Edward Tufte: Cult Leader Or Actual God?
It would probably be fair to say that statistician/information design guru Edward Tufte‘s upcoming day-long course at the Radisson Hotel is probably the most-hyped informational design event directed at lovers of charts and graphs in the city’s history. But we think this is a good thing; being wholly unfamiliar with Tufte’s body of work, we can only imagine that any informational design guru would have a yeoman’s job cut out for him, navigating this city’s collectively ailing systems of information, from public signage to local media. (This website included. A mess, I tell you, a mess!) That said, $380 is kind of steep, even if it does come with four gorgeous coffee table books and the sense that, armed with Tufte’s knowledge, you could go out and make this world just a little less confusing. Also, Tufte is very fond of the Gill Sans font. We love Gill Sans. OK, here’s the money, we’ll see you on the 16th.
March 8th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
The books alone are worth a hefty chunk of the $380 ($185 retail / $130 Amazon). Many of the designers at my office keep the whole set within arm’s reach. The remaining $200ish pass for a full-day course is pretty reasonable compared to the cost of local Marketing lunches, et al.
I think people skew a little cultish after they get indoctrinated; his tenets of displaying data are powerful.
That said, it’s not the kind of cult where people cite him every day. Like, I mention Lady Gaga more, by a factor of 100.
March 8th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
It was recently announced that he’ll be making graphs and charts to help explain how the money from the stimulus has been spent.
http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0003e0&topic_id=1
March 8th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
Been a Tufte fan for a while, too. Just came into some lucre, but I’d rather spend it on plants.
March 9th, 2010 at 10:53 am
Gill Sans. sigh.
March 11th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
I saw him lecture my sophomore year of college… and I own a few books. I’d love to go, but I can’t drop 380 for a day– even if it is an investment, it’s almost my rent! I wish there was a discounted rate for poor post-grads. Have you SEEN a student loan bill? Talk about information design…