creating visual metaphors

Data Flow: Visualizing data in Graphic Design

...As social animals we are fascinated by our own reflections. We seek out a response not only from reflections of ourselves; we also seek the bonds of unity and distinction in the images of others, as learning is driven primarily by emotional relevance.

Designers can access the entire bandwidth of human perception by investing data with weight, space and texture. In doing so, they provide sensual experiences of communication, deliciously revealing the richness of complex datasets, so full of meaning and potential interpretations. This is the physical interface of analogy, well suited to the continuous and graduated sensations we derive from our immediate environment.