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visual:design

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Volume 4, Number 1, 2009, pp.7890

Figures: a social application of infographicsStuart Medley and Nicola KayeEdith Cowan University Edith Cowan University

Research Journal of theAustralian Graphic Design Association

Figures: The social in the visual is a research project exploring the potential for information graphics

to tell news. To date, the research manifests itself in a website (http://guresmag.com), tertiary level

teaching materials, and a printed zine. This article details the principle aspects of our research. Firstly,

it states our issues with the status quo of mainstream news imagery and dissemination. Secondly,

we discuss our media choices: Why information graphics, and why the Internet? We will explain

information design as a graphic form within a contested space: The form itself requires experimentation

so that its users, including ourselves, can be more condent about what approaches to information

design communicate what messages. This experimentation leads us to the Internet, using the Web 2.0

as a space for efcient and socially focused experimentation. Our research uses a reexive methodology

which sees us as creative practitioners within the space we have set up as well as audience members

seeking explanation. We demonstrate how we use the Internet as a reexive space in developing

Figures. Thirdly, we will describe some outcomes of the research so far: Tertiary assignment briefs for

design students at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia (ECU); graphics created for Figures havebeen published in Visual Language for Designers (2009); and, another design school (at the University of

Otago, New Zealand) has published information graphics on our site.

Copyright:You may download a copy of this paper for your own personal use. This paper must not be published else-where (to mailing lists, bulletin boards, etc.) without the authors explicit permission. If you do copy this paper you must

include this copyright note. Please observe the usual academic conventions of quotations and citation.

Citation: Medley, S & Kaye, N (2009) Figures: a social application of infographics , vol.4, no.1, pp.7 890 online at: http://

www.agda.com.au/vds/vds040108.pdf

ISSN 1833-2226

A G D A

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Central issues with news perspectives

Increasingly globalised contexts for information dissemination demand alternativecommunicative spaces to mainstream media that allow diversity, plurality,

intersubjectivity and differing forms of interrogation:

it makes sense that we should have a plurality of voices and opinions in the

mainstream media rather than only hearing the views of a select number

of corporate giants. We live in what everyone keeps referring to as the

Information Age, yet as our means and ability of accessing information

have increased, the sources from which we gather it are increasingly

homogenous, and the quality of information is questionable at best.

(Monopoly: Media Edition, n.d)

visual:design:scholarship vol.4, no.1, 2009

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Figures: a social application of infographicsStuart Medley and Nicola Kaye

Dr Stuart Medley

Stuart is a lecturer in graphic design at Edith Cowan University in Perth. Formerly he lectured in

design at Otago University in New Zealand. He has presented research papers at various international

conferences including TypoGraphic2005, Lebanon, and the NewViews 2008 conference at the LCC in

London. Medley has written articles on pharmaceutical design history for the Australasian Medical

Journal, His graphic designs have been published in several reference books including Grids: Creative

Solutions for Graphic Designers, Visual Language for Designers, and Logolounge 5. Medley has been

a graphic designer for 15 years. He is a partner in, and the designer for, Hidden Shoal Recordings, a

critically acclaimed record label with a roster of international artists. He has a PhD in graphic design/

illustration based on the paradoxical premise that less realism in an image equates to more accurate

communication. Medleys PhD examiners included the illustrator/designer George Hardie, Professor ofDesign at Brighton, who described the research as bringing image into the fold of graphic design theory.

[email protected]

Dr Nicola Kaye

Nicola is an artist and coordinator of the Master of Arts (Visual Arts) course at Edith Cowan University

in Perth, WA. She has recently completed her PhD at the University of New South Wales, and published

a book Physical/virtual sites: using creative practice to develop alternative communicative spaces. Her

research examines the online/ofine social application of visuality. She has exhibited and presented at

numerous national and international exhibitions and conferences, including Transforming Audiences 2

at the University of Westminster, London (2009), and at the International Symposium on Electronic Art,Singapore (2008).

