In my timeline of Al Capone I use the icons to signify key moments in his life. I break it down into movement (car), violence (gun), notoriety (hat), and imprisonment. In the map I use the icons to refer to different outlaws. The icon and outlaw relationship is a little arbitrary but is also significant in some cases, like Capone was largely known for his involvement with bootlegging alcohol. Lucky Luciano is known for establishing the American Mafia, which I think the tommy gun could symbolize all on its own. The car refers to Bonnie and Clyde because they were on the run the entire time their crime streak was in effect. Finally the cash is used to symbolize Dillinger because he made a living robbing banks. The cash is then used again to express quantity in the Dillinger graph. The graph is totally about monetary values so the icon is entirely appropriate in its use.
Although I had a hard time translating my cultures information into information graphics, I still learned about how to make them and how to think about quantitative data in a visual way. I will continue to research and observe information graphics. I really want to be able to someday achieve some very complex information graphics that have multiple levels of information and readability.
a thoughtful self-crit
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