A B O U T M E

On days that I don’t have a cup of coffee in my hand, my friends often

ask “what’s wrong.” My collection of vinyl records has, according to

my Dad, grown “slightly out of control,” and I have an original 1978

model of the Millenium Falcon that I would basically consider my

most prized possession.

My design process often includes what people have dubbed “starfish-

ing” on the floor, a little bit of the Pina Colada Song and forgetting

that I’ve had my earphones on the whole time that my music has been

paused.

My first love is the art of data visualization and data analysis. There

is something about turning an endless spreadsheet of numbers and

information into something readable and understandable that is in-

credibly satisfying. I’ve worked on projects ranging from magazine

production to way finding design to corporation-wide style guides.

I take my inspiration from whatever is around me I am passionate

about what I do and I enjoy doing it every day.

W H A T I S I N F O R M A T I O N D E S I G N ?

“Information Design is the practice of presenting information in a way that fosters

efficient and effective understanding of it. The term has come to be used specifically

for graphic design for displaying information effectively, rather than just attractively

or for artistic expression.”

Now that my good friend, Wikipedia has broken the proverbial ice, Information De-

sign means that I hardly ever do the same kind of thing twice. One day I could be

designing acrylic signs for a solar powered house and the next I might be figuring

out how to make a portfolio website work. This diversity fuels my creativity and my

desire to exceed expectations on everything that I do.

From usability testing, UX design, data visualization, graphic design, photography

and sometimes even construction, Information Design encompasses it all.

Although harder to explain than “graphic design,” or “web design,” Information De-

sign is one of those things that I don’t mind explaining. I love what I do and I’m

excited that I get to share it with you.

//IN

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AD

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0 2 W A X M A G A Z I N E

0 8 T H E H I P P I E S

1 0 R E B E L O F T H E E M P I R E

1 4 B O R E A L I S

2 2 P E R S O N A L I D E N T I T Y

2 6 O C T O B E R F E S T

2 8 E D W A R D T . H A L L

3 0 C A K E M A G A Z I N E

3 5 R O B F O R D

3 6 B E H I N D T H E W A L L

4 0 E D U C A T I O N

4 2 B O U N D L E S S E N E R G Y

4 6 M R U E V E N T S

CONTENTS

//01

/ / R E A DW A X M A G A Z I N E

My record collection has been slowly creeping out of my room for

a couple of years now. From another Ikea shelf in the hallway and

eventually my floor. I remember when the only records that I had

were Def Leppard’s Hysteria, Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy and

Steve Miller Band’s Greatest Hits 1974-78. I also remember not even

having a turntable to play them on.

Vinyl has been a part of my life for a very long time, and I wanted to

use my knowledge to create the magazine for “vinylphiles” of all ages.

The feature story is on an incredible man and artist, Storm Thorger-

son; from his lifelong partnership with Pink Floyd to a slightly infa-

mous pyramid incident

Inspiration for Wax came from many different places; the UK’s Clas-

sic Rock Magazine, the ubiquitous Rolling Stone and some classic

rock and roll photography.

READ // WAX MAGAZINE

december 201446 pages

//03

READ // WAX MAGAZINE

//05

// WAX MAGAZINE

READ // WAX MAGAZINE

It was a cold and rainy day and I found

myself in Victoria, B.C. I was 12 years

old visiting my grandmother for one of

the first times on my own. We were walk-

ing through Chinatown and took a de-

tour through the infamous Fan Tan Al-

ley. A couple of months earlier, my Dad

had taken me to a Def Leppard concert

and the songs, the majesty of their one-

armed drummer and the theatricality of

the whole thing was still ringing in my

ears. My grandmother and I passed The

Turntable, a record store specializing in

rare and vintage vinyl. Out of the corner

of my eye, I could recognize the sharp,

angular letters of the Def Leppard logo

so I forced my grandmother to come in

with me. I found Def Leppard’s Hyste-

ria poking out from one of the rock and

roll sections. I was, and still am a pretty

impulsive person and my mother wasn’t

there to say “do you REALLY need that?”

A couple minutes later, the album was

in a blue plastic bag and we were on our

way down the street.

It’s been almost 10 years since that ex-

perience, and I still marvel in how much

it’s influenced my life since then. Being

involved in the record collecting com-

munity has introduced me to the most

interesting and eccentric people, it’s

helped me be closer to my Dad (here’s

to our “yearly” Recordland adventures),

and it’s also led me down some very in-

teresting alleyways (no pun intended).

