This artwork was a response to an essay by Richard Murphy, political economist, entitled “Is flying over?”:
He argues that the airline industry will never raise enough funding to make themselves carbon neutral and so cannot survive. I found the essay thought-provoking, and it made me question my own actions, and what sort of future world will we see. Will most people stop flying? Will rich people simply carry on as they do now? Will governments simply bail out the airlines, and ignore the environmental impacts? I could see the UK government doing that.
I felt this was a powerful and shocking argument, and I was moved to do something with it. I wanted to communicate it more widely and make the information more accessible. Instinctively I felt an info comic would be right. The essay consisted of 15 main points, and I felt it suited a graphic novel or comic format, as a series of 15 panels.
So my first version was a one page comic, hand drawn, and shaded with 2B pencil. Sometimes I prefer hand drawn, as quicker to make, is more expressive, and more fun to make.
I was fairly pleased with the work, powerful in its simplicity – though it is rather limited, and repetitive. Does it have much impact? I have a habit of jumping in to make info comics, maybe out of familiarity with the format. Does it communicate? Does it get the message across?
Trying another angle, I used the same material, but took an interactive media approach: http://davemiller.uk/projects/day13/ with a goal of communicating the information in more interesting and eye catching ways.
This work presents each of the main 15 points about the future of the airline industry, and randomises their presentation. Various things change at random – drawings of dirty planes, backgrounds, and the text for each of the 15 points. The work could be taken further, given more time.