Kurt Vonnegut's Shapes of Stories in infographic form

boing
8

  1. Kurt Vonnegut’s original idea was in infographic form. This is just an infographic with more crap crammed into it.

  2. Cramming more crap into it does nothing to improve it. Vonnegut’s originals derive much of their value from the stark simplicity of the graphs, which can be grasped very quickly. Vonnegut’s humor comes through brilliantly in the Metamorphosis shape, which starts at nearly the bottom of the graph and drops off immediately to an infinity sign. After digesting the first few traditional shapes, this one is jarring and funny in its severity. The poster, in which all the shapes have roughly the same heft, completely lacks that effect.

I don’t love being critical here — the designer is clearly trying. But it feels like Vonnegut with all the flavor drained out.