Tiffany Farrant - Infographic Design

Map of a Woman's Heart

Tue, 29 May 2012 08:31:35 +0100

I have a big love of vintage maps, and this rare one of a woman’s heart from the 1800s is a perfect example, fascinating, amusing and a little appalling.

A Map of the Open Country of a Woman’s Heart was a map created by D. W. Kellogg circa 1833–1842, in the tradition of these maps of the human condition you might recall, subtitled “Exhibiting its internal communications, and the facilities and dangers to Travellers therein.” Though it mostly depicts Woman as a sentimental, selfish, and superficial being driven by vanity, it places Love at the center of her heart, with Good Sense, Patience, and Prudence at its tip — or bottom, depending on the interpretation.

(via Brain Pickings)

Look what my lovely husband just brought in to my office!...

Mon, 28 May 2012 11:00:00 +0100

Look what my lovely husband just brought in to my office! I’m so lucky! (Taken with instagram)

Book Review: Hyperion

Sat, 26 May 2012 09:41:00 +0100

Hyperion by Dan Simmons
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really can’t make my mind up on this one until I’ve read the second book. I understand that books 1 and 2 were supposed to be just one book a’la Lord of the Rings style, so I think it’s unfair for me to make a judgement having technically not read the ending.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the way the book was set out. Many others didn’t like the chapter setup, and how each of the stories were told, but I found it a refreshing way to delve in to the pasts of key characters, and to provide the reader with a host of unique perspectives to the core plot line.

But the book felt wholly un-fulfilling as a standalone, and it’s a shame it was ever separated. You find out a significant amount of back story concerning the protagonists, yet little actually happens in real-time, with it subsequently ending on a huge cliffhanger.

I will pick up the second book for sure, if for no other reason than to write a more complete review. View all my reviews

Diablo 3...

Sat, 26 May 2012 09:14:00 +0100

For the past 2 weeks it seems that the only thing being talked about on the Internet is Diablo 3. Now, don’t get me wrong, I was actually pretty excited for its release, and was lucky enough to get a free copy because I have an annual subscription to WoW (don’t judge me!). So, the day it was released I downloaded myself a copy and commenced playing.

The intro movie was beautifully animated, and I had high hopes that the game would draw me further into the story. Alas I was wrong. After playing the game for just over 30 minutes I was, dare I say it, bored.

Firstly, and I know it’s superficial, but I was incredibly disappointed to find out that there was no character customisation options. You choose 1 of 5 classes, and then choose male or female, that’s it. I had to stick with the default hair style! After choosing my witch doctor class, I was then thrown in to the first scene.

Gameplay

Gameplay, to me, is completely unfulfilling. You point, click, and pick up loot. Nothing else. You only get to ever have 6 spells at your disposal at any one time which doesn’t really allow for that many interesting combos or routines. It’s a frustrating system as there are some spells that I want to use, but can’t because I have another one already in that predetermined slot.

It also felt strange, that despite being a level 1 character, my spells kicked butt! I didn’t even have to try to kill enemies, they practically fell at my feet with one click. Now, this may change as the game goes on, but I’m now level 7 and it still feels the same. My character feels too badass for a beginner. I wanted her to at least have some sort of learning curve. I mean, in WoW when you’re a level 1 character and you have to go hunt boars, it takes about 17 hits with your +1 dagger to take it down. In Diablo, I click the mouse once and poison dart takes out the skeletons with one hit.

Major repetition

Oh boy, is it repetitive. I’ve probably logged up just over an hours worth of gameplay, and I can deal with not being able to choose what my character says and how she interacts with NPCs, but the fact that she’s set on one singular path that she can’t really deviate from and all she has to do is annihilate wave after wave of undead gets boring, quick. You pick up quests as you move through the game, but you don’t seem to get a choice whether you want to do them or not. You just have to, and because the game is so linear, you’ll end up completing them without trying too hard. I like to have a bit of free will in gaming, but with Diablo 3, it all feels a bit too constraining. The only freedom I have is which spells I use to nuke the enemy, and even that isn’t completely open to you.

