Boag Associates : Information Design

A new exhibition opens at St Bride on 28 April. The exhibition is hosted by Boag Associates - the leading independent information design agency based in London who specialise in using new and traditional media to solve complex communication problems.

The exhibition charts the development of the design of information - a journey from print to personal messaging - and is hosted by Boag Associates at the St Bride Printing Library. The beginnings of information design as a discipline can be traced to the 1930s with the development of Isotype. However this exhibition starts with the invention of printing from moveable type, not because Gutenberg was an information designer but because printing had a major impact on information access and distribution. Later printers exploited the medium in order to make information clearer and accessible.

Highlights from the exhibition include :

• Gutenberg, the inventor of moveable type/adjustable moulds who made printing a commercial reality.
• Robert Estienne, whose use of different types and differentiation of elements of texts aided readers and made information clear.
• Andreas Vesalius, father of modern anatomy whose illustrations revolutionized the teaching of anatomy.
• William Playfair, father of national statistics whose books of graphs brought statistics to a wider audience.
• Otto and Marie Neurath and the Isotype Institute, who used pictures to take the spin out of statistics. With each symbol representing a fixed quantity, greater quantities are shown by the repetition of symbols, making it easier for the reader to understand.
• Henry C Beck, whose diagram of the London Underground emphasises connections rather than geography.
• Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert, who designed an elegant and effective sign system for British roads.
• Spencer, Reynolds, and Coe, whose work on legibility research challenged established wisdom - research which is still relevant today.
• Forms design research in the 1980s, which led to the design of friendly forms that looked good and helped users fill them in.
• The Apple Interface, an interface that was built by people who understood the needs of ordinary computer users and used images and language that most of us could understand.
• SMS and how mobile devices can be used to improve information access.

More Info :

Boag Associates

T : 020 7600 0670

E : post@boag.co.uk
W : http://www.boag.co.uk

St Bride Printing Library

Bride Lane, Fleet Street
London EC4Y 8EE
England

W : http://www.stbride.org

TDC Type Directors Club
60 East 42nd Street
Suite 721
New York, NY   10165-0721
USA

T : 1-212-983-6042
F : 1-212-983-6043
E : director@tdc.org
W : http://www.tdc.org/