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The Concept

“Never Forever Never for Now” is a quantitative visualisation of the transient nature of empire. The visualisation graphs all known empires, colonies and territorial occupations from 2334 BCE to the present day. Each empire occupies a slice of the pie graph with a known start (+) and end (×) date. Each slice is assigned a transparency value of 10% allowing for concurrent empires to be visualised – the more empires that occupy the same period of time in history, the whiter the graph. As history progresses, humankind’s competition for wealth, resources and the relentless drive toward conquest and occupation can be clearly seen in the graph.

The data shows an accelerating trend toward greater and greater conquest of territory and greater and greater competition amongst imperial powers. The graph starts relatively light (top right portion of graph) as early cultures maintain territory that can be considered indigenous. With time, cultures encroach upon one another as shown in the heavy white areas to the left of the graph (representing 900 CE to 1900 CE). The wavelike variation in imperial occupation reveals cyclical patterns of conflict in history due most likely to the evolution of cultural, ethic and religious identity where the separation of self and other provides the nascent conditions within which conquest is morally justified. Despite this, even the longest lasting empire, the 2000+ year Chinese Imperial Era, came to an end – as all past empires have and predictably, extant empires will. The last 100 years (left of centre top) reveals a precipitous decline in empire with only four remaining occupying powers : The United States of America, Israel, Morocco and Turkey.

Process
Format—C-type print on Fujiflex plastic with screen print text in matte white ink. Print by K2 Screen, London.

Size—720mm x 1016mm : Quantity—25

Available to purchase by clicking here (tip: click on the little arrow to reveal the ‘buy’ link ;)

The Luxury of Protest AKA Peter Crnokrak AKA “the guy who makes data look beautiful” is back for another round of what he does best – data visualisation which is as much an art as it is design.

I you’re new to his work (where have you been!) or you simply want a pleasant reminder of the other amazing pieces this gentleman has done in the past look no further than here.

Thank you once again to my good friend Peter for the heads up and the exclusive :)

If you’re new here, don’t forget to Subscribe & follow SI on Twitter for your weekly dose of visual crack. ;)

My good friend Peter of The Luxury of Protest is always knocking it out of the park with his highly detailed and intricate data visualisation prints and whilst his latest offering is based on a previously existing design, what differs this time however is the extra-special production of the piece itself — laser engraved and laser cut!

As Pete explains:

“I’ve been awarded a win in the National Science Foundation, International Visualization Challenge – this is competition founded by the NSF (the main science funding body in the US) and the prestigious journal, Science. All winners are published in the current issue of Science and can been seen here.

To commemorate the win I decided to print a final and super special edition of ‘Everyone Ever…’ The entire poster is laser engraved and laser cut in BFK Rives 100% cotton 300gsm white paper. The results came out beautifully and the edition is limited to 5 posters only.

I’ve gotten many requests for a 3rd edition after the first two sold out, but didn’t want to simply belt out another ink + paper variant. The competition win and publication in Science was a good impetus to create something really special.”

To learn more about the design and rationale behind ‘Everyone Ever in the World’ I recommend you check out this previous post. For your chance to own one of these highly limited, exquisite prints head on over to the Luxury of Protest online store.

Thank you once again to Pete, for giving SI the exclusive on this one – you’re far too kind :)

www.theluxuryofprotest.com

If you’re new here, don’t forget to Subscribe, FFFFOUND! & follow SI on Twitter for your weekly dose of visual crack. ;)

Everyone Ever in the World Poster
Design The Luxury of Protest

“Commissioned by, and available exclusively from Counter-Objects. Everyone Ever in the World is a visual representation of the number of people to have lived versus been killed in wars, massacres and genocide during the recorded history of humankind. The visualisation uses existing paper area and paper loss (die cut circle) to represent the concepts of life and death respectively. The total number of people killed in conflicts (969 million) is ~1.25% of all the people to have ever lived (77.6 billion). The timescale encompasses 3200 BCE to 2009 CE – a period of over 5 millennia, and 1100+ conflicts of recorded human history.

The sequence of dots to the top left of the graph shows the dramatic increase in the number of conflicts over the past 5 millennia (left to right : 3000 BCE to 2000 CE) with the most recent 1000 years being the most violent. The large dot below the graph represents the 1000 years to come : a predicted startling increase in human conflict.

The relative simplicity and intuitive graphical approach of using a die cut area to represent total people killed, lends a direct symbolism to the concept and affords the viewer an instantaneous assessment of the degree to which conflict has shaped human history.”

Peter (the cheeky chap that he is for emailing every decent design blog under the sun about this new poster) has outdone himself yet again with this fantastic piece of plastic which you can buy at the newly launched Counter-Objects.co.uk online design shop ;) . As with all of Peter’s screen printed pieces, K2 really had their work cut out for them!

