Nonsensical Infographic No. 1 by Chad Hagen

Nonsensical Infographic No. 2 by Chad Hagen

Good day collectors! It's Sara at the helm here. Jen had a brief break last week and is back to business-in-the-name-of-art and soon to be Boston-bound, so I'm filling in. Jen was so bummed she wasn't able to write this newsletter herself that she picked up a *phone* to talk about Chad's work. That's right, we did not have an IM conversation but actually spoke.

We were introduced to talented Minneapolis-based designer Chad Hagen by design writer Allison Arieff. She recently featured Chad's work in her NYT By Design column— not the first 20x200 artist to be seen both here and there—hopefully not the last!

As Allison highlighted, "good design can make the nonsensical beautiful and what seems to be nonsense... clear." Nonsensical Infographic No. 1 and Nonsensical Infographic No. 2 are indeed beautiful representations of the far end of the scale of useful information, in that they are not relaying any data. There are, of course, infographics out there that actually impart handy stats and figures: GOOD Magazine's pages are illustrated with transparencies that dissect and evaluate all of our social, political and environmental advancements and failures. Edward Tufte is likely the king of information design, giving us glorious works to examine and interpret, paving a pristine path for info design junkies and experts alike. And, Ben Fry deftly harnesses complex information into elegant, intelligent graphs.

Nearing Chad's end of the nonsense-scale is Andrew Kuo with his music-related analyses of the last summer of pool shows at McCarren Park and top albums of 2009 for The New York Times. But Chad's drawings delve furthest into the complete nonsense spectrum of info design, most akin to this diagram that explicates the origins of mythical creatures. Like these animals, Chad's diagrams are completely fictitious—whatever information they may convey is up to us to determine. Fun little game, no? Let's give it a go.

While the numbers and letters in Nonsensical Infographic No. 1 do not align, I'd like to think that this graphic may be tracking the intricate lives of bees and honeycomb production. Also possibly plausible: the graphic is an analysis of the parallel increase in anxiety levels of Tetris players and the speed at which each geometric shape falls. Non-stop puzzle action can be intense!

I am particularly pleased by the potential use for Nonsensical Infographic No. 2: documentation of the lifespan of a bubble. Perhaps, as indicated by the past, present and future aspects, Willy Wonka is in the process of manufacturing new, more durable bubbles that may float for minutes or hours instead of seconds, before bursting. The world would become like that anti-tobacco commercial, only better.

Because of the conversation in the office this morning, I'm wondering if the round diagrams might instead measure the density of fried bologna as its edible chemicals are processed over time. It's one of those foods that would still be on grocery shelves, post-apocalypse right? The future would be a relevant indicator were this indeed the story told by Nonsensical Infographic No. 2.

Nothing like a little nonsense on a Tuesday afternoon, is there? Now get back to work!