I’m disappointed. I went in to the game with high hopes, and was excited to begin playing, but the gameplay feels suffocating. My character has little-to-no purpose, no freedom, and a default hairstyle! Yeah, the loot you get is good, but it’s just not enough motivation for me.

With games like Skyrim, Dragon Age and WoW setting the bar for RPGs it’s hard for me to see what the attraction with Diablo 3 is. In those games you have freedom, you can run around in what feels like an endless world, choose whether or not you want to do quests… You get none of that from Diablo 3.

Am I just missing something?

Now, I’m not going to completely rule it off as one of those games I just couldn’t get in to. I am going to continue playing it for a little while longer to see if there’s anything that will change my opinion. I feel like I’m really missing something. It’s received rave reviews, and so many people are addicted to it, so maybe I’ve just missed something. I will continue playing, for a while at least, and maybe, just maybe I will find out what that missing something is…

Lovely little lunch break out in the sun (Taken with instagram)

Tue, 22 May 2012 14:10:00 +0100

Lovely little lunch break out in the sun (Taken with instagram)

How Weather Tweets Compare To Real Weather Data

Tue, 22 May 2012 08:39:10 +0100

Each year, Dutch design studio CLEVER°FRANKE steps away from client work for just a little while, to work on their side project. A side project that normally involves creating a beautiful graphic that’s based on a topic very close to their heart, well, close to their namesake C°F at least: the weather.

And this year they do not disappoint. This stunning graphic takes a look at how Tweets about the weather compare to real weather data. Is the way how people rate the weather on the internet in accordance with the meteorological facts? It turns out that we really, really like to complain and exaggerate a whole lot, unless it’s sunny and warm. Only in March and April did people really rate weather well on social networks, the rest of the year they were rather quite negative.

To do this, CLEVER°FRANKE analysed over 700,000 Tweets about the weather and then compared them to official weather reports. Each day of the year has its own axis taking a look at wind speed, temperature, sunshine and rain. The weather for each day is rated on a meteorological scale of 1-10, with social sentiment also plotted on a 1-10 scale. From these two scales alone, you can quickly see that they don’t quite match up, revealing our tendency to refer and comment on the negative rather than the positive.

View more details on this project over on their website

(Story and images via FastCo Design)

Back from Vacation! Some of my best friends from the US came to...

Sun, 20 May 2012 12:05:00 +0100

Back from Vacation!

Some of my best friends from the US came to visit us last week, so as well as giving them a little tour of England, we hopped across the channel to Paris for a lovely long weekend! Last time I visited the city it poured with rain the entire time, but this time we were so lucky to have the most beautiful weather! We had some fantastic French cuisine, sampled the most delicious ice cream in the world and walked sooooo many miles around Paris’ stunning boulevards! Now, back to reality…

Steampug

Thu, 10 May 2012 09:25:00 +0100

Steampunk and pugs, you say? This adorable illustration by Robin Latkovich is probably the best thing I’ve ever seen! There is a space on my office wall waiting for this exact picture to fill it!

Unfortunately prints aren’t available quite yet, but as soon as they are, well…

The Avengers, Visualised NYT data artist in residence Jer Thorp...

Tue, 08 May 2012 08:39:00 +0100

Appearances of Female characters

Appearances of Captain America

Appearances of Female characters

Appearances of Iron Man

The Avengers, Visualised

NYT data artist in residence Jer Thorp visualises the history of the Marvel comic The Avengers, 1963-2010. Taking a look at the 570-issue archive he tried to find some interesting patterns regarding the appearances of some of the main characters in the series as well as some of the recurring key themes. What a fun personal project! View the whole set over on Flickr.

Geek girls paint geek icons

Mon, 07 May 2012 09:09:17 +0100

Geek girls paint geek icons:

Are you ready for a supercute, thrilling new look at Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Daenerys Targaryen and other famous women from science fiction and fantasy? A new exhibition, opening in Seattle this weekend, features a crew of amazing female artists, tackling some of your favorite characters.