[email protected]

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Part of this homogeneity lies in the form of the newsphotographs and textnot

just in the content or the sources of the information. One way this is being challenged is

by alternative communication spaces colloquially described by Jeffery P. Jones (2006) as

alternative media that represent a wide variety of politically conscious, non-mainstream

media forms. Our research interests lie in exploring alternative media spaces of

interpretation and communication away from mainstream notions of news, information

and public space. We are particularly interested in the visual (non-textual) aspects ofnews presentation. We believe that to some extent, regardless of content or editorial

gatekeeping, the visual form of the news, especially its ubiquitous reliance on photography,

contributes to the problem of homogeneity. A photograph appears to show us reality, since

it is understood to be a record of something that occurred in front of the camera, but

it records without explanation in and of itself. As Roland Barthes (1982) explains, the

photograph suggests the gesture of the child pointing his nger at something and saying:

that, there it is, lo! but says nothing else.

We wish to explore visual forms that may provide more of an explanation of

events. We also question the authority photography still has within this news realm.

While newspapers openly credit photographers with pictorial authorship, the photographis still widely regarded as objective truth where viewers tend to separate the photograph

from the photographer (Lewis-Green, 1996, Art of the Book, 2006). Principally, we believe

the visual form of news, that of the photographically real, tends to decontextualise the

moments that the audience has long assumed are the news from the larger picture that

these moments happen within. As Susan Sontag put it, Photographic exploration and

duplication of the world fragments continuities (1977, p.156). Visuality, the realm of the

image, should be contested. Our view of visuality concurs with Peter Dallows (2008):

To use a term with a good deal of currency, we might think of the visual as being like

an interface or cultural zone of social exchange, a space where the conventions in the

construction of visual imagery and the prevailing or imminent social and culturalpractices meet: a social sphere or arena where contemporary views of reality are

displayed. Hence a notion of visual literacy could be the capacity to negotiate or navigate

this visual cultural zone. (p.98)

Our means of negotiating this zone is to problematise the photograph. Of course,

other theoristsSontag being prominent among themare well-known for doing just

that, but their approach has been a linguistic critique. We approach the critique through

images. Hence we have begun to explore an alternative form for news dissemination:

The information graphic. Information design, though a contested space as we describe

below, is widely regarded as an explanatory visuality: A means to make visually clear

complex models or relationships (Tufte, 1997, p.57). Typical examples include maps,diagrams, waynding systems, graphs, timelines and technical drawings. In addition, the

information graphic obtains the same kind of rhetoric of neutrality (Kinross, 1989, p.131)

that an audience looks for in a photograph (Malamed, 2009, p.130), paradoxically while

it is made up of images and symbols generally chosen from the other end of the realism

continuum as we will explain. What has become central to our research is an examination

of the credibility of information suggested in these apparently objective, abstracted

graphics and the potential for aesthetic appeal to attract an audience and keep them

interested in the information.


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Inormation graphics, the internet and a refexive methodology

Inormation design: problems and potential

Mainstream news relies primarily upon realistic modes of representation for the visual

aspects of its communication. Namely, video for television news and photography for

printed news, with a combination of these media used on Internet-based news services.

Since we are looking for alternative visuals to those provided in mainstream news, we

are interested in visual forms removed from realism. By realism we mean those imagesderived using a camera to record light reected off objects and people. We decided to

explore images at the furthest remove from photographic realism on the assumption that

this decision would highlight those differences in sharpest relief. The most realistic image

(removed from the object itself) is the colour photograph of whatever the object happens to

be. At the other end of the scale is the arbitrary graphic (Wileman, 1993; Gropper, 1963;

Knowlton, 1966) sometimes referred to as the icon (McCloud). It is these distilled images

that are the modules upon which information designs or diagrams are built (Buchheit,

n.d.). Diagrams are the visual result of travelling along this continuum, removing detail in

the process. Using a diagrammatic metaphorthe realism continuum derived from Dwyer

(1972), McCloud (1993) and Wileman (1993)we can say that diagrams sit at the oppositeend from photographic realism. An example is shown at Figure 1.

