Yesterday — our eighth working day together — was a huge day for my infographics class here in Cape Town, South Africa.
From left to right: Elsolet, Hanlie, Jaco, Morné and Salomé.
Anton is just off to the left. Out the window is a stunning view
of Table Bay.
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Two projects dreamed up and pitched by my students — using the techniques they’ve learned over these two weeks — were green-lighted yesterday for today’s paper.
One was this enormously graphic look at the coach of the national rugby team (click for a larger view):
That was by Anton, who normally builds a lot of sports-oriented pieces but rarely something of this magnitude. He told me Wednesday this was by far the most complex piece he had ever done.
He started out with a relatively modest piece that showed the cutout photo of the coach, three previous national team coaches and a few stats on each. Anton left room in the upper left for a story to appear.
His editor loved the idea but upped the stakes by suggesting Anton build the piece larger and to include more data. One-by-one, Anton added the timeline across the bottom, the bar charts in the middle and the list of games and results up top.
I suggested he write his own headline in order to show the editors what would be ideal for this space. Anton’s editor loved it so much it remained in the final graphic just as Anton placed it.
Anton, busy on the rugby coach piece on Tuesday.
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Finally, Wednesday, the editor killed the story that was to run down the left side and suggested Anton add another chronology-like element. Which meant this entire package, now, is officially an Alternative Story Form.
And it looked great today, on the back of the sports section.
Meanwhile, over on the business page, the youngest member of our class, Elsolet, put together this piece showing automobile sales among the country’s nine provinces:
She spotted a large fever chart across the top of an old Huntsville Times page. I showed her a number of examples of across-the-page fever charts. While that’s a bit of a cliché for American papers, it’s a fresh idea for South African papers.
Elsolet paired that idea with a nice horizontal bar chart, a map of the country showing values for each province, two smaller fever trend charts, pull quotes from financial leaders and stray factoids lined up across the bottom. She designed in two columns in the center for a story.
In the end, her editors elected to move the smaller charts from the right side to the left side of the story. But for the most part, they left intact most of her design suggestions. And, like Anton’s sports piece, it looked terrific in today’s paper:
The folks in my class seem giddy with the way their new graphics look and the way they come together. They’re excited about this new idea of pitching ideas for graphics and page designers, rather than waiting for assignments to come to them. And they’re excited — and perhaps a little nervous — about the idea of researching and reporting their own material.
Which is a good thing. They should be excited and nervous. That means they’re not underestimating the amount of work and responsibility involved. Which means they’ll be more careful and more thorough with their content.
We’re just starting Day Nine and it’s already a hugely successful day, just reflecting on what we did in today’s paper. I’m soooo proud of all these folks and the work they’re doing.
Jaco delighted me Wednesday morning with a small gift: A couple of samples of South African jerky:
The sausage on the left is called droëwors — literally, dry sausage. Beef, ground into a mince and then sun-dried. The bag on the right is biltong — strips of Eland meat, a local antelope — dried, spiced and shredded. I’m told this can also be made of beef, ostrich or kudu (which is another type of antelope).
In addition, Hanlie brought me an African-style shirt. She had masterminded a gift last week from the entire class, but I discovered the shirt didn’t fit. She exchanged it for a larger one. I’ll try to wear it on Friday, our last day together.
Although Wednesday started out dark and rainy, the clouds lifted and the sun came out, making for a very pleasant day. About mid-afternoon, I found there was still a cloud making the very tip of Table Mountain — they call this phenomenon the “tablecloth” — so I had to grab a quick picture:
We worked hard all day on our various graphic projects. Again, my six students are showing a tremendous amount of initiative in pitching ideas. And the editors — some downstairs, some in other locations — are doing a terrific job of saying “yes” to these ideas.
I’d love to claim all the credit for this success. But in truth, these folks — everyone in each newspaper, I think — were already eager to make this happen. When you go into something with that kind of positive attitude, it’s easy to produce great results.
Among the informal lectures I gave them Wednesday were a primer on how Google Maps works and a review of the Revenue TwoPointZero project from last spring. I wish the R2.0 folks would take their next steps. Everyone who hears about that initiative gets excited. Yet the project seems to have stalled.
We had a few deadlines to meet — obviously — but once we finished for the day, the artists insisted on taking me out to a very local, very fun restaurant in an entertainment/nightclub district of Cape Town called Tamboerskloof (Tam BOORSH kluf).
There were restaurants and clubs of all sort. This one was Cuban:
Just a block or so down the street, this one seemed naughty:
(This photo is awfully blurry — I couldn’t bring myself to shoot the place with a flash. It’s called Adult World and its logo is an @ but with devil horns and a tail.)
This place here, across from our restaurant, was bought earlier this week by Disney:
Or perhaps I’m mistaken.
