Infographics

Infographic: The Orion Constellation

I love astronomy, and though I barely passed my lone Astronomy course in college, I still hold a star-struck sense of awe in my heart and mind for the beauty of the cosmos. I noticed that a lot of astronomy charts weren't the best designed from an infographics POV, so this is my stab at it.

Annual Number of Executions Carried Out by Civil Authority in Texas, the South, and Other States, 1876-2003

A particular favorite of mine, probably created during my second or third year working at LAITS. After I'd been entrusted to work on my infographics for the Texas Politics site (sometimes to less than stellar results), I tried to infuse each chapter with its own particular atmosphere. The Justice chapter was therefore done in high-contrast reds, greys, and B&W to reflect the starkness of the "cold, hard facts" of the Texas justice system. If I had the chance at a do-over, I'd tweak the contrast to make the numbers easier to see.

Population Growth in Texas, 1850-2000

I really like this graph. I think it's clean and cool.

Indian Reservations in Texas Today

I think all these colors work well together. Not sure how much they match the tone and meaning of the graphic, but they're not overpowering enough to be distracting.

Percentage of Women in the Texas House and Senate, 1923-2003

I always particularly liked working on infographics that touched on topics that I feel strongly about, in this case women's accomplishments and lack of equal representation. The colors are supposed to reflect a literal interpretation of the title, with a purple-ish gradient for the "sky" and a mauve "hill" showing the progress of women in the Legislature.

Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Civilian Government Employment by Level of Government as a Percentage of State Population, 2003

Lots of little numbers, all meticulously placed, not so much fun.

Federal Workforce Surplus or Shortfall Proportional to Each State's Population, 2003

I like this color scheme: green, pink, and brown.

State Constitutional Revision and Repair from the 1940s to the 1990s

Love the color-scheme, but not for this data. I was still learning how to carry the meaning behind the numbers with color and whitespace on this one.

Sizing Up Constitutions: State and U.S. Constitutional Length by Date of Adoption

Didn't have to do much to this graph from the original Excel file, just made it more graphically rich by changing the colors a bit and redoing the placement of text and labels.

Proposed Amendments to the Texas Constitution Ratified or Rejected

Hmm, the background color bothers me now. We went with this light beige because it was a neutral we'd used in a lot of other features, but it feels a bit off somehow. Also, I tried as hard as possible to remove the eye "reverb" or shakiness that the graph's narrow columns created. Because of a time crunch, it wasn't feasible to regenerate this graph from Excel before I began working on it.

Texas Major Party Gubernatorial Candidates' Total General Election Expenditures, 1978-2002