James Lytle

• Info
• About

• 2009
• analysis. QB Conceptual Study
• analysis. MUTEMATH
• print. Barnabas Way
• analysis. Time Perspective
• book cover. Ruth
• art. Mini-malism

• On-going
• interfaces. web

Copyright 2009

• Built with Indexhibit

For 2009 ARMISTICE MUTEMATH Tour, I decided to pitch them this concept I created that would visualized all of their stops with appropriate information for each venue. Below is a walkthrough of my design process, refinements, and snapshots of the various stages.

The final application is here.

Process overview.
Mind-map >
This technique serves the brainstorming process best precisely because it is a bit less structured. I wanted to draw relationships that characterize as many aspects of MUTEMATH as possible, while keeping a somewhat relevant focus to the upcoming tour.

Conceptual Sketching >
Whether hand-drawn or quick Illustrator mock-ups, it was important for me to quickly look at the visuals that may represent the data. At this point, I determined the most relevant information to fans would be the date, ticket cost, and venue capacity. So those would be the distinguishing visuals amongst the venues.

Research > Data-mining >
This was a combination of Google Maps, data from the band, venue websites, and basic phone calls and emails. In the end thankfully got all the data I needed on a Google Docs spreadsheet. I collected info for each venue in these dimensions: date, city, state, venue name, venue website, venue capacity, ticket cost, direct purchase link, a nearby vinyl record shop, the last date MUTEMATH visited the venue or city, distance from New Orleans ( their hometown ), and a general link for VIP tickets.

Graphic Design (Illustrator) >
Once I had the data I could start making more specific comparisons and found it would make more sense to created the visuals based on a groupings or stair-step measurements so comparisons across the map could be made easily for fans, who care more about general differences. For example, its more relevant to make a right judgement on about how many people will be at the concert verses the difference between 700 and 800, which would be nearly impossible to distinguish at a glance across the entire United States.

Actionscript >
I imported and rebuilt many of the visuals in Flash, and wrote up the code to distribute appropriate data to each venue. I just went ahead and drew in the route path and adjusted the line thickness manually to signify how far along in the tour the band is.

Refine >
Some design decisions were made here to clarify info reading and address bunching issues. I ended up creating 2 versions. The first is a draggable, close-up version that includes venue capacity, and the second is a expanded view to show the entire US at once and remove the capacity differences.