08.31.17
Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand | Audio

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

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  • Posted in: The Observatory




    Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer. A former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Eye and Communications Arts magazine, she is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame. Jessica received both her BA and MFA from Yale University where she has taught since 1994. In 2013, she won the AIGA medal.

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