Hong Kong’s inaugural SND Infographic Summit kicks off on April 13, 2018. It is already a success with just a few seats remaining for the summit and the April 14-15 workshop completely sold out.
SND are grateful to the sponsors South China Morning Post and The University of Hong Kong for lending their premises.
SND regional director, Darren Long, is the event chair. His design team from the SCMP made this event possible.
If you have ideas for future events, or want to take an active role in SND region 19 – Asia, South- Pacific, please contact Mr. Darren Long.
REGISTER HERE (Limited seats)
WORKSHOP SOLD OUT!
Meet the talented speakers who will share their experiences at the one-day summit.
What do you think of the current state of visual story telling in Asia?
I think the current state of visual story telling in Asia is a mixed bag. Every year I’m on the judges panel for the SOPA awards and every year I’m delighted by a couple of beautiful entries, but underwhelmed by the rest. How do we close this gap? Also Asia is probably similar to other places in that graphics are generally seen as a medium for large-scale features and investigative reports. I’d like to see them more in general news reporting, there’s room to increase the volume, and to sharpen up their effectiveness, especially for smartphone viewports.
Do you look to other infographics for inspiration or are your influences from other disciplines?
Yes, I always look around for inspiration and influences. I have twitter search columns, and my colleagues have set up and automatically curated slack Channel to checkout new graphics and datavisualisations. You have to constantly look around at what’s going on.
Is there anything about your work that keeps you awake at night?
Hmm what keeps me up at night about my work? Blimey, too many things! Did I get that name right? Was the photo correct? Why did I say yes to doing that project? Did I say yes? … is that enough?
What’s going to be the highlight of the week for you?
The highlight of this week is going to be taking my daughters up to Kowloon reservoir to spot some wild macaques
What will you be doing after this chat?
I’ll be going on to the monkey hunt after this email
What do you think of the current state of visual story telling in Asia?
Looking from the outside, visual story telling in Asia appears to be in a healthy state right now, exporting some new and interesting graphic ideas, and attracting talent from around the world
Do you look to other infographics for inspiration or are your influences from other disciplines?
I’m looking at other infographics all the time, most frequently those of my close colleagues who often surprise, challenge and inspire me, with a particular mention for Andy Kirk’s Visualizing Data to give a good overview of what else is going on. However, I trained as a product designer so I still take inspiration from our built environment and the objects we use every day to see how successfully (or otherwise) they express their function and impart meaning to the user
Is there anything about your work that keeps you awake at night?
Fear that the data might stop flowing!
What’s going to be the highlight of the week for you?
Just returning to Hong Kong for the first time in 25 years will be amazing, I’m really looking forward to seeing how the city has changed and hopefully catching up with some old friends
What will you be doing after this chat?
Going to Jidori, a Japanese restaurant in east London, where apparently the katsu Scotch eggs are a thing of beauty!
What do you think of the current state of visual story telling in Asia?
A lot of interesting things are happening and it’s very exciting. We have international news organizations that produce large interactive data visualization and use visual storytelling to make a bigger impact. We also have lots of local news organizations in Hong Kong, Singapore, China, S. Korea, India and many other countries that are doing interesting things tailored to their local audiences. Some of them closely combine visual story telling with investigative journalism, some of them are very mobile and social driven. I would love to see more collaboration and communication in this community because we have so much to learn from each other
Do you look to other infographics for inspiration or are your influences from other disciplines?
I do both. I have people and news organizations that I always spy on and I take inspirations from them on daily basis. I’m also inspired by people who do installation art and generative art
Is there anything about your work that keeps you awake at night?
Yes. I am always concerned about how our graphics do cross-platform and cross-device, and how accessible are they to people with low Internet speed. Along the same line, I also think a lot about how to strike the balance between being innovative and being effective. It is one thing to make something that’s creative and fun for yourself, it’s another thing to make it accessible to the readers
What’s going to be the highlight of the week for you?
I’m always the most excited when I chat with people about a story idea and find out how visual and data can drastically change what story you can tell and how you tell it
What will you be doing after this chat?
I will take a break and travel to Japan. It’s always nice to clear my mind and immerse myself in another culture
Tell us about your typical journey to work
8.30am. I climb on my motorbike and drive 10 minutes, typically in the rain!
