One Plus One Equals Three

The Rudd Coincidence

A visual (and dessert-based) salute to Australia's newest Prime Minister. (The cheers in the streets around my house when it was learnt that Howard had been defeated were really quite something – and yes, I do live in a Labor/Greens stronghold).

Some coincidental character designs. Clockwise, from top left:
– a character design by Patricio Berrios Lobos (thanks Ben Greig)
– a (modified) Tintin © Hergé
– the very intelligent Mr Peabody © Jay Ward (although Mr P doesn't speak Mandarin)
– and the not-so-coincidental: some celebratory Kevin cupcakes (© Margie Ambrose).

The Night of the Women

Barista captures the mood of the 2007 Federal election night perfectly.

Ruddmao

See "young Ruddling". Learn of the Principle of Similar Difference. Hilarious and brilliantly executed (except perhaps for the main type banner above – but small point). Clever stuff.

Attempts to Kill the Worm Largely Unsuccessful

Channel 9 brought 'the worm' back last night. The worm is a somewhat informal – yet hardly scientific – data visualization that conveys viewer/audience response to the performance of political party leaders engaged in televised debate. We had one broadcast last night – and the worm made it fun. In short, the pollie goes good – worm goes up. Pollie goes bad, worm goes down.

The Liberal Party* were not in favour of using the worm in the most recent debate. The party's leader (and current Prime Minister) John Howard is somewhat notorious for his downhill slumping worminess in such debates – and currently, he needs all the help and positive spin he can get with his party trailing markedly in the polls. But the worm snuck onto our screens, created a controversy, and showed which pollie had an upturned worm (Rudd) and whose worm was headed seriously south (Howard's).

Such a simple data visualisation sums up the action succinctly, makes politics fun for children ("look, the worm is going UP"!) and personally I'd like it to see it as an on-screen option on most TV shows. As in, "I think this show sucks (worm down), what do others think?". "Yep – it's a downturned worm."

*Note to those outside of Australia, the Liberal Party is not known for its 'liberal' standpoint on things. Which is, well, weird given their name. They don't like worms either. And – 'the worm', just in case you're wondering, is at the bottom of the images shown above.

Thai 'No' Posters Get My Vote

On the weekend Thailand held its first-ever referendum to decide whether to reject or endorse a new draft constitution. In brief, a 'yes' vote endorsed the new constitution that (from the BBC report): is possibly "less democratic than the 1997 version that it replace(s)" and was drawn up by a government installed by military coup. A 'no' vote fell roughly into two camps: supporters of ousted PM Thaksin Shinawat (who are largely farmers in the rural provinces) or others that believe that a constitution drawn up by what is effectively a military dictatorship simply offers no real advance in democratic terms.

Watching the TV news over the weekend, Thailand was certainly ablaze in the colour of the political parties: lime green for the current military-imposed ruling party, canary yellow for another party, whilst those advocating a 'no' vote and 'no to military rule' used very red and very eyecatching, well-designed posters. (Here too). Effective, appealing and emotionally-charged design certainly made the 'no' team's posters stand out and no-doubt helped them punch (far) above their weight.

It's probably little consolation to this team though: the 'yes' vote won around 70% of Sunday's vote. Thailand will now be getting the new constitution.

Here's a BBC report on the referendum.

The Liberation of Baghdad

Sandow Birk's recent paintings about the war in Iraq "are based on paintings of the glories of war in Napoleon’s time" and of "Russian socialist images of battlefield glories". The Liberation of Baghdad (detail above) is about “what we were told would happen"... Via Boing Boing.

The Trials of David Hicks

The Age interactive team has done it again. An 'interactive news' presentation that comprehensively outlines the David Hicks scenario has been posted online. The background surrounding the case is presented, along with interviews, maps and video of the people involved. An example of the burgeoning field of 'interactive news' done extremely well (save for a few errant typos).

"On January 11, 2002, (Australian) David Hicks was transferred under US military guard from Afganistan to the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

He was one of hundreds of foreigners detained by the US during its "war" on terror. Five years later, Hicks remains in detention..."

Photo above is of Hicks' cell.

A Funny Web-thing Happened on the Way to the Election

Those of us living in Victoria (Australia) have a State Government election to vote in next week. Following along the lines of The Torontoist's review of political signage I thought I'd do similar – with our local political parties. But, upon travelling around my neighbourhood I was a little disappointed in what I saw – which I half-expected. Our political signage is not as garish, colourful and 'in your face' as the Toronto signs. Ours are rather graphically subdued and well, pretty dull really.

I thought I'd examine the parties' web sites– from a design viewpoint – to see if things were a little more interesting there. They were – a little...

In fact the differing visual languages that one would normally associate with each of the two main political parties, seem to have been swapped around.

The Labor Party look Liberal, and the Libs, Labor. Huh?