Tools of the Trade: 8 Creators and the Pens, Pencils and Markers They Love


Being creative doesn’t take any specific tool, but after years of work and exploration we all develop our favorites. Maybe the ink from that pen flows just right or makes the perfect tiny dots. Maybe that marker has the color with the most punch. You know what’s best and so do these artists using pens, pencils or markers. We rounded up 8 from past features to learn which tool they like to keep close, and what kind of work they’ve used them for.

Via - Visualnews

What news from Athens?



TODAY we introduce the first of our "Daily dispatches", an assemblage of short-term indicators, updated every 24 hours for a given subject: in this case, the interminable Greek crisis.

To help you keep tabs on Greece's financial health as bail-out negotiations continue, we have chosen three charts that offer snapshot assessments of Greece's status, along with a measure of current popular sentiment for the crisis as a whole. Our dashboard includes stock prices, bond yields and the yield spread for peripheral government bonds over those sold by Germany. We've also added in a count of tweets, globally, concerned with "Grexit". Each morning the charts will be waiting, refreshed, with end-day closing figures from the working day before.

Via - Economist

Thirteen's a crowd


ON JUNE 24th the two-term governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, entered the race for president becoming the 13th candidate for the Republican Party and the first Indian-American to make a serious bid for the White House. Although this comes 503 days before the general election he is a latecomer to throwing his hat into an already crowded Republican ring (Scott Walker and Chris Christie are likely to enter soon).

Via - economist

The pain after the shock


TUNISIA is still reeling from the shock of a terrorist attack at a beach resort on June 26th, which left dozens of holidaymakers dead. Over the weekend mourners gathered on the shore to pray, hotels beefed up security and thousands flew home. But terrorists aim to do more than just slaughter innocent civilians. 

Via - Economist

One Size Does NOT Fit All: How Tom Burrell Changed the World of Advertising


Before Tom Burrell, the advertising world was a very different place. But in the age of Mad Men, he was something different, too: an African-American man in advertising.Burrell started working in 1961 in the mail room at Wade Advertising in Chicago (a decision so controversial it saw the chairman fly up from his home in Florida).

Soon Burrell’s obvious talents were being used to write copy for the generic campaigns of the day. At the time the idea was simple: target everyone. But “everyone” in the early ’60s meant a “suburban white family.” That was soon to change.

Via - Visual News

TBT: Beautiful Victorian Data Visualizations


We love it when we come across great visual content from back in the day—it’s inspiring to see creativity evolve over centuries. While it may seem like infographics and data visualization are new trends triggered by the advent of technology, information design has been around for millennia. Take a look these great Victorian-era visualizations, compiled by BibliOdyssey, created between 1830 and 1890. 

Via - Visual News

Poland Trade Balance


The ‘Blog Audytorów Sledczych’ had two interesting Sankey-style diagrams.

The first is the trade balance of Poland for the month January 2014. Flows are in Euro (trade volume). There is a trade surplus of 176,4 million Euros. Unfortunately only the legend shows what the arrow colors mean, but it is not legible in this screenshot.