Describe the state of your desk and what you can see in your office
My desk is ordered and clean. Even my computer screen is clean. I can’t stand disorganised, busy, chaotic screen. Office is all white color. A big central desk which eight people sit around. No individual offices. Not even for me as the company director. Just a ballroom for meetings. And a small kitchen for breaks and quick lunches. But I always have a 45m lunch at home. I prefer. On one side of the office is a library with tons of books. On the other side, a long L form window. More than a window it is a panoramic crystal area that looks to a green mountain behind. Luminous space where we can enjoy amazing sunsets
Which infographic do you first remember?
I guess it was a superb graphic by the Miami News after a storm there in 1993 approx. It showed and explained how a whole neighborhood was rebuilt step by step. It was given a Gold medal in the Malofiej competition that year
Which producers of infographics do you rate most highly right now?
I would say many. From many countries, dailies and styles. Fernando Baptista and Jaime Serra, obviously. Any of The New York Times graphics team: Archie Tse, Amanda Cox, Matt Ericsson, Jonathan Corum, Joe Ward, Larry Buchanan, Jeremy White, Karen Yourish, Sergio Pecanha… Giorgia Lupi, Pablo Loscri, so many!
Where does your love for infographics stem from?
It is a storytelling affair. I do love graphics that tell a story with focus and in an emphatic way
Tell us about your typical journey to work
10 minute walk to work. A coffee. Read news, general view. Planning the day work. Reading news. Looking at priorities for the day ahead: what I need to finish asap. Start work, share comments with colleagues. Usually I mix working some hard or long term project with some daily, or quick infographic or an illustration. I have lunch with colleagues, we laugh, we share ideas and thoughts about our work. Still working. Often I do more research to get more accurate information on a project. At the same time I try to get ideas or topics for future graphics…
Describe the state of your desk and what you can see in your office
All are spread in a chaotic way over the table: Two screens, a mac pro, a Wacom Intuos tablet, tea or coffee. A bunch of pencil and pens, a couple of sketchbooks, headphones (very important), notes, quotations on papers
Which infographic do you first remember?
Yeah! Was a small table, a long time ago, it was my first contact with an infographic, I spent like, 5 hours or so to finish it… a huge challenge
Where does your love for infographics stem from?
I think the combination of telling something, explaining, making it known, how hard it can be, how research should be done to bring it to fruition, and above all what you learn by working with infographic projects: To explain something, you must first understand it.
What do you think of the current state of visual storytelling in Asia?
Since I arrived in Asia, almost seven years ago, the storytelling has spread widely among the media, in addition to improving content and design, of course there has been a very important progressive change. But what is truly fascinating is that there is still a world to be exploited, explored and developed in Asia.
Do you look to other infographics for inspiration or are your influences from other disciplines?
I think we all agree that there is always someone from the world of infographics that has influenced and inspired us to a greater or lesser extent. We will always have references. Not only from our infographic guild, from your own work colleagues, with whom you grow and shape yourself, the influence and inspiration reaches us such that from a book or a comic, a reportage; Also the same project that you have in your hands and need to finish quickly influences and inspires you. Then also, from the aspect of visual and aesthetic design for me the influence is very vast, there are tons of inspiration in classic, ancient painting, in modern painting, in the whole range of art history, architecture, and even music. Never stop taking a look at the creative past of humanity. But I think that really important is to be yourself and focus on exploring as many paths as possible, while you can.
Is there anything about your work that keeps you awake at night?
Oh yeah! Of course! Especially when you’re not sure how a project is headed, when you need to improve it.
Tell us about your typical journey to work
I set off around 7.45 and drop our two kids off at preschool. After that I drive to the office, arriving at 8.30 in time for the morning news conference where editors from around Asia discuss the day’s top stories.
Describe the state of your desk and what you can see in your office
Our office is a fairly energetic place. You can always hear what’s going on around the world as we sit within earshot of the TV desk which has multiple live feeds coming in and out through the day.
Aside from the usual equipment, my desk has a couple of piles of books, sketch pads and note pads.
I sit among a hub of senior editors from all aspects of the newsroom so we’re always talking about stories.
Which infographic do you first remember?
I studied Information Graphics and News Design in Newcastle, England. My first ever infographic came on the opening day when we were asked to do a hand sketched step-by-step process of how to peel a banana. Using no words, we had to explain everything visually. This was the first and most important lesson I learned – show it don’t tell it.
Which producers of infographics do you rate most highly right now?
The usual big names come to mind such as the New York Times and Washington Post, especially for news related graphics. National Geographic also create some fantastic features.
Where does your love for infographics stem from?
I’ve always been passionate about art and drawing since I was a child and this grew into a love for design. When I studied information graphics I was shown how to use these skills to present information or data. That’s when my love for infographics began. I fell in love with the challenge of communicating information visually.