in the age of paranoia
As an American, I, like many other Americans, love witnessing violence in many forms. I love a good video game where I can pick up a gun and blow someone’s head up, I love a movie that involves people getting mauled, and i will always slow down just a little to watch a terrible accident happen. The late and great George Carlin once wrote that the best thing about America is our ability to blow stuff up. Or something like that, at least.
In light of this, I present to you an infographic about a particular weapon, and frequently, the only one you can actually run out of in video games: the grenade.
Like every infographic, let’s talk about color. I’m pretty sure grenades weren’t always dark green, but somewhere along the way they’ve acquired this color and now it just seems to stick. This infographic, for example, has done all the color in either grenade-greens or blood-reds, both of which seem to come hand-in-hand, especially in violent scenarios. The other thing we’ve got showing here is fire, which is, in most cases, also red. And! to make this even better, the digital timer numbers are even red. There’s something to be said about how important it is to pick and choose information to make your case work, and in terms of color, this one works WONDERFULLY.
What I also love about this piece is how simplistic the drawings are, even when they’re talking about something complex. There’s no need to add any detail to the person, because the person isn’t important. There’s no reason to add more detail to the fire, because the fire is a side effect. Where the detail is is in the grenades themselves: little pieces floating around in the molotov cocktail, all the different pictures of a time-delay grenade to explain motion, and so on.
What I also like is the choice of bold, thick, or regular font. The introduction, up in the red block, I hardly noticed it was there: but all the deadly and/or exciting parts (NO certain fuse time) (ABANDONED UNTIL WWI) really stick out, while other parts fall to the side.
Also, grenades are awesome.
(ps: I wasn’t kidding when I talked about how most grenades are green. also).
(pps: the title of this blogpost is a reference to “american idiot,” a song and album by green day. it has relevant and interesting album art.)
PhilD said,
April 11, 2010 at 2:35 pm
Hey great post and a very good explanation of the grenade info graphic. What I found interesting about this graphic is the detailed drawings of the time delay grenades. The close-up drawings, as you said in your blog, are so much more detailed then the after effects of using one of these weapons. I think the graphic is used to inform us what makes a grenade work not why to use them. But it’s interesting how the graphics brings you through the history of grenades and the effect each one has on a person. Very cool blog