Well now that was informative.

Here’s a quick roundup after our infographics workshop at Newcastle City Library as part of the Comics Chaos festival on Saturday 9^th August 2014.

We used examples from digital and print media to identify exactly what what makes good, bad, and misleading infographics.  Our infographicers were great at spotting what it is that makes an infographic a infographic. 

Then we focussed on what comics can teach us about combining words and pictures.  Yes, panel grids are part of this, and there’s a heck of a lot more besides. 

By the time it came to making their own infographics our infographicers (if I keep writing it it’ll become a real word, right?) were rather too good at, umm, not exactly telling lies with information, but certainly being selective about what they chose to emphasise.

Thanks go to our anonymous evaluation form filler-inners for the positive and encouraging feedback.  This is a workshop we can adjust to fit different groups’ needs*, so your comments will help with the fine tuning. 

Thanks also go to our friends at Newcastle City Library for coordinating the Comics Chaos Festival.  There are other comics events for children and for adults throughout August – pick up a festival guide at the library for more information.

Thanks also also go to our friends at CCCCCCC (The Canny Comic Con Comic Chaos Creative Collaboration).  @CannyComicCon’s twitter feed has a rundown of cracking ideas for comics to read, as a good and true record of the Best Comic You’ve Never Read debate. 

*aye, that’s an advert.  You’re welcome to get in touch to to discuss the comics + science (or comics + scientists) workshops we could run for you.  We have many, we do bespoke workshops, and we'll have a web page all about them soon.

Sparks Science Collider

Sparks North East are running a Science Collider, you say?  Heck yes we're interested!

We'll be running a workshop for scientists, researchers, physical/digital makers, artists, and anyone else who takes part in the Science Collider.  This aims to get collaborations off to a sparky start: collaborators will come in not knowing what data they'll be playing with or who they'll be collaborating with, so we'll focus on how comics can help them get started and keep things on track.

Contact Sparks North East for FREE event tickets.  This is an 18+ event.