Spotlight: Tour De France infographics.

So sorry for the long delay between posts. The last few weeks have been filled with emptying, cleaning, organizing, and wiring Infojock's new office. I will post some photos of the new digs tomorrow. But for now, I've thrown together some Tour De France graphics. Admittedly, there are only five of, and two are outdated (with big headlines about Lance's final tour... three years ago). However, it's good to have them all together so I can add to them as more undoubtedly come out. The Tour De France offers a wonderful opportunity for infographic work because so many Americans know so little about the sport. Peletons? Stages? Check out the graphics below and learn a few things about this grueling event.

First off, we have two newspaper double-trucks from Lance's farewell tour victory. Wonderfully executed by The Oregonian and The St. Pete Times. Great insights into tour strategy, the geography of the course, and the anatomy of a cyclist.






Next, we have three graphics that track the process of the Tour. First is the AP graphic from 2008. Next is a very impressive interactive by the Wall Street Journal. And last is a great graphic by Periscopic that follows Chipotle's 2009 team as they try to take the yellow jersey.







Hopefully we can keep the blog posts coming with a bit of regularity now. Let us know if you find any more Tour graphics, and we'll be sure to post them.

Spotlight: Baseball infographics Part I.

Well, with NHL and NBA wrapping up fairly spectacular playoff seasons (aside from the forgettable Lakers–Magic finals) and the NFL still filling the void before training camp with idle Favre chatter, American sports fans turn their attention to baseball for a few months. To try and make this yawnable event a bit more exciting, here’s a collection of baseball related infographics and visualizations I dug up for inspiration. Most people who follow the infographics community closely will recongize most of these, but they are still worth collecting all in the same place. Check back tomorrow for Part II, with infographic work from newspapers and a handful of interactive graphics.

Flipflopflyball Baseball Culture Infographics (Craig Robinson)



Major League Ballparks Four Generations (HistoryShots)


Chicago Cubs: A Century of Suck (600 Series)


History of the New York Yankees (Alex Reisner)


Baseball Pitches Illustrated (Lokesh Dhakar)


Again, remember to check back tomorrow for some great examples of newspaper baseball infographics. Know of work missing from this list? Be sure to leave it in the comments.

Spotlight: The Chicago Cubs 'Century of Suck'.

As the Cleveland Cavaliers approach another meltdown capping off 45+ years of total sporting ineptitude for their city, it is important to remember the team that owns the market on sports-suckiness. The folks at Infoshots have compiled this wonderfully styled timeline of just how Chicago has managed a complete Century of Suck. Being a young pup myself, I only remember a few of these sucky moments, so it is neat (and a bit sad) to see how long they've been going on.

On a similar and not exactly timely note, last fall I threw this small graphic together about how the Cubs and White Sox have managed to both miss the postseason since their joint appearance in the World Series in 1906.

Spotlight: Wonderful ad campaign.

Just wanted to take a few seconds after recovering from Lebron James' epic shot to give a shoutout to a wonderful new basketball ad campaign featuring some neat infographic work.

The first comes from the incredibly creative/witty/quick minds at the alternative basketball blog FreeDarko. I first found out about them through their infographic book called FreeDarko presents The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac: Styles, Stats, and Stars in Today's Game. The book is full of wonderful art and some very smart analysis of NBA statistics. Apparently, I was not the only one that was impressed with their work. Not sure how it happened, but Adidas came calling and the results are this very clever advertisements.



The other video, this one about 'Creator' Derrick Rose, can be viewed here.

If those weren't enough to keep you in the NBA playoff mindset, then maybe this rival campaign from Nike Basketball will do the trick. These ones feature Kobe and Lebron playing roles as Most Valuable Roles. Clearly, Nike is banking on the Laker-Cavs finals. With the way their superstars have been playing lately, nothing wrong with that bet. Here's the ads: one, two, and three.