Visualization Matters

Food for Thought  

Kevin Pointer

Imagine – visualize – reflect if you will a world as John Lennon did where all people are living in peace and harmony. Visualize also, as John goes on to say in his song Imagine that there’s nothing to kill or die for.

As we come upon Juneteenth, the 19 June observance of the end of slavery in the U.S. I realize like many, that we have made peaceful progress in this country regarding black/white and other ethnic group relations.

We have indeed made steps and gotten into “good trouble” along the path of Martin Luther King’s famous visualization — a dream that he had of a unifying equality for all. A dream where all of God’s children could sit down and feast at a table of love and mutual respect. Recent racial-related events demonstrated to me, however, that we still have the proverbial long way to go to achieve a more perfect union.

In thinking about Juneteenth, also known by other names such as Freedom Day and Jubilee Day, then, I thought herein I’d graphically present some of the ordinary, everyday foods eaten by slaves during the 1860s and beyond. Many of these foods, like the visually striking strawberries, black eye peas, collard greens, and Red Velvet cake shown on the table below – are still festively eaten on June 19th by African Americans today. If you add music, dancing, joy, reflection, and loads of black folk, you have the ingredients for a great Juneteenth celebration!

If you are “woke”, however, you may have realized something amiss with my pictorial recipe: That within the blue featured graphic entitled “Juneteenth Observance Trends” I have juxtaposed the everyday, historically celebrated foods of African American with some not-so-good corporate trends. That matters.

These statistical trends, from an Institute for Corporate Productivity 2020 survey, show that there is still work to be done for those who think that in Juneteenth should become a standard U.S corporate and national holiday. This holiday situation is something to reflect on.  

The Graphic Details

No, not about slavery, but some process details or reflections on how I evolved to create the blue-colored, statistical graphic. By the way did you notice the eagle in this blue graphic entitled “Juneteenth Observance Trends” ? Trust me it’s there.

So, as mentioned earlier, my intent was to take some rather ordinary, everyday objects and arrange them in an informative way.  I thought about things like stacking three decreasingly sized suitcases on my stairway with an image of an adorable kitten or puppy inside to represent low animal adoption rates.

I also thought about somehow using pandemic-type face masks, Lysol tops, or anti-bacterial wipes or bottles – dollar store here I come – to illustrate some pandemics statistics. I’d thought that would be good as I wanted to do something topical.

Some days later I came back to an earlier topic that I had originally thought about and that’s how — many google searches and “walkaways” later — I wound up doing a statistical graphic on Juneteenth. Being African American and actually having relatives in Galveston, Texas resonated with me. Galveston is where Juneteenth originated and is the epicenter of many Juneteenth celebrations.

Some believe that black-eyed peas, which I also included in my blue graphic, also have that beneficial prosperity and luck quality. The red and yellow roses and red strawberries are no mistake as such colors are genuinely part and parcel of many Juneteenth celebrations today.  You can add basic foods — red watermelon, red hot links, and red, yes red strawberry pie to round, uh square out your authentic Juneteenth celebration. Nothing too fancy here!

The Texas Pete – did I say red – hot sauce and the bull’s horn in my Juneteenth trends graphic are both nods to the state of Texas, where, unfortunately, the slaves found out two years later that they had actually legally been freed. The particular bull horn shown also further symbolizes for me the ironic notion of communication, or lack thereof, in terms of notifying the Texas slaves that they had been freed. Food for thought.

In strategically keeping with a food theme, I creatively captured the Juneteenth trend stats within the kind of pie chart that is typically used for business. In particular, my pie chart visually shows a slice of pie. Would you like a piece? . . . The subtle intended implication, in true southern hospitality fashion, is that I’m gently offering that you take and “eat” and digest the statistical information that I’m offering.

In developing my Juneteenth graphic my main inspiration was one Sarah Illenberger, a Berlin Germany-born illustrator who very creatively uses ordinary materials and household items such as paper, food, textiles, and wood to create extraordinary visual artifacts.

In particular the video,  Sarah Illenberger: She Speaks in Images, was helpful in seeing and better understanding her artistic work and sensibilities. The video added contextual insights and allowed me to actually see and hear Sarah calmly describe her work in her own words.

I got a sense listening to Sarah as to how a composition should really work together as a whole. This notion of things functioning well as whole remined me of the Gestalt philosophy discussed in my previous Red Peg blog post.

The details behind David McCandless’ work, What Makes a Good Visualization, also informed my process as he in his own way, reinforced Sarah Illenberger’s thoughts in an academic way while also underscoring Gestalt unification principles.  

Finally, I also was happily reminded of David McCandless’ suggestion that the ability to creatively express data in a visual way is not only the “new oil” but the “new soil” as I plan to continue to grow and hone my creative skills in this area!

You may say that I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one.

References

Busche, L. (n.d.). Simplicity, symmetry and more: Gestalt theory and the design principles it gave birth to. canva.com. https://www.canva.com/learn/gestalt-theory/.

Illenberger, S. (2019, August 5). Sarah Illenberger: She Speaks in Images. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/27427449.

McCandless, D. (2020, November 21). What Makes A Good Data Visualization? Information is Beautiful. https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/what-makes-a-good-data-visualization/.