Beautiful News: Positive Trends, Uplifting Stats, Creative Solutions

by David McCandless

In this fascinating follow-up to the bestselling Information is Beautiful and Knowledge is Beautiful, the king of infographics David McCandless uses spectacular visuals to give us all a bit of good news.
We are living in the Information Age, in which we are constantly bombarded with data – on television, in print and online. How can we relate to this mind-numbing overload? Enter David McCandless and his amazing infographics: simple, elegant ways to understand information too complex or abstract to grasp any way but visually. In his unique signature style, he creates dazzling displays that blend facts with their connections, contexts and relationships, making information meaningful, entertaining – and beautiful.

In his highly anticipated third book, McCandless illustrates positive news from around the world, for an informative, engaging and uplifting collection of new infographic art.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History, Design, Politics, Reference, Art

256 pages, Hardcover

Published February 24, 2022

About the author

McCandless is the founder of the visual blog Information Is Beautiful. Early explorations into the synergy between data visualisation and his work as a journalist led to the development of Information Is Beautiful and the subsequent publication of his book of the same name (titled A Visual Miscellaneum in the United States).

McCandless began his career writing for cult video game magazines such as Your Sinclair and PC Zone in the late 1980s and 1990s before moving on to work for The Guardian and Wired magazine. Since the publication of Information Is Beautiful in 2009, his information design work has appeared in numerous publications, including The Guardian, Wired, and Die Zeit, and has also been showcased at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Wellcome Trust gallery in London, and at the Tate Britain. His second book, Knowledge Is Beautiful, was published in 2014.

source: Wikipedia

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Negative news brings us down, but it also attracts us—even more so if that negative news has a click-bait headline. But we do need to hear about the positive, and Beautiful News is a good place to get a lot of that. In diagrams and charts, author David McCandless shared things we can feel optimistic and hopeful about for once.

Beautiful News presents many happy facts from around the world, some simple, some more complicated. A few topics covered are health, nature, clean energy, money, and innovative tech. To keep graphics interesting and best present the information, McCandless used conventional area, bubble, line, and bar charts but also plenty of unique formats that unfortunately aren’t always understandable. Unsurprisingly, the simpler the information, the easier the chart is to interpret. But when information is plentiful, which is often, the design can be indecipherable. These are some ridiculously busy, unusually formatted charts. Lines go every which way while various shapes and colors mean different things, and arrows point all over the place. Multiple snippets of information clarify but also add further clutter. This is an extremely information-dense book, and I found myself wishing for the clean layout of the Maps for Curious Minds series.

The happiest charts show developments that have happened or that are happening—for example, rising cancer-survival rates and reduction of fertilizer use. A great many talk about what could happen. The possibilities are amazing (e.g., seaweed as an energy source), but so many are decades from being implemented or may be beyond reach thanks to multiple roadblocks. That’s discouraging to see in the section on climate especially.

Nevertheless, news about possibilities is still beautiful, and needed. Negative news attracts more readers than positive news does, but it also seems as if journalists worry that if they don’t provide a continuous stream of negative news, people will assume certain problems don’t exist or are solved and so won’t do anything. However, currently most people do the bare minimum, or nothing at all, anyway. Does flooding people with negative news lead to feelings of hopelessness that then breeds apathy? Maybe hearing at least an equal amount of positive news—about breakthroughs, progress, and within-reach possibilities—is a partial antidote to that apathy, leading to positive news begetting positive news.

Solutions to many problems do exist or are being developed, and we’ve already solved many serious problems too. This book shows that vaccines are saving the lives of many more people; more trees are being planted; and infant mortality has plummeted in every single country. And there’s beautiful news we’re less likely to be aware of: Biodiversity is flourishing in the Thames after the river was declared biologically dead in 1950. A food called “golden rice” could reduce lethal vitamin A deficiency. A new device uses ocean forces to clear plastic from our seas. What Beautiful News does best is offer hope and lots of reasons to not give up.

Complementary viewing: The Happy Broadcast

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my third David McCandless book and it was top of my 'Christmas list' for 2021. Luckily, my sister took the hint and bought it for me.

Beautiful News is McC's antidote to COVID-19 and worldwide bad news - a book filled to bursting with the good stuff that's happening here, there and everywhere. I can picture him home-working and trying his hardest to find the best things in our world with which to reassure us that it's not all death and destruction.

In my opinion, this book sacrifices creativity for delivering a strong message -especially a strong environmental message. I'm happy with that message, but - in contrast to his previous books Information is Beautiful and Knowledge is Beautiful - I don't find the structure of the infographics to be as inspiring.

Too many pagers have way too many words. Too many graphics are a bit 'meh'. There are relatively few that rock me back on my heels or pull a strong "Wow" from my mouth. The message seems to have been put ahead of the imagery and that's a very big shame. I also felt that some of the axes on charts were not explained enough to make it clear exactly what was being said and some pages seemed to shove two handfuls of assorted and not completely related topics onto a double-spread.

It's fantastic that he found so much good news. It's a shame it got shoved together with less thought or creativity than his previous books.