Figure 1 - A realism continuum between colour photography (Robert Moses by Arnold

Newman) representational and specic at one end and text, abstract and general at the other.

According to McCloud (1993) this stripping away of realistic detail allows the

resulting image to amplify particular meanings in a way that realistic images can not.

This suggests that diagrams, the kinds of visual material at the end of this process of

abstraction and distillation, allow a deeper intellectual connection with visual material

than is prompted by realism. At the very least, a reduction in realism must prompt a

search for meaning beyond the representational. This could be described as seeing with

the mind as opposed to merely seeing with the eyes. Malamed, in Visual Language for

Designers, describes the function of abstract information graphics:

Not only do abstract graphics enhance communication, they also enhance

the credibility of a message. There is a sense of objectivity to the non-

representational graphic, similar to the way photographs appear to be

objective renderings of reality. After all, abstract graphics represent facts

and data, concepts and systems. People expect them to reect accuracy

and precision, believing they are the nal word. In truth, however, every

abstract graphic is inherently the result of numerous subjective design

decisions. (p.130)

However, information design is itself a contested space: We cannot merely begin

using its approaches in an unquestioning manner since these approaches are debated

among experts in the eld. Different authors place the same kinds of images, line-

drawings and silhouettes for example, at different points along the continuum. In other

cases there are profoundly different readings even of the same graphic. For example, the


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graphic at Figure 2 by information designer Nigel Holmes receives applause from his

fellow information graphic designer, Duncan Mill:

This two-column graphic sums up the power of infographics. The exhilarating

abandon of the oozy Monroe character grabs the reader, then powerful

dynamics take over, all within the restrictions of an image surrounded

by text, Holmes guides the readers eye around the data [] The use of

shnet stockings as the graph background is so clever, not only accuratelyreecting the years and dollar values but also echoing the sexy visual joke.

The typography is clean and simple, and the use of colour is eyecatching.

(Agar, et al, 2003, p.45)

Figure 2 - This information graphicfor Time Magazine by Nigel Holmesis lauded and lambasted by differentdesign critics.

The same graphic, however, attracts the ire of information graphic critic, Edward Tufte:

chockablock with clich and stereotype, coarse humour, and a content-

empty third dimension. It is the product of a visual sensitivity in which

a thigh-graph with a shnet-stocking grid counts as a Creative Concept.

Everything counts but nothing matters. The data-thin (and thus

uncontextual) chart mixes up changes in the value of money with changes

in diamond prices, a crucial confusion because the graph chronicles a time

of high ination. (1990, p.34)

What seems to be at issue here is the focus of information design: Is grabbing

the reader important, as Mills suggests, or is accuracy of data presentation more pressing

as Tufte argues? Can accessibility and accuracy be reconciled? Interestingly, little of the

research into information design specically addresses whether a balance may be found

between these two potentially contradictory focuses. What we do with Figures, then, is

experiment for ourselves within this contested space, using a reexive methodology to

determine whether we are on the right track towards dening diagrammatic approaches

to explaining the news, and also what advantages such approaches have over realistic

news imagery.


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Methodology

Refexive praxis and the internet

The Figures approach to research into information design is a reexive one. In our

research we propose information graphics as a productive visual tool for communication.

Praxis is an essential methodology for Figures as at its core is the interrelationship of

theory and practice and how it relates to contemporary culture. Sociologist Nick Couldry

(2004) proposes that through praxis there is a democratic potential for the individual. Itis through the act of doing that change for the amelioration of society can be facilitated.