At our restaurant — called the Royale Eatery — we met up with Orin, a retired graphic artist who had worked with many of my students when they first started their careers. Here, he trades stories with Jaco and Morné:
I found Orin to be a very friendly guy and quite funny. He and I had a ball comparing notes about the early days of Macintosh graphics. The younger folks had no idea how difficult Adobe Illustrator was to use in the early days or why we had to use a separate, stand-alone application — Adobe Separator — to print color separations.
We all squeezed around one table, all eight of us. Salomé the former professional photog shot this one. From left: Hanlie, myself, Jaco, Orin, Morné, Anton and Elsolet.
Some of the artists snickered when I ordered a “Fat Bastard” — a large, double-decker burger in which each of the patties weighs 150 grams each.
The folks here seemed to think a 300-gram burger is huge, but that translates into “only” two-thirds of a pound. Pretty big, but not too big. It sounded yummy to me.
My suspicions arose, however, when the waitress dropped off a large tray of steak knives:
Sure enough, the burger showed up and was ginormous. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hamburger this size before:
The burger also contained two fried eggs — which seems to be common in these parts, for some reason — and “bacon.” However, it’s not the American-style “streaky” bacon we use on burgers back home. It’s much closer to what Americans would call “ham.”
Therefore, this was my first-ever ham-hamburger.
The entire table erupted in laughter when I attempted to pick it up. Indeed, I was a huge disaster just waiting to happen. I caught on quickly enough, grabbing a steak knife and cutting my burger as if it was a steak:
This thing was huge. Huge, I tell you…
…but very tasty. The artists seemed quite impressed I was able to finish the whole thing. I guess that’s why the restaurant named the dish after me.
After a couple of beers, the staff decided to drive to a nearby hotel — Protea — where a lobby bar called Fire and Ice specializes in coffee and wonderful desserts. I found yet another sign for my collection:
The lobby of the Protea was a scream. Whoever designed and decorated the place had a great sense of humor. The elevators each were decorated with a theme: One was a Table Mountain cable car. Another was a skin-diver’s shark cage. The bathrooms each had themes: One was a Southern U.S.-style outhouse. Another resembled a construction scaffold, high above a city. The manager’s office had a huge sign painted on its glass wall: Please disturb.
I saw this sign, that made me laugh:
The joke? All over town, I see signs saying “To let,” which means “for rent.” I wondered if the mishap above was an accident, but given all the other funny themes, I’m not so sure.
Two of our group are smokers, so they appreciated the smoking room, just off the lobby. It’s labeled the “Coughinroom” and is filled with fake tombstones and coffins:
Hanlie and Salomé enjoyed the room so much they didn’t want to come out:
On the ceiling is this huge photo, giving you the impression you’re looking up out of a grave:
Morbid stuff. But very funny.
We took seats in the lobby bar and ordered the local specialty: Milkshakes available in all sorts of yummy flavors. I ordered a lindt milkshake, which is a Swiss chocolate. I had left most of the bread off my burger, so I didn’t think the extra carbs would hurt me. And, of course, I was just fine.
While waiting for our desserts, we passed the time chatting and taking pictures of the lobby. You know you’re in trouble, however, when you end up taking pictures of each other taking pictures:
When the evening drew to a close, Morné volunteered to drop me off at my hotel. I was delighted to discover he drives a Smart car. I had never been in a Smart car before:
I’m happy to report the car is much more roomy on the inside than it looks. We were pretty tight, elbow-to-elbow. But I lacked neither legroom nor headroom. And given my height and weight, that’s quite a feat for such a little car:
I have Hot Wheels bigger than that!
So today is Thursday, our next-to-last day. It’s time to begin drawing our instructional time to a close by tying up any loose threads and to answer final questions.
We’ll be going over some of my techniques for researching graphics online — and offline as well. We’ll talk about collaborating with reporters and how to essentially barter for time.
And we’ll spend some time evaluating how far we’ve come in two weeks. Today’s stunning pieces suggest my time here has been well-spent. I couldn’t be happier, at this point.
What an experience this has been.
Rain clouds obscure the peak of Signal Hill at about 8:30 this
morning. It should burn off quickly enough: the forecast for
today is scattered clouds and a high of 66 degrees. Friday and
Saturday, we’re expecting mostly sunny and highs around 70.
Evening lows are in the high 40s. All this is very pleasant
short-sleeve weather for me.
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Also today, we’ll be revising my travel arrangements. Originally, I was supposed to leave for home on Saturday. As it turns out, though, most of my students will be departing and my teaching and consulting colleague will go home, but I’ll have a second weekend to bum around town. I’ve been asked to stay another week and teach principles of design and proactivity to the advertising and marketing designers.
Geniet jou dag, everyone (Enjoy your day).
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EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AFRICA
You’re reading chapter 15 of my journey to Cape Town, South Africa. Previous installments:
