{"id":4619,"date":"2015-04-06T21:09:11","date_gmt":"2015-04-06T19:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/?p=4619"},"modified":"2015-04-06T21:09:11","modified_gmt":"2015-04-06T19:09:11","slug":"show-dont-tell-what-i-learned-from-malofiejs-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/archives\/4619","title":{"rendered":"Show Don&#8217;t Tell &#8211; what I learned from Malofiej&#8217;s&nbsp;workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In March, I had to make a choice between going to Sendai, Japan for the <a title=\"Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction\" href=\"http:\/\/wcdrr.org\">Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction<\/a> or to Pamplona, Spain for the 23rd edition of <a title=\"Malofiej\" href=\"http:\/\/www.malofiejgraphics.com\/\">Malofiej<\/a>. It was a tough choice&#8230; Japan was something that I&#8217;ve been involved with and following for the past few years, while Spain was something new and a great opportunity to learn from and meet some of best in the business when it comes to infographics&#8230;. also another tough choice was sushi or tapas. I opted for tapas.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>Program cover for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/malofiej23?src=hash\">#malofiej23<\/a> is kind of gory but digging the idea. MT <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/malofiej\">@malofiej<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/K2lvv1zak2\">pic.twitter.com\/K2lvv1zak2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u201d Vincent Fung (@vfung) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/vfung\/status\/575314180925956097\">March 10, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The theme for Malofiej23 was Graphics Straight Into the Vein and the gory yet enticing <a title=\"Malofiej23 Program\" href=\"http:\/\/www.malofiejgraphics.com\/wp- content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/m23_program_web_feb15.pdf\">program cover<\/a> highlighted the fact that it takes 23 seconds for blood to flow through the human body. With this kind of creative communication, how could I not be intrigued to go and find out more? And while the actual infographics world summit takes place over the final two days of Malofiej, the most interesting part of the week was the three days before with its Show Don&#8217;t Tell Workshop.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4623\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4623\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.snd-e.com\/es\/malofiej\/5494275eed\/show-dont-tell\/2015\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ORG_m23sdtell_1.jpg\" alt=\"Participants from the Malofiej23 Show Don&#039;t Tell Workshop\" width=\"1000\" height=\"441\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4623\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ORG_m23sdtell_1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ORG_m23sdtell_1-150x66.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ORG_m23sdtell_1-300x132.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ORG_m23sdtell_1-250x110.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ORG_m23sdtell_1-550x243.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ORG_m23sdtell_1-800x353.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ORG_m23sdtell_1-408x180.jpg 408w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ORG_m23sdtell_1-680x300.jpg 680w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4623\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Participants from the Malofiej23 Show Don&#8217;t Tell Workshop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The workshop was an opportunity to learn from three of the best infographics leaders in the business (<a href=\"http:\/\/johngrimwade.com\/\" title=\"John Grimwade\">John Grimwade<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mcgeoff\" title=\"Geoff McGhee\">Geoff McGhee<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/albertocairo\" title=\"Alberto Cairo\">Alberto Cairo<\/a>) and work with 19 professionals in the world of journalism (ex. BBC), corporate communications (ex. McKinsey), and design. The participants came from various backgrounds, including illustration, web design, data analysis, editorial, and communications with one purpose &#8211; how to develop an idea and improve the process of designing and communicating information visually.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_1303.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_1303\" width=\"1000\" height=\"747\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4638\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_1303.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_1303-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_1303-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_1303-250x187.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_1303-550x411.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_1303-800x598.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_1303-241x180.jpg 241w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_1303-402x300.jpg 402w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_1303-669x500.jpg 669w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Every year the workshop has a field trip and this year was no different. Instead of going to historic or artistic places like was done in the past, we went to some place more interesting&#8230; a factory! Actually it was the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vw-navarra.es\/portada\/\" title=\"Volkswagen Navarra\">Volkswagen Navarra<\/a> factory, one of the main factories in the world that makes the Volkswagen Polo &#8211; one every 55 seconds. Our instructions were simple: take one issue (i.e. the tour of the factory grounds) and find a innovative, creative, and visual way to communicate its story.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4642\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4642\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160168.jpg\" alt=\"Participants working hard on their ideas. One of the instructors said that it smelled like a design studio. I didn&#039;t get what he meant until I left the room. It was like a mix of humidity, sweat and stale air.\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4642\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160168.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160168-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160168-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160168-250x188.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160168-550x413.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160168-800x600.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160168-240x180.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160168-400x300.