In 2009 and 2010, inspired by Nicholas Felton’s annual reports, I tracked various data from the year to assemble into an annual report that charts interesting statistics from the past twelve months. Now in its third year, my reports continue to be a popular piece in my portfolio so I’m excited to present my third, the 2011 annual report poster.
Keeping in the tradition started last year, the poster follows the same structure and format substituting in new data and a new color scheme and typography. This year I decided to go with a dark green (a color I rarely use) and used Helvetica and Cheltenham, both of which give it a slightly different feel.
Each year, I try to add something new or try something different and the main thing I tried to do this year is go deeper into the data and pull out some interesting statistics that would otherwise go unnoticed. For example, instead of simply totaling the movies I watched, they are also separated by genre and the year they were filmed. This allows me to see the majority of the films I watch are dramas and I tend to see a lot of movies made in the 2000s but there is also a strange peak in movies made in the 1970s. I also broke down music, television, and books by genre.
Another interesting trend I noticed this year is that I’m taking more photos with my phone instead of lugging around my DSLR. So instead of simply graphing the total photos I took, I separated them by iPhone and Canon Rebel which illuminated some surprising results: there is a steady rise in iPhone photos from January to May that matches almost exactly the falling of photos taken on the DSLR. The last half of the year, interestingly enough, the two camera rise and fall pretty consistently.
Click here to see a detailed view of the 2011 Annual Report.
However, what really interests me most in making these is the change year over year. I love being able to look back and see I read more books this year than the previous two or how much more coffee I consumed this year or seeing that Modern Family secured it’s spot as my favorite television show for the second year in a row.
As with my previous reports, the 2011 annual report is available in poster form in my online shop for $10 and you can get both old reports for a discounted price of $15.
The completion of an annual report marks the end of an era for me and I’m already tracking some interesting things to add to next year’s—a new story is beginning.
