Friday, January 14, 2011

Doctor Who Infographic

Hey, it's another infographic. Here's everything you've ever wanted to know about the Doctor, but were afraid to ask.

I think this is the first time in my life I've ever drawn the TARDIS. It was surprisingly hard! It seems like it would be simple; after all it's just a blue box with some windows. But there are tons of little details and recessed panels and whatnot, and it took forever to get it all straight.

This piece took quite a while to finish. I worked on it a little at a time over several days. There was a lot of moving around of elements and a lot of text editing to get everything to fit in an efficient manner. Hopefully there aren't any glaring errors in the information.

I've had the grid system drilled into my head since design school, and normally I'm a devoted disciple of it. This time I said nuts to grids and just sort of let the design happen organically. I kind of liked it. I may start ditching the grid more often.

Laid out entirely in InDesign. All the Doctors, the Sonics and the TARDIS were drawn in InDesign as well.
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31 comments:

  1. UnknownJanuary 16, 2011 at 10:18 AM

    Nicely done, but some typographical and grammatical errors keep it from being great. You have a kind of big goofup in the box for the Third Doctor.

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  2. UnknownJanuary 17, 2011 at 1:04 PM

    Ah, nevermind on the Third Doctor box--I was misreading.

    However, I think you caught the typo in the box for the Seventh Doctor since my last post. The only one I still see is a subject/verb problem in the box for the age of the Doctor. (One of those "I don't want to just say 'he' but 'he/she' sounds stiff, so 'they' will do" errors.)

    Of course, one error in that entire infographic makes my comment look awfully picayune, so--sorry for that. Nicely done!

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  3. Bob CanadaJanuary 19, 2011 at 10:19 AM

    Thanks for the compliments and input! I did change the Seventh Doc typo that everyone (but me!) caught. I struggled with the wording on the Doctor's age box, but couldn't figure out a better way to phrase it in the space I had.

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  4. AnonymousFebruary 3, 2011 at 5:47 AM

    Anyway to get this as a poster? Would love to hang in my room

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  5. Bob CanadaFebruary 4, 2011 at 8:34 AM

    Anonymous: I don't know-- I don't think the BBC would like me printing up posters of their character.

    However, if you were to download the image and print it out yourself, well then I couldn't stop you... ;^)

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  6. UnknownFebruary 7, 2011 at 9:36 PM

    Hah! That's exactly what I plan to do. Found your excellent infographic via The Daily What. Awesome, dude.

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  7. redheadFebruary 8, 2011 at 9:45 AM

    Brilliant!!

    I'm next in line for a poster sized version of this, as soon as the Beeb gives you the OK.

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  8. Christina HicksFebruary 8, 2011 at 12:44 PM

    This is fantastic! Would you mind if I printed it for a Doctor Who display I'm putting together (with all of my collectibles) for my library? I was going to write up some pertinent facts, and you've got them all here in a much more attractive way!

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  9. AnonymousFebruary 8, 2011 at 2:11 PM

    The second Doctor played a recorder, not a flute. *ducks under desk*

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  10. Perry GerakinesFebruary 8, 2011 at 2:52 PM

    Yes, looks good, but "dimentionally" should be spelled "dimensionally" (alluded to in the first comment post, I think).

    Also, I don't think there are 9 panes of glass in each of the TARDIS windows- just 6 (3 by 2).

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  11. CubedLinkFebruary 8, 2011 at 4:37 PM

    This is brilliantly done! Its not easy to describe the Doctor in a short amount of time but you've done a great job! I also love the art style that you have.
    Hope it's okay but I would love to post this in my new blog (and of course link over to this post for credit). I'm in awe and love this. Amazing work!
    ------
    http://realmbeyondsight.blogspot.com/

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  12. Nate LawrenceFebruary 9, 2011 at 2:35 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  13. Nate LawrenceFebruary 9, 2011 at 2:38 AM

    Bob, you might consider embedding a zoomable version of your graphic via this site. http://zoom.it/1mx9

    Just click 'Embed' at the bottom to get the HTML code to paste into your blog post and tweak the height of the viewer to suit your preferences.

    If you have an even higher resolution version to upload to flickr, the viewer can handle as large a resolution as you can bear to upload, so feel free.

