The Waco Glider - WWII Magazine, July 2009

This month's article is about US 'Waco' Gliders and the risks they posed to those inside them.

Lessons Learned

I wanted to fully address the issue of signposting in my information graphics. 

It's a bit of a watershed. The current editor and I had a chat about these when I started and he felt they needed more signposting. I took a while to agree because I was so keen to get to the data, to get to the complexity and main thrust of my argument.

I forgot the Mario Garcia principle of News design - "design for both scanners and readers".

The signpost lets the casual reader know instantly what they are about to experience. (there is a massive glider in the main part of the left page - so this is about gliders and air war.)

Before the eye hits the glider, do you show the map at the top too? was one of my quandries - I thought it introduced things pretty well - and maps in News Design always give a veracity and underline a time and place

I didn't think the map deserved a large piece of the right page

 

This has been an issue with some of the last few years articles. Some have been so concerned with their stories as to forget to remind the casual reader what they are actually about. 

I think that in future, the signpost can be more subtle, but swinging too far from your habits is a way of learning too - as long as you swing back abit.

Drawing the Glider

I set up a separate document so as to concentrate solely on the Glider art. I used guidelines on other layers to aid the construction.

So if I was going to draw a glider, I thought I'd better do it right - or good enough at least. I have been looking at technical drawing methods and gradually putting some into practice.

I amassed plenty of photo reference, found a decent photo to trace for the outline and went about filling in the detail from the photos. It was all done on the mac - using a Wacom tablet.

The blue guides were for the struts within the glider - a series of metal tubes that would need to interlink under the glider skin.

Only a couple of line thicknesses were used - and tapers were used by converting the line to paths then tweaking the points.

The thicker outside line helps define the object but one needs to be careful not to make it too thick - as many do who try to make their diagrams that extra bit more authentic.

Invasion stripes were added for both accuracy and also for form definition - always nice if surface elements can help define the character of the object too - not just provide detail or colour

Drawing the Comparison Gliders

The comparison Gliders are smaller and only need to show their basic forms. A little bit like Aircraft Identification silhouettes - all the reader needs to know is their basic shape, to reflect on major design differences - wing placement, width of fuselage or comparable size. No other detail is needed in the illustration because no other detail is in the story. These are realistic representations but they are heavily edited to their basic essences.

The smaller glider shapes were exercises in economy - an outer line and just enough detail to define and differentiate in the actual form

Drawing the Landing Zone

I thought that to illustrate the landing zone I would need to create a generic landing zone.

Too realistic a render would have made The landing zone - I just wanted A landing zone. So the main thing with that is to make the pictures more like symbols - they stand for the elements - not unlike the smaller Gliders above. 

But this illustration style and aspect is too unreal, demanding and thus attention sapping - the minute people are uneasy or thinking why is that like that then you have lost them

The roughly sketched approach seemed to be precise/ vague enough - it was mainly a question of the contrast with other elements - both internal 0 the darks and lights - and the external - the contrast with the other elements on the page - so i lightened it so as not to cause an imbalance

This was the simple light and dark lines - quite nice but a bit too contrived - too vague - not precise enough

People

Starting with the last few graphics I want to feature people in these pictures. A friend of mine mentioned that it is strange that these graphics are all about technologies designed and affecting man but feature no one. 

So I continued the direction of the last graphic - looking for a style of render of people that speaks to their humanity, is not too precise and marks them out as different in kind from the technology that they are involved with - possibly more obviously organic lines making up these souls at the mercy of the harder straighter lines around them.

Next Issue...

I am really into the direction we are going with these. I am happy to work with a team that is happy to see progress and I hope they see the fruits of their constructive and civil critique in every article.

The next few are going to be good.

Comments

[Millie]

IS there any way to obtain an 8 1/2 x 11 copy of this for a classroom? We are studying flight and the boys are very interested in WWII, so this would really hold their interest.

[Max Gadney]

Hi Millie, Mail me at
maxgadney@googlemail.com and i'll see what i can do about a copy

max