Alberto Cairo's website: infographics, design and visual journalism

Infographics Courses at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
EXAMPLES OF STUDENT PROJECTS

The infographics courses at the School of Journalism at UNC are intended to give the students a better understanding of how visual explanations are used in newspapers and magazines, both print and online.

JOMC185 Introduction to Graphic Design is not really a course about infographics only. It includes the basic graphic design principles and rules. Color theory and Type play a key role in this class. The students learn the basics of publication , promotion and information graphics design. They also learn the basic tools of Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign.

JOMC484 Information Graphics (formerly 187 and 487) covers the basics of information design and reporting for infographics. It is mostly focused on print and the exercises are made using 2D tools (hand drawn techniques, Illustrator and Photoshop).

In JOMC585 3D Design Studio (formerly 192 and 491) students complete their projects using a broader range of software tools that includes Maya 7.0 and Flash.

You can see the courses' old syllabi here. More information about the School of Journalism: visit our website. You can contact me at my email address.

SPRING 2009
JOMC 585 - 3D Design Studio - The Renovation of the Morehead Planetarium
The Morehead Planetarium at UNC-Chapel Hill is going to be renovated in the near future. The Planetarium folks contacted us to see if my students could do an interactive graphic about that. They did. Some of them are pretty impressive, even if they still require heavy editting and tweaking.	Monica Ulmanu	Amanda Price	Ashley Zammitt
	Emily Van Tassel	Unfinished Maya model
JOMC 484 - Information Graphics - Final project
The guidelines for this one were easy: bring an idea for an infographic to class. I will act like the newspaper editor, so you will have to convince me that the topic is interesting and that you will be able to gather enough data. After the idea is approved, do the research and make the infographic. (NOTE: these graphics have not been edited yet!)	Anna Carrington	Courney Dean	David Iberkleid
	Gwen Saunders	Kevin Turner	Lindsey Paytes
FALL 2007
JOMC 484 - Information Graphics - Final project
	Caity Pellicia	Dana Kublin	Connie Feng
	Lucia Parker	Alicia Parlapiano	Shayna Ayers
			Stacey Simeone
JOMC 484 - Information Graphics - Project - Earthquake in Peru
An infographic about the big earthquake that shook the Pisco area in Peru a few months ago. The students had to use a combination of maps, statistical charts and explanatory diagrams.	Alicia Parlapiano	Dana Kublin	Lucia Parker
			Shayna Ayers
SPRING 2007
JOMC 491 - 3D Design Studio - Project 1 - Landmarks in China
Our Multimedia/Infographics students are currently designing the website for the 2007 Special Olympics Games (Shanghai). As a part of the website, my classes are working on 50 infographics. Here you can see some screenshots of a few of them. The interface is going to change, of course.	Shen Chang and Ang Pan	Stefan Estrada	Zach Bruckenstein
JOMC 487 - Information Graphics - Project 1 - The Rain Shadow Effect
This is the first project of the Spring semester, that includes maps and some simple diagrams. I was amazed by the variety of styles the students used. Notice how some of them tried to use 3D while others decided to create a nigelholmesque display. These are the non-edited versions. If you meet with my students, they will probably show you enhanced versions of these!	Patricia Lapadula	Lindsay Dubois	Robert Matteson
		Ryan Dean	Virginia Hendrix
FALL 2006
White City Stories Student Documentary Project (Arequipa, Peru)
Arequipa. "the White City", is the cultural and political center in the south of Peru. More than 30 students participated in this project. Three of them created the infographics for the website. The project is being edited at the moment. You will probably find some minor bugs!	Vu Nguyen	Lindsay Dubois	Kurt Gentry
SUMMER 2006
Atacama Stories Student Documentary Project (Atacama Desert, Chile)
Infographics by Danielle Jett, Mariel Furlong, Feilding Cage and Andrea Ballochi
FALL 2006
JOMC487 - Information Graphics - Final project
The guidelines for this one were easy: bring an idea for an infographic to class. I will act like the newspaper editor, so you will have to convince me that the topic is interesting and that you will be able to gather enough data. After the idea is approved, do the research and make the infographic.	Jonathan Avery	Rebecca Rolfe	Lawson Parker
	Nikki Smith Roberson
JOMC487 - Information Graphics - Second Project - The Battle of Iwo Jima
For the second project of the semester I wanted to really challenge the students. The previous project, the one about the Sea Walls, was interesting, but a bit limited. I decided we would do a tabloid-size infographic about the battle of Iwo Jima, as long as the latest Clint Eastwood's movie, Flags of Our Fathers, is centered on it. We assumed that the editor of the newspaper we worked for wished to run this piece along with a story about the movie. So the infographic should provide all the background historical information. Again, these examples have not been edited.	Rebecca Rolfe	Lawson Parker	Jonathan Avery
Every ambitious project should start being a simple draft. I encourage my students to sketch their ideas before they begin drawing objects in Illustrator. Here are some examples.	SKETCH by Rebecca Rolfe	SKETCH by Lawson Parker	SKETCH by Lara Kent
JOMC487 - Information Graphics - First Project
This is the first project that the students completed this semester: Why sea walls in Florida are not effective. And what would happen in the State if the sea level rises. None of the students had previous experience in infographics. The projects have not been edited yet.
Jonathan Avery	Lawson Parker	John Lubbers	Nicole Lee
SPRING 2006
Chasing Crusoe - Multimedia Documentary Project

SPRING 2006