Jude Buffum's Infographics

Jude Buffum
Heritage Beast

I came across Jude Buffum's illustrated infographic, Heritage Beast, in Data Flow 2 and made my way to her website.

I immediately found it striking based purely on the content, which is an excellent narrative about the rendering of animal parts into consumer products. Although I do not know how this was originally intended to be received, I think it is effective at demonstrating the extent to which so many of our modern conveniences rely upon using just a small fraction of animal bi-product.

I am also impressed by Buffum's ability to narrate purely through illustration. No words are necessary to describe the story happening here, because the diagram is so clear and unambiguous. It is clean and matter-of-fact in the information it presents. The icons are immediately recognizable.

It would be hasty to jump to conclusions about whether or not this infograph is advocating veganism, but I do see symbolism here which gives me cause to wonder. The cattle is placed at the top of the tree, its body taking up nearly a third of the diagram, with a golden background. Immediately this calls to mind religious iconography, particularly related to Hinduism. I may be reading too far into this, but in addition to the cow, the color saffron is sacred in Hinduism as the color of holy men and ascetics. One can debate forever the intentions of an artist, but whether or not Buffum was aware of the relationship of religious iconography to her infographic, there is still an underlying message of sacrifice inherent to this illustration.

Jude Buffum
The Condensed LA Guide

While browsing her website, I came across another set of infographics, but unfortunatley I found this one problematic.

The Condensed LA Guide is a set of three infographics created for a section of LA Magazine, as a guide to local dating spots. The first two illustrations feature stereotypical couples within particular subcultures. There is "Player Meets Player," for young, wealthy, hip couples into the Hollywood scene. There is "May Meets December," for an older generation which is basically an older version of "Player Meets Player." Then there is "Man Meets Man," and the illustration is of a bear and a cub or otter, with most of the surrounding icons featuring men in leather chaps or bondage gear.

While obviously all of the illustrations are meant to be humorous, "Man Meets Man" stands out as being more ostracizing and extreme in its caricatures than the other two illustrated couples. This is partly because they are the only couple represented that is not heteronormative, and partly because the title makes a sweeping generalization about queer men. So even if Buffum was playfully making a jab at a particular gay subculture, it came across as a blanket statement about all male couples in LA. The joke would not have been offensive if the title had been more specific to a subculture, like the other two were, and said something like "Bear Meets Cub," or "Daddy Meets Twink." "Man Meets Man" does not refer to a subculture, therefore it is offensive to assign one to it.

In general, though, I think that Buffum's infographics are worthy of study for any graphic designer. She has mastered the art of balancing image with text, and is excellent at visually narrating data in ways that are relevant and provide insight to the topic.