Record collecting has changed in the 21st

century. No longer the primary means

of music procurement, the “vinylphile”

community has branched out into differ-

ent niches. You have the young enthusi-

ast, a young man who hates being called

a hipster and insists that the sound is

better than an electronic download;

the nostalgia aficionado, a young wom-

an with rockabilly hair who listens to

Chuck Berry on a Saturday night; there

is also the dealer, a man who scours flee

markets and thrift stores to find that

one album.

Wax Magazine is for all of these nich-

es and more. It’s for vinylphiles by vi-

nylphiles. It’s for the young enthusiast,

the nostalgia aficionado, the dealer

and everyone else who appreciates the

grooves and sometimes even the smell of

the sleeve.

Wax contains articles and sections on all

components of records, their history and

of course, record collecting. From turn-

table buying advice to a list of the 100

greatest album covers of all time, Wax

has the story.

So what are you waiting for? Put anoth-

er one on the platter and enjoy the ride.

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

//07

/ / I N F OT H E H I P P I E S

I have sort of a fascination for the sixties. The music, the hair, the

people, it was all so very interesting. Not that I’m about to jump in a

VW Wagon and travel down to Haight-Ashbury and live out my hip-

pie fantasy though, unfortunately this is the 21st century and Chris

Farley has already done that skit.

This infographic is meant to be based off a book called The True Be-

liever by Eric Hoffer. It’s a manual of sorts that describes mass move-

ments and what makes them so attractive, in some cases attractive

enough for people to give up their entire lives for a cause.

The Hippies tracks the 1960s counterculture movement from it’s

roots in Germany, to the political turmoil of the 1960s and the leaders

who led a generation of flower-wearing, peace-loving, drug influenced

youngsters.

march 201524 x 36 inches

INFO // THE H IPP IES

//09

/ / R E A DREBEL OF THE EMPIRE

In 2011, I bought my first action figure, a 4” Stormtrooper, who I

named Frank (technically he’s a Sandtrooper, I know, my sincerest

apologies). Frank has been with me from California to Amsterdam,

and like it says in the forward of the book, I really do not like getting

my picture taken.

The collection of photographs grew exponentially after I returned

from a six month stint in Europe and I wanted to do something with

them. For the same class as Wax Magazine, we were also tasked with

creating a book on a topic of our choosing so I decided to curate the

pictures I took and do a book on Frank and our adventures.

Rebel of the Empire will hopefully continue to expand as I travel, so

right now we could say that this is merely Volume 1.

december 2014155 pages

75 photographs

READ // REBEL OF THE EMPIRE

//11

AMSTERDAM

BERTCHESGADEN

READ // REBEL OF THE EMPIRE

CROATIA VIENNA

VENICE MONTREUX

//13

PHOTO: © JESUS MARTIN RUIZ

PRINT // BOREALIS

/ / D E S I G NB O R E A L I S TEAM ALBERTA SOLAR DECATHLON 2013

In 2013, I was recruited by Team ALberta to join their Communica-

tions Team as an Information Designer for the Solar Decathlon held

in Irvine, California. During the 10 months on the project as a Visual

Communication Co-Lead, we developed materials such as signage,

promotional materials, wayfinding, brochures and deliverables that

were all expected by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The largest undertaking was proabbly the design, construction an in-

stallation of the interior and exterior signage. We were faced with the

task of not only making the system educational, but we also were in

charge of deciding on mounting systems, sizes and the overall direc-

tion.

Our system was informative to visitors from all over the world and it

also managed to handle the tarmac and hot Californian sun. Borealis

performed well in the competition, coming in 9th out of 19 teams.

january-october 201321 signs

3 posters

2 banners

1 brochure

1 tshirt

//15

EAST SIDE SIGNAGE

WEST SIDE SIGNAGE

PRINT // BOREALIS

EAST DECK SIGNAGE

WEST DECK SIGNAGE

SOUTH DECK SIGNAGE

//17

PRINT // BOREALIS

BROCHURE (FRONT)

//19

PRINT // BOREALIS

//21

/ / D E S I G NP E R S O N A L I D E N T I T Y

It’s a designer’s worst nightmare, the conception of their personal

identity. The word itself is sort of loaded, we’ve spent four years mas-

tering our trade and now we are faced with designing something that

is supposed to represent us.

