(cache) Ask E.T.: Megan Jaegerman's brilliant news graphics

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Megan Jaegerman's brilliant news graphics

Edward Tufte, July 2007

Megan Jaegerman produced some of the best news graphics ever while working
at The New York Times from 1990 to 1998. Her work is smart, finely detailed,
elegant, witty, inventive, informative. A fierce researcher and reporter, she writes
gracefully and precisely. Megan has the soul of a news reporter, who happens
to use graphs, tables, and illustrations--as well as words--to explain the news.
Her best work is the best work in news graphics.

In 2004-2005, she revised one of her Times news graphics for my book
Beautiful Evidence (pages 116-117), shown below. The revision includes
several private jokes: images of E. J. Marey (from BE), Kenneth Noland
(from Mark Tansey's The Myth of Depth in Visual Explanations), ET in
the sculpture studio, and a friend of Megan's--somehow the four of us have
unfortunately become involved with handguns. This work took months;
for example, Megan and I exchanged many emails and 3 redesigns figuring
out whether the stoplight should be red, green, or yellow.

Color is used to highlight how the gun moves and how the gun reveals itself,
short visual noun-verb sentences that indicate the key signs that help detectives
to spot someone carrying a hidden handgun. Thus the color usually has a
distinct substantive point and is not just used to depict surfaces or to decorate
the news.

Most of all, the content is really interesting; we learn something new from Megan
Jaegerman's fine reporting work. Details of the reporting are discussed in the text
immediately below the graphic.

Here is my text from Beautiful Evidence analyzing the graphic:

Below, Megan's original handgun graphic from The New York Times, May 26, 1992:

Here are more of her greatest hits:

Below, Megan's classic instructions for basic exercises became
widespread refrigerator-door art in New York City (according
to an editor at the Times).

The next 2 displays below beautifully combine tables, images, text--whatever
it takes to explain the content. Megan Jaegerman's work has consistently this spirit:
content-driven, no segregation of information by its mode of production, whatever
it takes to explain something.

In this graphic below on quitting smoking, the data graph at the bottom showing
the relapse/time curve is a fine touch, a reminder of the temperature/time graph in
Minard's French Invasion of Russia in 1812.

-- Edward Tufte, June 28, 2007

Women's life cycle

Here's a web version "Life: Start Here . . . " by Megan Jaegerman:

http://www.nytimes.com/specials/women/nyt97/22life.html

-- Edward Tufte, June 28, 2007

A wonderfully contextual field guide below. Most fields guides isolate each animal or
plant; here many animals and plants are placed in their natural context along with the
fully integrated explanatory text:

-- Edward Tufte, July 2, 2007

Below, a collection of sports news graphics by Megan Jaegerman:

-- Edward Tufte, July 2, 2007

-- Edward Tufte, July 3, 2007

I was delighted to see the brilliant news graphics of Megan Jaegerman. Her elegant, clever and detailed work in news graphics is the best I ever seen. I miss her illustrations in the Times and wonder where I might see her current work.

-- karen collins (email), July 4, 2007

-- Edward Tufte, July 17, 2007

-- Edward Tufte, July 23, 2007

-- Edward Tufte, July 25, 2007

i was searching for extraordinary work in newspapers on news, infographics for over a week now. felt extremly bad and rather sorry not to see very many. i also didnt find one single website devoted to infographics daily - like we have newseum and newspaper direct or pressdisplay for the front pages replica from throughout the world. not a single i repeat. one called graphic news was there but was for a charge. one from india kbk was also meant for subscription. as a journalist, only engaged in writing not like the one-and-only Megan who can write, draw, create and illustrate in whatever manner on whatever subject (as I could understand by going through this site of her works), i am passionate about news graphics and design elements, design components and overall design/layout of a newspaper for quite some time now. well, i think i should directly come to the point. i am amazed to see the standards of megan's graphics journalistically and artistically as well. i am delighted to see someone so much devoted to the cause of visual journalism. i am surprised to note the details she could put in the work. Unmatchable, indeed! i congratulate megan and especially all those who could gather these graphics here at one place and facilitated journalists like me who otherwise remain deprived of learning about such great performance. i also look forward to getting the e-mail addresses of such sites that give us regular updates on graphics on various international,national.local issues that could be described as news. i am also keen on making friends anyone who is equally interested in news, info graphics and newspaper designs. with warm regards, kalpesh yagnik, kalpesh.yagnik@gmail.com, india.

-- kalpesh yagnik (email), September 6, 2007

Extraordinary! The ultimate evolution from the "show and tell" of grammar school days.

I would like to know more about Megan's philosophy, guiding principles, work processes, quality criteria, creative time required and reader feedback, etc. Perhaps we need a book by Megan?

-- Loren R. Needles (email), September 24, 2007

Jaegerman's graphic is impressive indeed, but it suffers from a single but serious fact error: revolvers are not grip-heavy, but barrel-heavy.

Revolvers don't have "weighted grips," and in fact tend to rest barrel-down, as the solid metal cylinder (filled with lead-and-brass ammunition) and thick metal barrel are by far heavier than the rubber, plastic or wooden grips.

That portion of the graphic might have been correct had it show a semi-automatic pistol. Those pistols store as many as 17 rounds in the grip, which may make them grip-heavy.

-- Andrew Rothman (email), December 30, 2009

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