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  14. Prof. ChronotisFebruary 9, 2011 at 8:05 AM

    Bob, this is hilarious -- I love it! So I've reposted it on my DOCTOR WHO blog at http://krillitane.blogspot.com/2011/02/brilliant-bob-canada-infographic.html ...

    Minor quibble: the First Doctor wore reading glasses from time to time...

    I've recently been watching the Jon Pertwee episodes and man, have you ever captured him in this caricature. The stance, the glower, everything. These are all excellent likenesses, but to my mind that one is absolutely the best.

    I also like that you captured the one trait that ties all the Doctor's regenerations together: eccentric hair.

    Well done all around! Encore, encore!

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  15. AnonymousFebruary 9, 2011 at 8:18 AM

    I think you should reconsider your factlet for the Seventh Doctor - he only actually fought the Rani that one time.

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  16. KnittyLynnFebruary 9, 2011 at 8:54 AM

    Ah yes, whenever you touch something that is such a part of pop culture the knit pickers crawl out of the woodwork.

    *rolls eyes*

    This is brilliant! The colors, the caricatures, the great bits of information. You put a ton of work into this and it shows.

    Thank you so much for sharing it with us for FREE.

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  17. AnonymousFebruary 9, 2011 at 11:00 AM

    Yes, thanks for sharing.

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  18. AnonymousFebruary 9, 2011 at 12:22 PM

    Very nice! Thanks for posting it.

    And... uh... you can feel free to post a PDF of it for printing purposes, should you be so inclined. After all, InDesign does export PDF natively. (wink wink nudge nudge)

    Heh.

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  19. AnonymousFebruary 9, 2011 at 2:47 PM

    Ditto on the recorder vs. flute detail. Also, I believe it's "nitpickers," not "knit pickers." (Come on, how could I resist that one!)

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  20. UnknownFebruary 9, 2011 at 3:20 PM

    Great stuff- just discovered your blog through Nerdist, Cool Infographics, and many other blogs now reposting this week. Thanks for all your background on creating it- I had no idea you could do fun vector drawing in InDesign! Check out more McCoy when you have a chance- but skip season 24 & Silver Nemesis!

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  21. ElsieFebruary 9, 2011 at 11:05 PM

    This is fantastic! What great drawings.

    I'm wondering about the sonic screwdriver detail... there are multiple ways they can be created as far as I know. The Doctor created his own screwdriver the first time, the Master also created his own laser screwdriver, and there was a sonic factory where Jack got his blaster (which the Doctor says he blew up). I think it's just the current version that was created by the Tardis.

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  22. February 10, 2011 at 3:28 AM

    Just wanted to let you know how much I liked your infographic. Great work!

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  23. AnonymousFebruary 10, 2011 at 11:02 AM

    Incredible, especially the part about drawing all the cartoons in InDesign. (I'm old school, and use Illustrator for that sort of thing.)

    I'd also love to have access to a pdf version, if you're feeling generous.

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  24. UnknownFebruary 12, 2011 at 11:13 PM

    Sir, you are effin brilliant!

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  25. chicapoperaFebruary 13, 2011 at 12:55 PM

    Sooooo awesome! thank you for this

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  26. UnknownFebruary 14, 2011 at 9:27 AM

    Hi, Can you contact me at lauren.dagnese@pearson.com? I am working on a request to reprint this graphic in a textbook Pearson is publishing. Thanks!

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  27. TVGuruAUFebruary 21, 2011 at 1:27 AM

    I don't usually leave random comments on blogs, but I just wanted to say kudos for this. As a huge Doctor Who fan this is awesome.
    Well done!

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  28. RuyterFebruary 22, 2011 at 11:05 AM

    Dude, this is awesome! Making one for the companions would be even more awesome. Like a companion info graphic.

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  29. nursing scrubsJuly 13, 2011 at 8:31 PM

    i find the presentation of the infographic very simple yet informative. Its very perfect for a child to read because of its color, design and cartoonistic drawing.

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  30. EvanNovember 11, 2014 at 12:28 AM

    I love it more and more. I'm a big time doctor and followed all seasons :)

    Regards,
    Creately

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  31. Bob CanadaNovember 11, 2014 at 8:23 AM

    @Shalin Siriwaradhana

    Thanks! I'm planning on updating it soon.

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