Like Couldry, we encourage public empowerment by engaging in practices to promote

discourse. Figures has developed a community, via the website, printed materials and

public projections to promote such discourse. Our approach to research on the Figuresmag.

com website has been to offer designs and pictures for public comment. Each post contains

at least one imagein most cases designed by us, in other cases chosen for its news

currencyand a written context, in what we hope is accessible language, to explain the

presence of the images. At the end of each post we prompt for readers comments.

Couldrys discourse is in constructing practices to enact theoretical goalsthis is at

the heart of praxis. A reexive praxis is therefore integral to our research as it is providesus with a cyclic model. This model allows us to continually build on what has come before,

where we reassess and critically interrogate our research outputs in order to get closer

to our goal of balancing aesthetics and accuracy. We concur with Anthony Giddens when

he asserts, At each moment the individual is asked to conduct a self-interrogation in

terms of what is happening (1991, p. 76). We are constantly interrogating what we do,

and this can be viewed on the Figures website where we regularly post questions for our

audience. For example, we ask via the site what topics interest the readers while seeking

feedback on our visual approaches to those topics. For example, on June 9, 2009, we asked:

Which postings do you connect with and why? Can you spot any key

themes that are worth developing? What are some issues that you mightlike to be addressed?

What reexivity provides for our research, is the underlying principle, at the

core of the reexive act, that there needs to be cognition of ethical, social and historical

awareness, in order to negotiate the innumerable complexities in any given situation.

We stress that, in any reexive context, there has to be an acknowledgement of power

relations, as cultural theorist Michael Lynch contends, Reexive analysis is often said to

reveal forgotten choices, expose hidden alternatives, lay bare epistemological limits and

empower voices which had been subjugated by objective discourse. Reexive analysis is

thus invested with critical potency and emancipatory potential (2000, p. 36). We suggestit is these attributes of reexivity that should be central to any social interaction. We

recommend the form of reexivity by Giddens, et al, as signicant for our research in the

way it demands a critical interrogation of ones cultural contextit is this that we are

constructing on the Figures website with the help of contributors feedback.

Reader eedback

There are some commonalities of response in the comments on the website. In general

the area of research meets with the approval of our readership, with a commentator

describing our work as: not only a fascinating area of exploration, but also increasingly


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necessary as we are witnessing the beginnings of developments in new means of language

and linguistics, namely of a visual nature. (Mind map: June 17th, 2009 at 8:56 pm).

Other comments focused on the clarity of our visual interpretations of data: Beautiful

work team. Easy to follow. (Scott Savage: February 7th, 2009 at 5:14 am). With regard

to our seeking a balance between aesthetic appeal and accuracy of data presentation, our

readers seem to understand this pursuit and appreciate our steps in this direction, but

dont hesitate to point out shortfalls in communication: OK it needs work to decipher,which is not necessarily bad, but I am still a little unclear of the meaning of the positions

etc. Looks lovely though. (The Worst of Perth:July 4th, 2008 at 5:12 am). Even when this

pursuit of aesthetic appeal took us into three dimensional territory, as with the World

Languages Graphic (http://guresmag.com/archive/world-languages-graphic/) the readers

seemed pleased to join us for the journey: The idea of this being a physical info-graphic is

awesome.. kinda reminds me of the games box cover or something with the way it is shot

also which gives it a nice aesthetic. (Vaughn: October 8th, 2008 at 4:01 am)

Where the graphics were heavy on data and text, and less aesthetically focused,

this seemed to have a detrimental effect for some readers: maybe briefer text, to give it

the aesthetic of something interesting, its too at atm. Needs to be visually enticing forme to go further.. too much going on for me. (October 8th, 2008 at 4:09 am). Ultimately,

we would like even the feedback mechanisms, like our visual critique of news imagery, to

be picture-based. To this end we are currently seeking funding to develop a visual wiki-like

system which would allow our commentators to upload visuals that suggest improvements

to our designs.

