a fun illustration combined with statistics relating to the pollination food chain.