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160168-667x500.jpg 667w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4642\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Participants working hard on their ideas. One of the instructors said that it smelled like a design studio. I didn&#8217;t get what he meant until I left the room. It was a mix of humidity, sweat and stale air.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>With such a vague goal, it was interesting to see what groups came up with and it had nothing to do with pretty colors, the kinds of tools used, or what the finally product looked like. Instead the instructors wanted participants to go beyond their normal thinking and to focus on the idea. One group developed a infographics poster that showed the distribution and carbon footprint of Polo parts, another analyze the robots that put the cars together, one came up with an interactive website on the history and details of the factory, and another group came up with an interesting website that showed how a Polo was made. <\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4644\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4644\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160164.jpg\" alt=\"We were called the &quot;Super Group&quot; from the start since we started with three members while everyone else had at least four people. The group ended up being four guys, but we still thought of ourselves as being super. Here we are taking a break after lunch.\" width=\"1000\" height=\"668\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4644\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160164.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160164-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160164-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160164-250x167.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160164-550x367.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160164-800x534.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160164-269x180.jpg 269w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160164-449x300.jpg 449w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1160164-749x500.jpg 749w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4644\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">We were called the &#8220;Super Group&#8221; from the start since we started with three members while everyone else had at least four people. The group ended up being four guys, but we still thought of ourselves as being super. Here we are taking a break after lunch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>My group was comprised of an infographics editor from Amsterdam, an illustrator and designer from Berlin, and a corporate communications consultant from Dubai. We came up with the idea of using the Volkwasgen&#8217;s data and the factory tour to develop an app that would provide a new Polo owner with a unique and personalized real-time update of the assembly of their car. Even though this was just about the idea, Volkswagen had us sign a confidentiality agreement so I probably can&#8217;t say more. However, I&#8217;m proud that my group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s idea was eventually voted the winner of the group activity&#8230; and doing it all with paper and pencil &#8211; our group was the only group that didn&#8217;t use a computer to put together the final presentation. <\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4633\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4633\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/basketball.jpg\" alt=\"My personal symbol\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4633\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/basketball.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/basketball-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/basketball-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/basketball-250x141.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/basketball-550x310.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/basketball-800x450.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/basketball-320x180.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/basketball-533x300.jpg 533w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/basketball-888x500.jpg 888w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4633\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">My personal symbol<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It was great to work on the group project, but the scariest part of the whole workshop was that we were given an individual project and with only an hour to work on it. Not only was I intimidated by all the people who were fabulous artists, but also that we had to present our own idea to the whole group. The project? To come up with a personal symbol, which could be inspired by an interest, experience or interpretation. The results varied with mostly hand-drawn illustrations, like mine above (eek!). In the end the person&#8217;s symbol who received the most votes integrated an origami structure with simple icons that represented her life \u00e2\u20ac\u201c this was her first \u00e2\u20ac\u0153infographic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d showing that an engaging and innovative way to communicate can come from anyone as long as the idea is simple and clear.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/origami.jpg\" alt=\"origami\" width=\"434\" height=\"393\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4634\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/origami.jpg 434w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/origami-150x136.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/origami-300x272.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/origami-250x226.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/origami-199x180.jpg 199w, https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/origami-331x300.jpg 331w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 434px) 100vw, 434px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In March, I had to make a choice between going to Sendai, Japan for the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction or to Pamplona, Spain for the 23rd edition of Malofiej. It was a tough choice&#8230; Japan was something that I&#8217;ve been involved with and following for the past few years, while Spain &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/archives\/4619\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Show Don&#8217;t Tell &#8211; what I learned from Malofiej&#8217;s&nbsp;workshop<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[268,124,137],"tags":[397,26,152,398,399,400,396,325],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4619"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4619"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4649,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4619\/revisions\/4649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}