Royal College of Art Research RCA Exhibition Catalogue
Design Karin von Ompteda & Peter Crnokrak

“Research RCA, with 100+ students, plays a key role in the development of research in art and design on both a national and international level. In its continuing commitment to promote the work of its student body, the College for the first time this year undertook a review of student work in exhibition form.

Our role as curators, exhibition and graphic designers was to balance the needs of individual students exhibiting their work with that of representing the student body as a whole while being keenly aware to promote the unique qualities of Research RCA.

As an accompaniment to the exhibition, we designed an A3 catalogue that verbally and pictorially describes the work of seven students chosen to represent the seven different schools that comprise Research RCA. The department also requested a means by which to represent the entire student body–in particular to visually represent the complex varietal make-up of the within and extra-college dynamics that influence the output of research. To this end, we created an information visualisation that shows the distribution of all Research students across departments. Each student was recorded with regard to school, department, degree type (MPhil or PhD), project type (Project or Thesis), status (Part or Full-Time), nationality and relationships to collaborators and funding agencies (arched connection lines). The typography-only data visualisation capitalizes on the inherent form differences between typefaces to allow for visual differentiation of the above categories. The manner in which we used Lineto’s Akkurat (three weights and italics) and Hoefler & Frere-Jones’ Didot (three weights and italics + seven contrast variants) allowed for a visually flexible system of form relationships in representing data while at the same time imbuing the visualisation with a distinctly ‘graphic design’ feel.

The end result is a complex, though surprisingly telling snapshot of the Research RCA student body and the relations they bare with national and international art and design agencies and institutions.”

Acknowledgements: Peter for the /images and the article information :)

‘Maths Dreamed Universe’ Poster
Design The Luxury of Protest

“‘Maths Dreamed Universe’ is a quantitative visualisation of the manner in which elemental forms in nature order themselves. The graph – created using generative Python code – maps numbers 0 to 100,001 arranged in a logarithmic spiral. The pattern that results is frequently found in nature, as in the arrangement of floral organs and the formation of galaxies. The spiral reveals the visual relationships of elemental numbers and the aesthetic beauty of mathematical equations.

The project reflects the contemporary interest in the intersection of science and art : in particular the crossover of pure math with graphic aestheticism. The appreciation of aesthetic forms has a long tradition in art and design, but ornamentation is often derided as being little more than a fancy. But what if aesthetic appreciation was functional? – what if beauty communicates and is thus open to analytical investigation? “Maths Dreamed Universe” is the first in a series of projects that investigates meaning in aesthetics.”

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K2 really had their work cut out for them this time with some of the finer details on this poster—namely the smallest dots—measuring in at a mere 1/10 of a mm in diameter! Suffice to say Peter has certainly outdone himself again and this thought-provoking, well crafted poster (should you chose to purchase a copy) really is worth the £65 price tag. Click here to buy a copy at Stereohype.

Acknowledgements: Peter

The Apartment Identity & Stationary Collateral
Design The Luxury of Protest

“The intention with the identity elements was to create pieces that related in format to vernacular uses of writing tablets while at the same time graphically referencing common elements found in an apartment: wallpaper. The wallpaper featured on the reverse side of pieces is a digitized (72dpi) transcription of William Morris’ acanthus wallpaper. Additionally all elements feature a selected list of tag terms derived from the studio’s web portal which functions to categorize information and indirectly hints at the cultural preferences imbued in the studio’s personnel.
Mechanically embroidered duvet cover for the re-design of the apartment’s studio interior; modeled after a functioning apartment with living room, kitchen and furnished bedroom.”

I really appreciate designers who take ordinary things out of their respective contexts and subsequently produce something engaging, unexpected and beautiful. Just as Michael/Build made the “instruction manual aesthetic” look sexy and more recently, Commonwealth with their extraordinary furniture pieces inspired by a refined cooking ingredient obtained from the fatty tissue of a pig [lard]; Peter/The Luxury of Protest has managed to transform the generic form of a penis into something visually appealing without making it appear vulgar and cheap. And in the history of SeptemberIndustry, never once did I think I’d end up saying that!
With that said, The Luxury of Protest has been updated with a new layout as well as some new pieces of work. This time round Peter has made all the /images on the new site large enough to show the intricate details of his work which is always a plus because it will especially come in handy once his ‘Maths Dreamed Universe’ poster finally gets released publicly…

Acknowledgements: Peter

I’ve lost count on the amount of times that the ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart Again’ poster has been re-printed ;) People obviously like it if it’s manage to sell out repeatedly! If you were one the unlucky individuals that didn’t get the chance to purchase a copy, now’s your chance, because Design Supremo are now selling the fourth and final incarnation of the poster designed by Mr. Peter Crnokrak AKA The Luxury of Protest, lovingly screen printed by K2 onto 270gsm Celloglas Mirri H metallic gray paper using ‘chalk white’ ink.
Cheers to Ben for the tip.