My favourite chart - and I think you can also find it on the Information is Beautiful website - is the world map which shows for each country in the world, something positive for which they are #1. If I'm reading it correctly, the country with the most female MPs is now Rwanda. Who knew? The UK wins on 'offshore wind' (I'm guessing the use of it for power, not just the windiest place) and the USA has the most generous donors to charity. I'm pretty sure I've seen an earlier version of this map where the US 'won' at locking up their citizens in prison so it's a very different perspective when you look for the good in nations.

There is something in this book to interest everybody. It's the kind you'd leave in the downstairs loo for entertaining reading (though you might start to worry if people don't come out for a long time).

I applaud the sentiment but find some of the graphics a tad disappointing. This would be a 3.5 stars for me, rounded up to 4. If I'd not experienced the earlier books, it might be more.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been trying to engage in more positive news since I have to stay connected to the news cycle for my job (and most of the coverage is highly negative). I figured this collection of beautiful news would be a nice distraction from that.

While the majority of the information visualized was positive, it hurt to realize some of the info was already out of date (and not in a positive way). One example was the education levels of Afghanistan girls. I also felt like a lot of the information related to the environment was repeated.

My favorite graphic in the book is available for viewing online: Because Every Country Is The Most Beautiful at Something

[Elliott Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful book filled uplifting and well presented charts.

Some liberties taken with breaking the axis etc. in order to present the specific story nicely across 1 or 2 pages, which is unfortunate but not ill-intentioned.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great wealth of beautifully presented information about the world that helps remind you that we are collectively making progress even when it definitely doesn't feel like it.

[Isabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[H · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the idea of this book is good, the execution is somewhat lacking. Physically, reading some of the text on dark pages, too small, too light. Textually, the author repeatedly (and in different visual ways) presents the same information about renewable energy. Again and again. about 2/3 of the way thru the book it felt like you were being bludgeoned over the head with it so the author could drive the point across. So, that is why the two star review.

[Razan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Purchased the Kindle version and couldn't zoom in so could barely read some of smaller print (not user friendly). Found some of the visualisations a bit lazy e.g. unrelated content within a single dashboard or lack of colour coordination. Could have been shorter & more impactful imo.

Great idea, poor execution.

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found great that this book give readers a chance to explore and digest all those amazing things in all areas of life that have been happening around us. But are not as celebrated may be due to complexity for the naked eye to notice or for the news constant fixation on negativity.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice little breath of fresh air and a reminder that, viewed in the "Big Picture, Long Term", the world is not so bad as the news would have you believe (2020, the Global Pandemic, and the recent war in Ukraine being notable "downticks" on the trends of health and violence).

[Abby Epplett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the full review on my blog: https://abbyeppletthistorian.blogspot....

The charts and diagrams featured in Beautiful News originally appeared on the website, Information Is Beautiful, named for the first book in the series. As with his past books, McCandless is unmatched in his ability to transform raw data into gorgeous, colorful, and understandable images. His techniques range from the classic word cloud, bar charts, and maps to complex multi-page spreads. Even the table of content and index are precisely designed.

Picking favorite charts is a difficult task when all the pages are expertly crafted, but I did have a few preferences: “Humpback Whales Are Recovering”, showing the dramatic increase in the whale population from 1966 to 2019; “Global Flavors of Happiness & Contentment”, a linguistic journey describing joy around the world, including the Aboriginal Australian languages Gadigal and Ngarluma (I’m a fan of the black Australian podcast Word Up); and an explainer on nuclear fusion.

A few pages needed minor clarification or editing. I felt confused by the mini chart “Healthy Life Expectancy...”. The purpose of color for the bar graph called “The Education Gender Gap between Girls & Boys Is Closing” was unclear. I could not figure out why a percentage was listed on LEVEL 1 of the chart “The % of Global Population Covered by Essential Health Services Is Growing” when no countries were listed in that category. Finally, a printing error on “Main Types of Plastic” obscured the icon denoting number five plastics.

My biggest issue was the ordering of the charts. While themes were presented in the table of contents, charts adhering to these themes were scattered seemingly at random throughout the book, broken up by lengthy sections about climate change. While I appreciate well-researched updates on renewable energy, recycling practices, and CO2 emissions, the heavy-handed repetition of discussions on Carbon Net Zero pledges and alternative fuel sources felt more like speculation than true news. I would have preferred this information presented in one section, rather than serving as a jumpscare every few pages.

With the publication of this latest book, along with his ongoing work on social media and his own websites, McCandless continues to prove himself the master of data visualization. While I preferred his previous works, the quality of his designs are unmatched, and the colors pop off the page. The material in this book is suitable for readers ages ten and up, although younger readers may need assistance interpreting some of the charts. This is an excellent gift for anyone interested in statistics, graphic design, or a cheerful and optimistic coffee table book.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has some merit but could have been so much more successful if they used a proofreader.

I may be biased because I’m an information designer, but the design and execution of this book was found wanting. The first rule of information design is to not mislead/confuse your readers by over-designing data. There are many instances where the design decisions were made without thinking of the impact to the data.

