Eye Magazine

Information design, the main focus of this issue of Eye, has given rise to some soul-searching. Isn’t all design about information? Conversations with contributors have made it clear that the subject embraces a huge area of activity. This can include systems and processes (from interactive maps to road signing) as much as beautiful artefacts and cool graphics (from Joost Grootens’ atlases to an animated Mondrian of Manhattan taxis). The best examples are tools that help us deal with what Grootens calls today’s ‘era of information obesity’. In his education article, Max Gadney declares that the ‘design of understanding’ is something that all students should learn. The contents of this issue imply that information design is not so much a specialist genre, more an essential fact of design life. JLW