This graphic for WWII Magazine is concerned with the Kamikaze tactics employed by Japan during WWII.
Editorial Issues
Data Integrity
The graphic element at the bottom of the left hand page shows numbers of kamikazes. Due to the lack of proper records and confusion of these attacks, precise numbers are harder to come by but I think that the graphic here represents a s fair proportion of sunk ships to overall missions. One insight from doing this piece of work was that the deck-gunners and sailors on the US ships couldn't be 100% positive as to which was and wasn't a Kamikaze plane when they were at distance - as the escort planes would fly close to them and also act as unwitting decoys.
Selection of Planes
I wasn't exhaustive with the selection of all planes used in these missions for the same reasons of space and the fact that in their desperation , the Japanese used many many types of plane for this task. I mentioned others apart fro he Zero because it is important to challenge people's mental model of WWII - beyond that which they get from the mass media.
Demystification
I felt it important to point out the fallibility of much of the technology and tactics and to show that es, they did create chaos and death but ultimately they lost more than they gained.
I think this is one of the most important aspects of this work - especially as there is so much rubbish written about the superiority of Axis technology and troops. Yes - each side's military had it's strengths and weaknesses, but it is important to explain that this tactic was used because they were desperate - id they had plenty f planes, plenty of pilots and plenty of oil, they would have carried on with a more conventional form of defence I am sure (albeit more desperate the closer the lies got o the home islands. (Any non-S readers should check out The War - a documentary which is unashamedly US in it's outlook - although fair in it's assessment of the sacrifice of others (including the USSR). But even though we see various Hollywood films, the US story is not told in depth to the non-US citizen - so the War is a good place to start.
Design Issues
Themed Pages
In the work I am doing for the magazine and the book proposal, I am trying to introduce visual coding of the subject matter that should run throughout. It is done here with The use of the blue background - something I am trying to use for many of the aerial graphics - especial when the detail is concerned with the tactics of flying rather than just machinery. I will also continue the colour coding of the different belligerent powers - Green for USA, Khaki for UK, Red for USSR and Blue/ Grey for Nazi Germany. It is hard to evaluate whether it will work or whether it is worth doing until a larger body of work is built up and the graphics can be read as a series or at least related - no just by the subject material but by the basic building blocks that make them. It is odd to develop a style guide on the fly - as opposed to running into what many designers love doing - great big style guide 'bibles' - but I wonder that I don't have the full range of all the required variable s of such a guide in front of me yet - so I'm doing it as I go along.
Oversimplification
I felt that the crash tactics were pretty well explained with the three stage sequence on the right hand page but one issue was with what kind of treatment to show the impact. This is one of the few graphics (even though they all deal with parts of a catastrophic story) that shows mortal moments and I hope that they are shown sensitively.
Some (experts) could also argue that the proximity fuse is too simple - that it takes a lot of the operations of such a device for granted. I think that one needs to remember that the editorial gravity of the graphic is about kamikazes and so just as the Leigh Light deserves it's own spread from the Radar graphic - a call needs to made i the story telling and the call was that the Proximity fuse needed to explained simply.
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