Outputs

Tertiary education materials

Our research has appeared as the basis of assignment briefs for graphic design students

at ECU. The research informs the teaching of vector illustration software: Studentsare not just learning the tools but reecting on the advantages of drawing versus

photographic means of image-making. They learn that as realism is reduced, the

designer can bring order to the drawing, suggesting relationships between elements

through the imposition of colour, shape and line weight. One such assignment was

structured in order to nd out what students thought information designs were good for.

We were interested to know if their approach to designing for news stories would conrm

our conjecture: That information design could help to create a visual context lacking in

photographic images. We asked the students (40 second and third year graphics majors)

to reect on what a diagram might allow for visual communication that a photograph

could not. No student in the group reported having considered these two approachesto image as points along a continuum of realism; as alternative ways of addressing the

same subject matter that might reveal different things about that subject. In response

to the prompt, In your understanding, what can information graphics or diagrams

do?, One student suggested that diagrams show how things work; another that

diagrams can measure things; and another said diagrams visually compare things

like statistics. When asked if these tasks were possible with photography students

responded, You would have to think very carefully about lighting so it was really clear

what the photo was telling you to do; Yes, you can compare something like the height

or size of people but for most things it would be very hard. Students were again asked


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the question why draw when you want to measure or explain something visually, why

not take photographs? Student responses included, drawings and diagrams can make

things clearer; you dont have distracting backgrounds; and you can compare things

that you cant put together in a photo. Like a blue-whale and a building. From these

responses, we determined that the students had some intuition about diagrammatic

drawings, but had not yet applied this understanding to information design. Given this

general inexperience, the results (some of which are shown at Figures 3, 4 & 5) were well

resolved in terms of what we look for in the Figures research.

For their diagrams content, students were instructed to chose a news story on the

basis of feeling strongly about the topic. This emotional connection seems to come from

stories that are complex enough to be retold through information graphics. Complexity in

turn often leads to a need to compare or measure such that the reader gets a better sense

of the news context. We take information architect, Richard Saul Wurmans lead here: The

reader understands something new relative to something they already understand (1997).

In this way students learn how to use graphing tools and scales as well as drawing tools

within their design software, and begin to understand that data can be explained visually

and accurately at the same time.

The advantages to the Figures project is that a group of students can generate

many complex information graphics in a fraction of the time it takes for the Figures team

to do the same. In terms of our research this means manifold graphical experiments to

study but also a ready audience for feedback as to the effectiveness of these diagrams.

Through the help of a funded research assistant and student submissions, we have been

able to experiment with dozens of new information graphics. We can explore a range of

topics, but more importantly we can examine different approaches to information design

and get class feedback on these as they are produced. From our research for Figures, we

were able to explain to students that this balance between aesthetic appeal and accuracy

was key. In-class discussions concurred with the comments on the website: An initialglance at the graphic should reveal the context of the information and be engaging such

that the reader wishes to understand the information. The graphics need to strike a

balance between being eye-catching and seemingly objective in order that their content

be credible.

Figure 3 - Study of personal wealth by Blagoj Micevski, shows attention to detail in statisticsand colour relationships, but also a pursuit of visual wit (the piggy bank metaphor) throughwhich to connect the reader.


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Figure 4 - Study of carbon footprint reduction by george Domahidy uses a silhouette todelineate the context of the information. Students responded positively to the accessibility ofthe visuals but found fault with colour usage. One comment was Yellow things should relateto other yellow things, and same with red. But some red things here are positive while othersare negative.

Figure 5 - Greatest Rock Movesby Steph Cormack approachesvisual wit as a subversivetake on the characteristicallyserious form of infographics.In-class responses to this work

were very positive indeed; itwas voted a class favourite.Further exploration by Figuresof information graphics suggeststhat even serious content canbenet from a humourousexecution.

When the graphics were submitted and pinned up on the studio wall for review,

those that got the best feedback showed a combination of clean, precise visuals with some

form of visual wit. This wit could be evidenced through a visual metaphor (as in Figure 3)

or a knowing subversion of the dry form of infographics (Figures 5).


