Nintendo Infographic Poster | Case Study
A video game infographic poster that recaps the evolution of Nintendo’s video game consoles
Purpose:
The purpose of the project is to understand working with data sets and analysis of research and content. From Information Design 2 class, the challenge of the project was to create an infographic piece with different visualization methods that engages the audience. By the end of the semester, the goal is to grasp the understanding of visualization content and reflect on the audience’s engagement with the information piece.
Client:
Academic
Roles:
Information Design, Poster Design, Illustration
Tools:
InDesign, Illustrator
The Creative Brief:
3 Options for Infographic Design
1. Poster — 30 in. max in both dimensions; min. 18 x 24 in; can be either landscape or portrait orientation. You can also incorporate folding for the poster which may require double-sided printing
2. Interactive screen-based piece — this can be a PDF, website or other format, and can include basic interactions such as buttons, rollovers, hyperlinks, sliders, and pop-ups. Aim for a minimum of 6 to 8 “pages” of content
3. Propose an idea — if you have some other medium you wish to do, pass it by the professor before going forward with it
Process Work
- Depth and breadth of content research and evidence of editing of content;
- Design development of concepts exploring all visualization modes, composition, and narrative structure
Final Design
- Strategic application of information design principles; creativity and appropriateness of visualization methods and forms for chosen content
- Structure and flow of narrative communicates content and clearly and effectively
- Quality of final design including visual hierarchy, composition, use of colour, type, line, imagery, and other graphic elements
- Quality of execution and professionalism of final design in chosen format
The Research
For the research, I started to search up Nintendo’s sales data and their history as a company. From Nintendo’s sales data on the Official Nintendo website, I viewed each console’s hardware (physical consoles & controllers) and software (video games). I also viewed the visual data and trends of Nintendo’s greatest hits and misses of their video game consoles. I made sure the data is accurate and updated to the current year.
Rough Sketches
After researching, I sketched out two possible poster variations with horizontal and vertical information layouts. From jotting down research notes and content ideas, I determined the poster layout and how the audience will navigate the information.
In terms of displaying the data, I decided to do a chronological and statistical visualization. With Nintendo’s data, the chronological visualization will be a timeline of all their video game consoles ever made; this type of method will introduce the Nintendo’s consoles in the most effective way. The statistical visualization will be a bar graph to show Nintendo’s hardware and software sales; after the audience views the chronological visual, it transitions into learning about the number of sales.
Colour Schemes
For the colour schemes, I experimented from Nintendo’s colour palette (the reds, blues and monochromatic) to vibrant, bold colours. I wanted to create a colour scheme that portrays the spirit of Nintendo and the type of colours they mostly used.
The Process–What Didn’t Work Well:
For the rough creation of the console timeline, I went with a design that states the console year, name and photo connecting to the next. This established the change between each console as the year goes by. When initially designing the chronological visual aspect, I thought it would work because it captured the concept in a clean matter. This concept didn’t follow through because the imagery of the consoles was not cohesive in terms of the perspective and colour palette. It would have thrown off the poster’s aesthetic and didn’t exactly follow the brief.
When creating the rough poster variation, I went for the horizontal information layout as it’ll laid out the visualizations from top to bottom. The poster started out with the timeline of the video game consoles then worked down to the bar graph data. When initially designing the poster, I thought it would work out because the layout structure is organized but I was struggling with displaying the visualizations. The chronological visualization doesn’t vertically line up with each other which interrupts the flow. The statistical visualization has the most issue because the data doesn’t work in favor with the double bar graph; the data dealt with a huge range of numbers that it was hard to figure out the scale. This was lead to confusing the audience when integrating the bar graph.
What I Learned from The Process:
I’ve learned to keep pushing the design process and remind myself there is always a solution to everything. When I looked back on the timeline and bar graph concept, I have contemplated for a long period of time on my initial ideas. For the timeline, the style of the imagery didn’t look appropriate for the type of project. For my bar graph, I was trying to improve the scale for the longest time and felt it didn’t go anywhere. This taught me to get over the design block and search for the solution in the making.
The Outcome
Final Poster
For the 20” x 30” poster outcome, my goal was to communicate Nintendo’s history through their video game consoles and how they dominated the video game industry. From the top of the poster, it takes the audience on Nintendo’s journey through a summarized blurb of their company and anticipation.
Following the coloured line, it guides them through each iconic video game console throughout each era. Audiences can reminisce the nostalgia by viewing through Nintendo’s classics. A unique takeaway from the timeline is small grey lines; this marks the “console family tree”, the consoles that are connected to each by name.
After the timeline, audience can analyze Nintendo’s console and video games sales through the butterfly bar graph. The butterfly bar graph distinguishes the scope of how successful the sales were for each console. It has an interesting correlation that audience can discuss and differ with one another.
Video Game Console Illustrations
For the illustrations, I wanted the video game consoles to have a collective art style. The technical line art gives each console illustration a ‘blueprint’ feel; it has a detailed appearance especially for consoles with the same names to tell apart the difference in feature. I took the approach of illustrating the line art to branch out my illustration skills further.
The Why:
The final outcome of the poster works because the art direction and content flow are consistent. From the colour schemes, typography and illustrations, the art direction of the poster strictly relied on use of the four colours, three fonts and one-line art style. The colour schemes were maintained to not only represent the era but cohesively unified the poster. The technical illustrations were kept in black and white because against the coloured circle backgrounds, the illustrations will pop out to the eye.
The Results:
The result of the project fulfilled the purpose of understanding the visualization content and reflecting on the audience’s engagement with the information piece. The project accomplished its expectations by:
Understanding the visualization content — from the research stage, I was able to retain Nintendo’s sales data and define the best visualization methods. From this, I understood how to organize & flow each block of content and the design effective and seemliness visualization.
Reflecting on the audience’s engagement with the information piece — from the design stage, I was able to consider how the piece will have communicated and grabbed the audience’s attention. From this, I applied strategic application of information design principles to develop a visual narrative.
The Creative Brief:
The creative brief covered two main objectives: process & design. These two objectives helped drive the project forward.
· The process stage aimed towards extensive research and planning. In order to design the poster, I needed to search up my data and sketch layouts, getting the general sense of the poster design.
· The design stage consisted of designing the rough components such as the illustrations and visualization data of the poster. In order to do this stage, I rely on my data source and sketches to keep me grounded.
Conclusion–The Learning Process:
In the process of creating Nintendo Infographic Poster, I have learned about the use of information design principles and the value of narrative. I gained knowledge of handling data and analyzing research. It made me strategically think about how to translate an amount of information into an engaging, visual infographic. It also helped improve my hierarchy and illustration skills.
The challenge of the project was designing the data such as the bar graph concept. Making any data into a visual piece took time and patience; it required my attention to ensure the data was accurate as possible. It made me realized my potentials and strengthen my design skills. The project was a rollercoaster ride of struggles and successes, making me a better designer than before.
