I don’t often talk about specific concrete worky things here (or anywhere else for that matter) but I just wanted to mention what I thought was an excellent idea I had this morning that didn’t make it, presumably because it would appeal only to info graphics geeks and the tone is maybe a bit wrong.

Background: You know how there’s some football thing happening in Moscow next week? Yeah don’t worry I didn’t either but apparently there is. It’s difficult to get visas to go to Moscow at the best of times, if you’re a football fan trying to get one at short notice it’s really difficult and, you know, two British teams abroad, cheap vodka etc. there’s bound to be a pretty high attrition rate on the way there and then some are going to be stuck in customs/ prison and be unable to leave once they get there.

The idea: So what I wanted to do was to recreate Josef Minard’s Carte Figurative (considered by some to be the best statistical graphic EVAR) but the with lines representing British football fans instead of Napoleonic Soldiers. We’d use the same visual style to show how many set off, how many get left behind at various border crossings and how many get stuck once they arrive in Moscow. Clearly a brilliant idea.