What Would Jennifer Do

The math that went into deciding these scores was computed by Bloomberg Rankings so I can’t get into much detail about that but each category has a potential score of 500 with a total potential perfect score of 2,000.

In a rare gatefold, we dedicated four pages to visualizing these four factors. Because the total scores for each of these 50 companies doesn’t vary much from company to company it doesn’t create a very dynamic chart to look at; however, the individual factors that make up the totals swing up and down per company. Using a simple stacked bar chart you’re able to individually compare one company to the next.

Thank you excel. 

I’m not entirely sure what the purpose of this screenshot from illustrator serves other than to show that from Excel, I output the graph to illustrator, expand, contract, and plop it into InDesign. Which you can see, is where it really takes shape.

The 2011 year end issue has been concepted, designed, written, rewritten, edited, re-edited, redesigned, graphic-ized, copy-edited, printed, and distributed to your airport gift shop and bookstore of choice.

< < < LENGTHY NOSTALGIC PARAGRAPH ABOUT LASY YEAR > > >
Last year’s issue was sorta a big deal–it turned out to define 2011 for me. After meeting Richard Turley on twitter and collaborating on a cover assignment I was invited  to join his team for a month and design BusinessWeek’s first year end issue. Upon arriving I got to work with the deeply inspired and inspiring Cindy Hoffman (formerly of TIME Magazine, currently BBW Design Director) and the new insatiable graphics editors Evan Applegate and Kenton Powell. I met an art department with an emphasis on thinking journalisticly and a editorial staff interested in visual storytelling and willing to take risks. By the time we were done 2010 Year in Review’s 109 pages, save from the advertisements, told the year entirely in data visualization and graphics. Some people loved it. Other people canceled their subscription. A week after publishing Richard and Josh Tyrangiel gave me the opportunity to join BBW as their Graphics Director and they haven’t been able to get rid of me since. I never expected to take a full time job—the novel of having my own desk to call my own still hasn’t worn off. I like it. Since then, we’ve produced a magazine every week including some very special editions: How To, Popularity, and a memorial issue for Steve Jobs.

< <  < LESS LENGTHY BUT NOT EXACTLY BREIF EXPLANATION ABOUT THIS YEAR’S ISSUE > > >
But, I’m not going to make this a “what I’ve learned this year” post. I’ll save that for my livejournal. What I’m really excited to share with everyone is THIS year’s issue. Unlike most magazine year end issues we don’t tell the year chronologically nor rely on categories (like we did last year). Instead, BBW decided to tell the year in a more conversational way—sort of like the Kevin Bacon game but instead of finding the least amount of connections between two topics we found the most.

So, the issue begins with an essay on the year of the fist and ends with two pages on debt in space. Yes, S P A C E  D E B T. Surely, Mars owes us something.

The pages between fill in the connections between these two seemingly unrelated topics. The opening remarks are followed by an 8-page timeline of protests from around the world  (designed by special guest designer Tracy Ma) which leads into->

interviews with riot policemen around the world ->
annotated war trucks of Libya ->
collage of protest gear ->
a photo essay of people living under the blue tarps of OWS ->
shocking housing statistics ->
an essay on food stamps ->
interviews with unemployed graduates ->
an essay on economics ->
a photo essay on MF Global ->
graphics on volatility ->
and it continues on like this and hits on topics like
Rupert Murdoch,
Silicon Valley,
squirrels,
the budget crisis
space debt
and lastly, an 8-page index of 2011.

< <  < OKAY THIS IS ACTUALLY WHEN THE BLOG POST ABOUT THE INDEX BEGINS > > >
I’m sure Richard will blog about the the issue so I’ll leave that to him; however, one thing I really want to share is the caboose of the magazine—an eight page glossary of the year illustrated and edited by Julian Sancton and myself. After 100 pages of Kevin Bacon we attempted to make sense of the year as BBW covered it…plus more.

You’ll find quotes, charts, photos, numbers, and lists ranging from topics like blunders, weird animal stories, counterfeits of the year (written by Keenan Mayo), and a Putin/Chuck Norris comparison chart. Organized alphabetically, it provides a structure for the magazine with additional coverage on the features- features that refer you to the index and figures that refer you to the features. Like a yearbook, you’ll see what showed up most throughout the year. The lists for natural disasters, lies, and 1%ers are rather long compared to say Lindsay Lohan’s entry (though, she does make an appearance in unexpected places like the Osama Bin Laden chart, and our manicure quiz).

Sprinkled throughout the index are 13 figures: like a text book these figures provide additional explanation to a subject. For example, Trump’s social network, the success rate of Somali priates, and how to plank— you know, the important topics we really needed more DEPTH of coverage on. One of the more useful figures compliments the photo essay of CLOSE UP images captured at turning points of the year. Our chart in the back of the magazine reveals these photos at full crop.

Because most of this couldn’t be created until the magazine was essentially finished a lot of last minute work had to go into it to make sure everything fit, looked good, and was accurate to where it fell in the magazine. 2 out of 3 isn’t bad. The last three hours sending this to the printer were crazed. I mean effortless. TOTALLY EFFORTLESS.