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Scott Savage, a professional practice fellow in design at the University of Otago,

New Zealand, along with two of his project tutors, Tracey Gardner and Sian OGorman,

have chosen to publish some of their student information design projects on our website.

Interestingly, their marking criteria for the project also point to the importance of the

relation between aesthetic appeal and credibility:

- is the information clear and scannable? [ie. can one get an overview of the

intent quickly]- is the information telling a clear story about your topic?

- is the information graphic compelling, elegant and stylish with a strong

attention to detail?

- is the structure of the information graphic innovative and witty?

- is the information graphic convincing / persuasive?

(retrieved from http://guresmag.com/archive/project-prole-duninfo-

making-information-accessible/#comments)

Again, the issue of humour or visual wit raises its head. The graphics that received

the most positive responses in the Otago groups all demonstrated aspects of visual wit.Our ndings in this area seem to concur with McAlhone and Stuarts endorsement of the

sudden insights promoted by the pleasure of decoding. (A smile in the mind, 2001, p.19).

For the Figures team however, this visual wit raises another question. In the

realm of social statistics and news, does visual wit erode the seriousness of the content?

In order to test whether lightheartedness of graphic treatment resulted in a perception

of implausibility in serious contexts, we ran a short survey via a web posting. A recent

comparison on Figuresmag.com of two pharmaceutical designs for the same product

elicited some interesting responses. Readers were shown two designs for the same

product [Figures. 6 & 7]. The designs were chosen from Spain allowing English speakers

to concentrate more on the difference in graphics and less on the written information.Readers of the blog were asked:

What kind of words would you use to describe each design? Is one more

appealing than the other? If so, why? Does one seem more or less likely

to work? If you had to choose between these two packages based on their

visual design, which would you reach for at the chemists?

Figure 6, left (c. 2000) is thecurrent Utabon decongestantgraphic. Figure 7, above(c.1960s) is the graphicit replaced. Designs fromSpain, designers unknown.


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Eleven comments were submitted for this post. Seven of the respondents said

they would choose the (now obsolete) graphic at Figure 7 from the chemists shelves.

Comments describing this design included the words, friendly, fun, cute, easy to

comprehend. One respondent said this illustration suggested the product was easy to

use. Interestingly, two of the respondents used the word cute in a negative sense: They

thought the brand less trustworthy and less serious because of this smiling face. Generally

though, the comments suggest that humour or light-hearted approaches to graphics do notnecessarily result in an assumption of a lack of authority, quality or effectiveness. Most

who found the packaging appealing said they would also be happy to use this product.

Printed booklet

Through our research we are trying to weigh the importance of aesthetic appeal against

accuracy of data presentation: The appeal of the graphics must not distort or interfere

with the data but the data is as good as useless if it is not made accessible enough to

understand or appealing enough to keep the reader interested until the information

is decrypted. In this latter sense, we agree with Hans Roslings call to liberate the

important data (www.gapminder.org) trapped in tables and lists the world over. Oneway we have found to explore this balance is through the use of humour. Neuraths

famous Isotype approach to visualizing social statistics was an attempt at objectivity and

universality (Neurath, 1946). However, recently a number of designers (Pippo Lionni and

Nicolas Felton foremost among them) have begun tapping this typically serious form of

design for humour.

One of our experiments in this area manifests itself as a printed booklet: The

gas plant explosion which slowed the W.A. economy for many months during 2008 was

picked from the front pages of the news of the day (June 2008). The West Australian

Newspaper and the ABC news website published the picture at Figure 8. This showed a

ame appearing to originate from a broken pipea perfect example of Barthes notion thata photograph can only point but not explainThe text of the article however, referred to

the potential downstream industrial disruptions that may occur as a result of a pipeline

explosion. Over the course of several months, the stories pertaining to the explosion began

to suggest that the relaxed W.A. lifestyle itself might soon become compromised. In our

pursuit of the potential for humour in information design we decided that the stories could

be retold through a set of 10 postcards referencing holidays and pleasant destinations.