I’ve fooled around with the idea of my ‘logo’ for a long time, but the

“S” and “L” seem to be nearly impossible to integrate without ending

up with some kind of corrupted looking dollar sign. I was doodling “L”

after “L” in my sketchbook and started to notice that they had a really

elegant, geometric symmetry to them, and my logo was born.

Much of my work tends to be colourful and energetic, so this black

and white motif is slightly different. In the end though it makes it a

slightly easier to pair with my other work.

february 20151 identity

DESIGN // PERSONAL IDENTITY

//23

DESIGN // PERSONAL IDENTITY

//25

/ / I N F OO K T O B E R F E S T

Technically I’ve only ever been in Germany for maybe a total of 12

hours. I’m always passing through, but I never do anything more ex-

cept wait for a connecting flight or visit a salt mine that straddles the

Austrian-German border.

Bavarian culture is in my blood, my grandfater is second generation

and my Mom has that certain German charm, I also of course enjoy a

nice beer at the end of the day

In partnership with an event at the Calgary Farmer’s Market, our

class was tasked with creating infographics that had to do with food.

I apparently use that term incredibly loosely.

Often, people can rarely get past the beer fueled free-for-all that the

festival seems to be, but it actually has quite the history and someone

in fact did lose a Playboy Magazine on the Wiesn once.

february 201311x17 inches

INFO // OKTOBERFEST

//27

/ / I N F OE D W A R D T . H A L L

I’ve always enjoyed infographic based assignments. I think I’ve said

this at some point, but I really enjoy turning bland information into

something that is easy to understand and looks really really good.

For this one in particular I wanted to figure out how circular data

visualization worked. Over the course of the semester we had been

reading The Dance of Life: The Other Dimension of Time by Edward

T. Hall. I decided to make a infographic about his life with the inclu-

sion of worldwide events to bring some kind of context to his work.

The inner ring describes wars and conflicts while the outer two rings

describe his life and academic accomplishments.

march 201318x24 inches

INFO // EDWARD T . HALL

//29

READ // CAKE MAGAZINE

/ / R E A DC A K E M A G A Z I N E

As a fourth year group, one of our final projects was to develop, de-

sign, print and launch as full fledged magazine. This year our theme

was Information Design, our mission: to celebrate Information Design

- our passion for it, our journey with it, and the characteristics that

make it a unique profession.

I guess it really isn’t a suprise that I decided to write an article on

the evolution of data visualization; from the beginnings as military

charts and epidemic graphs, through it’s mainstream success as

the keystones to many news and design sites. As the world becomes

busier, louder and more saturated with information, sometimes info-

graphics are the only way to get certain things across.

september - december 20141 spread/arcticle

//31

Imagine if you will, a farmer in 1786.

He cannot read. He knows what year it

is and what crops he grows, but that’s

about it. Looking at the bar graph by

William Playfair, the reader can see

that the farmer would know instinctive-

ly what the relationships are between

the blocks. This is the bar graph, a hall-

mark of data visualization.

The practice continued to skyrocket in

the 1800s with help from 18th century

innovations like Gutenburg’s printing

press. Every single form of statistical

graph that exists today was developed

during this time; William Playfair’s pie

chart, Dupin’s cartogram and of course

Florence Nightingale’s Rose Graph. In

1869, we saw Charle’s Minard’s graphical

illustration of Napoleon’s disastrous cam-

paign against the Russian during 1812.

This also happens to be the graph that

is used to explain to terrified freshmen

Communications students what informa-

tion design and data visualization is.

The advent of World War I and World

War II meant a stalemate between data

visualization and innovations. Tradi-

tional graphs were used to narrate mili-

tary exploits which meant that improve-

ment in anything other than military

power was deemed unnecessary and of

course, unaffordable.

Fast forward a few decades and Apple ha

introduced the Apple-1, the first graphic

interfaced computer. Like the printing

press, this also changed things forever.

Data visualization wasn’t left behind in

the shadows of hand-drawn and mea-

sured diagrams. Anyone with computer

experience could create a graph.

Currently, all kinds of data visualiza-

tion are used to explain and give context

to every kind of topic imaginable. Heat

maps tracking the spread of Ebola, in-

teractive poll-tracking infographics on

elections, I’ve even seen infographics

comparing Bronies to Trekkies.

So why does this work? Why has it

worked for hundreds and hundreds of

years? It’s not a Jedi-mind trick and it

certainly isn’t any kind of wizardry. The

answer is really quite simple, Neander-

thal really. In a White Paper published

in 2012, our vision is described as “the

most important faculty that humans

use to communicate information.” We

are actually hard-wired to analyze vi-

sual information in a certain way. We

are “pattern seeking creatures,” trying

to find meaning in everything we see.