There were very blatant design mistakes that could have been caught if a proofreader was used: random errant letters that weren’t deleted, placeholder text that was never replaced, text boxes that were too big for their stroke bounding boxes. Not to mention the colors on half of the pages had such low contrast that you had to squint to read them. If you have any type of color blindness, this book isn’t for you.

Also, some of the data was just wrong. On page 48, there is a chart comparing data from 2016 and 2020 that shows which countries have legal same-sex unions. The USA is highlighted for 2016, but not for 2020, which is incorrect.

Finally, there is no rhyme or reason for the order of the figures in this book. The table of contents is even misleading. He organizes the charts by subject in the TOC so you would think that they’d be chapters, right? Nope. All over the place. More of an index you’d find in the back of a cookbook.

The ideas and (most of) the actual data is cool in this book. There’s creativity between the errors but since this was created by a designer, especially an information designer, I hold it to a higher standard and am disappointed.

[Fifi · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘I get this feeling that optimism is a muscle. One that can be supported by regular exercise and a diet of healthy information.’
#DeZinVanHetBoek #TheEssenceOfTheBook

In Information is Beautiful and Knowledge is Beautiful, David McCandless set out to prove that data visualisation can be a feast for the eye, thus stimulate readers to inform themselves adequately. In Beautiful News, his goal shifted to bringing the message that not all in the world is as bad as it seems.
He is partly successful in doing so. He highlights data and trends that don't always make it to the daily front pages, and uses lots of material to prove his point. But the visualisations are not nearly as great as they were in the previous two books. Some were inventive, many mostly nice, and in some graphs it's not clear which icon depicted which data. Also, McCandless needed more text to make his point. Now I don't mind text at all, but it seems as though he was in a hurry to make a deadline.

Lastly, I suppose there will be plenty of readers who have a different take on which news they consider to be beautiful. I certainly appreciated many of McCandless choices. All in all, I'm glad with this opportunity of looking at the brighter side of things. A very welcome diversion in these dire times.

[Ben · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title of this book is abhorrent and many of the visualizations appear to affirm the biased and untimely take on data visualization contained within. Most importantly, the subjective use of data visualization techniques to promote political messages is more a tool of ruthless advertising or political propaganda than it is a route to objective discourse or informed discussion (however positive those messages may be and whatever the intentions of the author). With this book, Mccandless has reaffirmed the non-seriousness of his approach to data visualization: readers should reappraise whether Mccandless' previous takes on data visualization have done more to promote political or therapeutic agendas than to effectively communicate important information. I encourage readers that might be naive on these points to check out Robert Jay Lifton's "Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism" for a review of how deliberately-biased representations of information have historically enabled efforts at brainwashing with terrifying consequences.

[Mysteryfan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for data viz specialists and people who could use some good news.

I read this book both for the information presented and the way the information was presented. It demonstrated some creative ways to visualize information and present a lot of information in a single page. I particularly liked the way word clouds were used. It's not perfect but it does demonstrate the importance of background and the use color cues.

Secondly, the book is a positive antidote to the barrage of negative news. It includes some 2021 and 2020 data though most were 2019. There's a great deal to feel good about around the world.

[Mary Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book!! I subscribed to beautiful news and for a year received regular email updates of new infographics depicting recent good news. This book contains many of those infographics and many more. The infographics are a clever use of colors, icons, charts, maps and graphs to portray good news in a visually pleasing an informative manor. Data sources are given if you want to dig into the topic further. This is on my "Must buy" list and being an avid library user, very few books make that list.

[Doaf · Rating 5 out of 5]

In an Era of cynicism, pessimism, doomer mindsets, etc. I believe it is important for people to recognize how far we have come and how much is being worked and accomplished. I would recommend this book to anyone who is dealing with the aforementioned mindsets and those who are still growing, from the 14 yr old tween to the recent high school graduate, maybe beyond that. As someone whose still quite young myself, and had hold a certain doom and gloom to life, this definitely cheers you up while also informing of the possibilities of a brighter future

[Johighnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stuff. However, when I look for the data/facts behind dome of the beautiful news, it appears to tell a different story. Such as the graphs on the global canopy increasing. McCandless doesn't take into account that's mostly green deserts. The problem is of course that much of the data is old. Knowledgeable is Beautiful works better in book format. For news and current affairs Our World in Data is the place to be.

[Marko Obrvan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is basically a collection of facts to remind yourself when you feel like you’re losing faith in humanity. No matter how bad things might seem, they are always improving, slowly but surely. Coming from the ‘Information is beautiful’ website, expectedly, all the data is amazingly well displayed to help convince you, but also make you appreciate the importance of good visuals.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colorful infographics, positive stats. It is nice to see some good things happening in our world.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Positive News!

Great graphics.

Uplifting feelings.

[FitSquirrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

In parts, it is an ispirational book for those love data, it is extremely annoying at stages. It "jumps" from one theme to another quite a lot. Also quite few spelling and even (gasp) math mistakes!

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations about beautiful news.

[James S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The graphs really aren't that beautiful, as graphs: meaningless colors, unclear labeling. And the content is pretty standard Hans Rosling-type stuff. Briefly interesting to leaf through.