The following piece maps the famed“Space Race,” a Cold-War era conflict between the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States (USA) that lasted from 1957 until 1969. Growing out of the cold war between the USSR and the USA, this “race” was to prove who had supremacy in all space flight capability between the two most powerful nations following World War II. For over half a century both of the superpowers competed for primacy in a global struggle putting a democratic society against totalitarian communism.
My Process: After developing an interest in the topic of the space race I began the rudimentary visualization. Originally the information I gathered was quite minimal, consisting only of the expeditions, the years that they were launched, and the destination points for the mission. After gathering this information I started to plan and sketch out my ideas on paper. From the sketches I determined that the information could be displayed across four different layers: who (USSR/US), what (expeditions), where (destination), and when (year). Following standard information design practice, it was important to make each of these layers as clear and as easy to understand as possible, while also making the composition clear and coherent. I sketched out a wide variety of designs and looked for those sketches that had the best rhythm and understanding. Eventually I found and chose the design that was best suited for the information.