The most common example of this is

the existence of Gestalt principles. Ge-

stalt psychology describes the world as a

global whole, which has self-organizing

tendencies. Their motto (for lack of a

better term): “the whole is greater than

the sum of its parts” holds that human’s

perception of reality considers objects in

their entirety and finds patterns within.

Another explanation comes from the Di-

rector of Data Visualization Research

Lab at the University of New Hamp-

shire. Ware has described the simple

building blocks of what the visualiza-

tion process is, called “preattentive at-

tributes.” These attributes immediately

catch the audience’s eye perceived in

less than 10 milliseconds. The attri-

butes include orientation, line length,

line width, size, shape, curvature, added

marks, enclosure, intensity, hue and 2-d

position. For this particular set of prin-

ciples, only position and length are use-

ful when understanding quantitative

data while the other attributes are bet-

ter for analyzing categorical or relation-

al data. A pie chart and a bar chart may

portray the same data, it’s clearer in the

bar chart which is bigger as it relies on

the pre attentive attribute of length.

From these pre attentive attributes, our

minds form what Ware describes as an-

alytical patterns. Without making this

article sound overly technical, the ana-

lytical patterns are the words formed by

the letters of pre attentive attributes.

The visual information that we take in

is combined into patterns that we draw

the desired meaning from.

data visualization is an invaluable tool in 21st century communi-cation, but why does it work? why does our brain crave the charts and graphs that we claim to hate?

NEVER TELL ME THE ODDS, SHOW THEM TO ME

READ // CAKE MAGAZINE

//33

/ / I N F OR O B F O R D

Our task was to create an infographic on a social issue. It just so

happened that this assignment was during a certain mayor’s drug

problem. I was being bombarded with stories about Rob Ford and his

escapades and it isn’t very often that Canada becomes as scandalous,

so I couldn’t pass up the chance.

I didn’t just want to start at the crack confession, I wanted to start

at the beginning of Rob Ford, with why he was even elected in the

first place. I did this by implementing a timeline of his action on the

side leading up to the most recent events. From there, I was able to

extrapolate some data for the graphs on the scandal like how many

allegations there were towards him, or how much Torontonians really

like him now.

november 201311x17 inches

INFO // ROB FORD

//35

READ // BEHIND THE WALL

/ / R E A DB E H I N D T H E W A L L

The Wall by Pink Floyd is one of the best selling albums of all time

(before digital downloads of course). And yet, audiences rarely go past

the music and into the story of what is actually a main character’s

epic rise and fall.

For this spread, I wanted to bring attention to the story by bringing

in the characters and introducing them by name. It is important to

know the characters because then the songs and the whole album

begin to make sense. When the characters are officially introduced in

the third spread, I wanted to make them the overwhelming force on

the page as well as reflect their role in the story. They sit atop a the

wall all turned toward Pink, the majority of them with looks of dis-

saproval or making obscene gestures. The characters loom over the

text, place on top like they are keeping watch over everything.

october 20135 spreads

//37

//39

//33

INFO // EDUCATION

/ / I N F OE D U C A T I O N

Done in conjunction with a programming class, this infographic was

meant to portray the differences in education according to gender

across a few different countries.

october 20133 spreads

//41

PRINT // BOUNDLESS ENERGY

/ / D E S I G NB O U N D L E S S E N E R G Y

During this Typography class, we had just finished learning about

the Post-Modern era of design and type. The invitations that we de-

signed were meant to mimic this style in whichever way they could.

Post-Modern design, much like the hair bands of the 80s, was known

for being uncomfortably random and abstract.

For my three iterations, I chose to base them off of phenonenons that

played a part in shaping the 1980s; the Modern Age of Comic Books,

the graphic user interface of computers and the end of the punk era.

october 20133 invites

//43

PRINT // BOUNDLESS ENERGY

//45

PRINT // MRU EVENT POSTERS

/ / D E S I G NM R U E V E N T P O S T E R S

Through a partnership with some of the clubs on campus, I had the

opportunity to design posters for events happening around campus.

october - november 20143 posters

//47

PRINT // MRU EVENT POSTERS

THANK YOU MOM & DAD (AND ZACH) THANK YOU BEN, GLENN, BRIAN, MILENA, RICHARD, GIL & PAT