Figures 9 and 10 show our Explosion over the horizon book of postcards. We adopt Bruce

Maus idea that a book is a time-based medium (2000). We have interpreted that literally.

We thought about what a book of postcards might be once all the postcards are zipped out

and sent off. The remaining artifact is a little ick-book which explains through animationthat this gas explosion lit the fuse which led to the loss of hundreds of jobs.

Figure 8 - This news photograph revealsnothing of the complex downstream effectsof the Varanus Island gas explosion.


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Design students might be more visually literate than the larger communityperhaps

prone to seeking out connections in an image made via shape, colour and lineor at least

visually biased in their appreciation of this communication form. It is not inconceivable

that a layperson may prefer tabular settings of the same information.

Our in-class experiments in part acknowledge a problem with information

designs as news visualisation. That is, that photographs are quicker to make and publish.

However, in our opinion, the broad context that an information graphic can potentiallycapture can apply for the life of the news story. In this way it can provide an arena in

which to view photographs. An information graphic could place a series of photographs

in sequence (to reassemble the fragmented continuities that Sontag complained of) while

at the same time showing the reader where those photographs were taken. It is visual

possibilities like these that we will continue to research through Figures.

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90 2009 Published by AGDA

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MANAGING EDITOR S Mark Roxburgh

University of Technology Sydney

Sidney Newton

University of New South Wales

Katherine Moline

College of Fine Arts

University of New South Wales

visual:design:scholarship is a fully refereed, online journal that aims to stimulate, support

and disseminate design research with a focus on visual communication design in the Australian

context. The journal seeks particularly to encourage contributions that speak to, and on behalf

of, the visual communication design industry in Australasia. The aim is to include contributionsfrom students, practitioners and academics. A range of research approaches, methods and forms

of presentation is anticipated.

visual:design:scholarship is published online continuously, as articles become available.

All of the articles in any given calendar year will comprise a separate volume. Special editions

will be published as additional numbers within each volume.

Types of Contribution

Refereed Articles (minimum 3,0005,000 words or equiv-alent, no maximum). Original and previously unpublishedscholarship in visual communication design of a researchor developmental nature, inclusing: case studies, studentdissertations, minor theses, research reports, new method-ologies, substantial position state-ments, reective analyses,critical reviews, visual essays, experimental practice andcurriculum developments. This is an opportunity to have ascholarly work internationally blind refereed for academicpublication.

Format Requirements

We are interested in a variety of formats for refereedarticles. All submissions require the following: a separate page indicating a Title for the article/statement/

view. the Full Name for each Author with their currentafliations, a Contact Address listing email and telephonedetails. Please avoid the identication of authors withinthe manuscript.

an abstract or short summary of 100200 words. 36 keywords that identify the main issues for the

readership.

the main document should be clearly organised with ahierarchy of headings and sub-headings that structurethe presentation. The style should be clear and concise,presented for an Australian graphic design audience.

In general, please avoid the use of footnotes and endnotes.Referencing should follow the Harvard Style (reference inthe text by author, name and date, cited at the end inalphabetical order), and all tables and gures should havedescriptive captions (including source information). A short(100200 word) biography of each author for reader infor-mation would be appreciated. We also encourage authorsto submit examples of their own practice, student workor other examples that generally illustrate and support thetenor of the article. Such examples of work will be publishedalong with the biographies.

Submission

Submissions should be emailed to the Editors in Word (.doc)format only. For other submission possibilities, pleasecontact the editors.Email: [email protected]

visual:design:scholarshipResearch Journal of the

Australian Graphic Design Association

email:

[email protected]

ISSN: 1833-2226

040108_medley & Kaye

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