Series of four visualisation posters describing the emerging tendencies in the Italian graphic design scene, according to a sample dataset about 147 Italian freelance designers and/or studios.
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IDENTIKIT
The lines pattern shows some demographic informations about Italian designers (148 designers in total).
From the rhythm generated by the lines emerges a varied identikit.
Each designer is depicted by a line; Red ones are males (86 lines), magenta ones are females (62 lines). The length of the line corresponds to the age of the designer; the youngest is 21 years old, the oldest 35 and the average age is 29 years.
The thickness represent the number of work and training experiences made by the designer. It was possible to fill in the survey up to four training courses, one experience abroad, an internship, an apprenticeship, a workshop, for a total of 8 experiences.
The color of the rectangle at the end of each line qualifies the employment status of the designer: the white ones are freelancers (88), green ones employees (15), black ones owners and associates (36).
It is possible that some have not specified their qualification (lines without the rectangle).
Horizontal lines on the left of the visualisation correspond to the number of designers who currently work in Italy, while the diagonal lines are designers who currently work abroad (17).
Also in this case it is possible that there isn’t any specified place of work (red lines and magenta without continuation neither to the left nor to the right).
PERSONAL ROUTES NETWORK
Lines connecting the points represent the movements of each person.
The point of origin corresponds to the place of birth, while the number of times that the city's name is repeated corresponds to the number of people who have had at least one study or work experience in that city. Non Italian cities are grouped by nation.
As a summary, three lists of cities were visualised, sized according to the total number of experiences that have taken place in each city: the first list is about where Italian designers studied, the second shows non Italian cities in which they had a formative experience, the last indicates where they work.
The visualisation suggests considerations about the places chosen by Italian designers: Milan is the busiest for both studying and working, Urbino is the second favorite to do learning experiences and Rome, Bologna and Turin are among the most desirable Italian work destinations.
London and New York are destinations chosen for both training and job experiences.
The East looks like an almost empty area: the most visited cities are Istanbul, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
The general network was broken up into individual itineraries, to show the extent and the specificities of the movements of each designer.
Individual paths are represented by a line of increasing thickness,
which it originates in the place of birth of each designer, and develops through the most significant cities for his or her training.
Both orientation and length of the lines match the places geographical location and their relative distances.
The routes are visually ordered from most to least extended: it is possible to see that the major shifts occur on the East-West axis, which unites North America to Italy. Among the few elsewhere oriented, stands the two linking Venice to San Paolo, and Bangalore to Pescara.
DIGITAL IMAGERY
The composition is built by 121 screenshots from the homepage of Italian designers’ personal websites (only those who specified it in the survey). The data collection took place on Oct. 7, 2015; it reveals a today’s picture of how Italian designers represent themselves, how they showcase themselves.
It is possible to notice specificities of and correlations between layouts, colours, style choices, zoom.
