Episode 64: The Eye and the Storm

This week, Michael and Jessica talk about Hurricane Harvey and what climate change means for designers.

Michael recalls that the meteorologist on the local news was his first exposure to data visualization:

you know, those overly detailed charts about pressure systems and barometric readings and humidity and fronts moving from one direction to the other direction.

And most of the time, it was too much information:

Basically, you just want to know, Do I need a jacket? Will it rain? And instead you’re getting this bird’s eye view…

Also mentioned this week:

Taylor Swift, Look What You Made Me Do (Lyric Video)

Benedict Evans, Cars and Second-Order Consequences

Weather Channel, Hurricane Categories Make a Difference

WXY Studio

Brian Koerber, Mashable, People are ripping Taylor Swift’s album cover for its bad graphic design

Dee Lockett, New York, How ‘I’m Too Sexy’ Ended Up in Taylor Swift’s ‘Look What You Made Me Do’

Virginia Heffernan, Wired, Escape the Matrix

Subscribe to The Observatory on iTunes or your favorite podcast app, or follow Design Observer on Soundcloud.

Observed

View all

Jobs

View all

Share on Social

By Michael Bierut & Jessica Helfand

Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer and a former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Communications Arts and Eye magazines. A member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame, Helfand received her B.A. and her M.F.A. from Yale University where she has taught since 1994.