For this project I received the Time Life Encyclopedia of Planets. From the beginning I was super psyched about getting this encyclopedia because I knew it would be full of fascinating facts. Right when I opened the encyclopedia I was wowed by the old school graphics and information. I loved the idea of taking some of the infographics in this book & giving them a more modernized spin. I also took the information I learned from the encyclopedia and dove in a bit deeper on the internet. I really love how this project turned out. I think the color systems, illustration style, and type all work well together to form a beautiful graphic system.
My very top graphic is the redesigned symbol from the back of my encyclopedia. I was stuck on how to design a symbol that was equally as good as the one from the back. It is so symbolic and recognizable. I wanted to give mine a more simplistic feel, since my graphics had so much detail. I also felt like it was right to go with a circle as the shapes because I was dealing with planets. After realizing what route I wanted to take, I then decided to take a main color from each planet and assign it to each circle. I believe the icon I created is a beautiful and symbolic icon for the planets. The bright colors are a great beginning to the page because as you scroll down and find where those colors came from. The other symbols I chose are from the encyclopedia. They are the Greek symbols for each planet. I intended to have these symbols in an infographic of their own, but I didn’t feel like it felt cohesive with the others. For these symbols I chose to show them in black & white. Instead of doing all 8 planets, I chose to only do the 4 that I spoke about again.
My animated graphic is one of my favorite parts of my whole project. I spent a lot of time illustrating the planets and I think they turned out so wonderful and realistic. Adding the animation was an interesting process because I didn’t want to take the attention away from the planets, but I also wanted to show my information in a visually pleasing way. I think the way it slowly pops up gives the viewer time to truly embrace each planet before it shows the next.
For the second infographic, I focused solely on the earth. I thought it would be smart to add some information about the planet we call home. For this one I chose to “modernize” an infographic that was in my encyclopedia. So I did a look inside of our earth. I like the warmth of the colors that are inside the earth. I pulled those directly from the encyclopedia. You can see the original graphic in my process, I believe I did a good job of taking the information from the original & making it more modern & adding more to it.
My essay graphic was a fun one to tackle. I wanted to go with the essay from my encyclopedia about life in other forms. For this I chose to set the text as if it was the light coming from the UFO. I thought this was a visually interesting way for one to read the information.
All in all, I am very happy with how my project turned out. I enjoyed learning more about space & the planets. The encyclopedia brought lots of interesting information and unique designs that allowed for my project to take life.