Hey Geek Girl, curated by Bonnie Burton, is “a tribute art show to women and pop culture,” and there’s some totally stunning art.

Game of Thrones Lego So, this is the best thing ever! Dufresne07...

Fri, 04 May 2012 11:43:30 +0100

Game of Thrones Lego

So, this is the best thing ever! Dufresne07 over on Flickr has recreated your favourite characters from Game of Thrones in Lego! So very cool!

Exposed to D&D Early in Life

Fri, 04 May 2012 08:46:14 +0100

This has to be one of my favourite flowcharts! Okay, so a little silly, but oh so true!

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep"

Thu, 03 May 2012 09:32:20 +0100

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep”

- Scott Adams

True story. Chart by Jessica Hagy.

Wed, 02 May 2012 16:11:56 +0100

True story. Chart by Jessica Hagy.

Proud Moment!

Wed, 02 May 2012 09:25:59 +0100

I forgot to mention, but at the weekend my husband came first in the semi-finals and then second in the finals of the UK Barista Tasting Championships! Yay!

Sorry for the low-quality picture, but I couldn’t make it to the event in London, so had to stream it online (^_^)

"When you stop doing things for fun you might as well be dead."

Tue, 01 May 2012 10:35:26 +0100

“When you stop doing things for fun you might as well be dead.”

- A harsh truth from Ernest Hemingway (via sirmitchell)

Chemicus A ceramic tea service set that is inspired by chemistry...

Tue, 01 May 2012 08:57:47 +0100

Chemicus

A ceramic tea service set that is inspired by chemistry kits. Drinking tea, like a boss!

(via laughingsquid)

Kumadori Prints by Konobu Hasegawa (ca. 1867–1879) These prints...

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:15:27 +0100

Kumadori Prints by Konobu Hasegawa (ca. 1867–1879)

These prints are so very cool! There’s something quite haunting about the kabuki style.

One of the most visually striking aspects for a newcomer to kabuki is the exaggerated make-up worn by the actors, especially those playing the most dramatic roles. It is particularly vivid when associated with a supernatural character. The name of this style of make-up, kumadori, is derived from kuma—lines, wrinkles, and toru—to take, to follow — via Artelino’s auction archives

(Reblogged from brain-food)

Feeling a bit sorry for myself

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:21:52 +0100

I am prone to sinus headaches and I pretty much get them every year, but for some reason I just can’t shift this new batch. For 3 weeks I’ve had that dull, pressurised feeling in my head that frankly has just turned my brain to complete mush. My concentration span is super low, fresh ideas are slow in coming and I’m feeling lethargic.

And today it’s really gotten to me, and I’m feeling quite sorry for myself. I want nothing more than to wrap up warm in my fuzzy pyjamas, and sit with a hot tea playing computer games. Yes, that probably won’t help my headache, but there is some satisfaction in immersing yourself in an RPG and killing things that will, if nothing else, make me forget I have a headache.

What Pi Looks Like To 4 Million Decimal Places, As Pixel Art

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:24:57 +0100

New York designers TWO-N honor record-breaking calculations of Pi by representing a small subset of the number’s decimal digits as pixels.

A zoomed in section of the completed artwork

They took the first 4 million decimals of Pi and assigned each number a different colour. This was then mapped out onto a huge digital canvas, from which the image above is only a very small section.

On October 17, 2011, Shigeru Kondo concluded 371 days of computing 10,000,000,000,000 decimal places of Pi. Roughly 44TB of disk was needed to perform the computation, and 7.6TB of disk was needed to store the compressed output of decimal and hexadecimal digits… Being math geeks, we felt it was important to honor Shigeru Kondo’s work somehow, and visualizing at least a subset of the 10 trillion decimals he computed seemed like a fun thing to do

View the full project and buy a print of the first 1 million decimals on TWO-N’s site

(Images and story from FastCo Design)