Category: Editorial
Project: Boat Race Infographic
Women’s Boat Race Trophy Completed Posters at The Boat Race Media Centre
What was the challenge? What was the solution? With the annual University Boat We iteratively developed the infographic Men and women’s victories are shown Race between Oxford and Cambridge over a number of weeks in the run up to adjacently, allowing for both yearly approaching, we wanted to create an the event. and overall comparisons. The different editorial infographic combining historical treatments of facts applied to the timeline Structure facts and details about the event. allow the reader to identify data attributed Reading strategy was an important aspect to either a particular year or longer time With TDL-Creative based close by in in the design process. The data was period. Richmond and with a rower in our team, divided into three sections to help break this local event was fascinating to up the different groups of information: Illustrations research, with plenty of data from the Throughout the design we used line style » The route map which would provide past 189 years of races readily available. illustrations to support key points and an overview of the boat race for a facts. This also provided a consistent In addition to the challenge validating the casual reader. visual approach, bringing the piece volume of information we required, there » A timeline with historical and victory together as a whole. were two main aspects to address: data providing a more in-depth view Additional formats » How to visualise the multiple types of The Boat Race. Close to completion, the long scroll of information (which included a » Additional facts and figures that were version was shared with The Boat Race timeline, victory statistics and facts) centred around more conversational Media Team: » How to structure the information topics. “This is amazing! I love it! Would you be so that it was comfortable and The format made it easy to lead the reader happy if this was something we made accessible for readers through the story, and was designed to available as a reference document for remove the need to scroll up and down. We planned for this to be an online output; media in the media centres?” easily shareable and working as a long Visualising Data Maria O’Connor, scroll editorial piece. Multiple treatments for the different Head Of Marketing & Communications sections of the design helped the user to understand the varied data. The artwork was adapted to fit a new three poster format with the same three Throughout the infographic the colours groups of information to fit the extended of the two teams were used to highlight brief. comparisons, a key feature of the timeline. THE CHAMPIONSHIP COURSE Infographic by +44 (0)20 3637 9961 VICTORY TIMELINE THE TIDEWAY www.TDL-creative.com Infographic by +44 (0)20 3637 9961 www.TDL-creative.com The Boat Race is held between Putney and Chiswick on ‘The 18292018 Championship Course’, over a distance of 4 miles (6.8km). It usually takes just less than 20 minutes to complete, however race conditions can have a strong impact on this. PUTNEY Before the race, the rowing clubs' presidents toss an 1829 BRIDGE gold sovereign coin (to commemorate the origins of the race) for the right to choose on which side of the river they will row. START
1856 Fulham 1829 1840 1850 The Boat Race became Cambridge victory Putney an annual event Oxford victory Men’s RECORD TO THE MILE POST CRAVEN COTTAGE FFC Men 03:31 (Oxford 1978, Dead heat Cambridge 1998) Women’s BLACK Women 04:00 (Cambridge 2017) BUOY
1 h No race 1836 1839 1846 1849 at mile tp 1829 oo Slowest ever Largest margin of Boat Race held In 1849 there s F me First Men’s Boat winning time victory of 35 in opposite were two races; Tha Race, held in of 36 minutes lengths. direction from one in March HAMMERSMITH BRIDGE MILE Henley-on-Thames Boat Race moved Mortlake to and one in 1860 POST to the Tideway, Putney December held between HARRODS SURREY Westminster and DEPOSITORY BANK Putney 2 miles
1878
Finishing posts CHISWICK installed after STEPS 1890 previous year’s Barnes dead heat
BARNES RAILWAY 3 miles BRIDGE
1900 GRIFFIN 1880 1870 BREWERY WHITE HART 1895 1877 1873 Release of ‘The Oxford Only ever Sliding seats 1902 and Cambridge dead heat in used for the THE Oxford use University Boat Race’ Boat Race first time FULLER’S BREWERY BANDSTAND Mortlake ‘swivel’ Film, 1 minute of black history rowlocks for and white film COURSE RECORD the first time Men 16:19 (Cambridge 1998) Women 18:33 (Cambridge 2017)
1913 FINISH4 miles 1938 1939 Suffragettes 1924–1936 CHISWICK First televised MIDDLESEX threatened to 1925 Most consecutive Men’s largest BRIDGE interrupt the Boat Race, shown winning BANK Oxford Men’s Men’s victories Chiswick Boat Race 1914–1918 on the BBC distance of THE SHIP Crew sank (13, Cambridge) World War I 35 lengths 1920
For full infographic and references, visit www.TDL-creative.com/boat-race-infographic/ 1940 1939–1945 World War II 1910 * * Unofficial races held 1930 1912 The results of the first few 1927 1935 outside London Both crews Women’s boat races were STATISTICS First ever Women’s Race became a Infographic by +44 (0)20 3637 9961 sank, the not decided in a side- Women’s Boat proper side-by-side * THE MEN’S BOAT RACE www.TDL-creative.com race was by-side contest, but were Race, held in contest over a distance of restarted judged on ‘time and style’ Henley-on-Thames 1,000 yards or a half mile * INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATION IN THE MEN’S BOAT RACE STATISTICS * TOTAL WINS 1953–1963 The first international athlete to compete in the Boat Race No funding for Women’s was Australian, William 1978 rowing as a result of Robertson, who rowed for Oxford Women’s incident. 1949 Cambridge in 1861. 1981 Cambridge Men Since then, 299 international Women’s rowing was John Snagge’s 83 80 43 30 First female cox to sank in extremely rowers and coxes have already highly famous radio competed in the event. Men Women compete, Sue Brown rough water controversial commentary: HEAVIEST ATHLETE (Oxford Men’s Crew) “I can’t see Athlete weight = 17st 6lbs (110kg) 1,334 1,319 142 157 Thorsten Engelmann 1950 who’s in the lead Cambridge 2007 but it’s either British International LIGHTEST ATHLETE 1973–1987 competitors competitors Oxford or Athlete weight = 9st 6.5lbs ( 60.1kg) Dan Topolski Cambridge” CAMBRIDGE OXFORD Alfred Higgins coached Oxford 1882 54 AMERICAN 76 Oxford Men 1970 1960 TALLEST ATHLETE 1980 1977 Athlete height = 6ft 10in (2.08m) (winning 12/15 1953 1951 Oxford use Oxford Women were Oxford Men races) 1984 plastic boat for banned from the sank; the race James Letten Cambridge Cambridge 2018 the first time river after rowing was re-rowed 33 AUSTRALIAN 30 Men collided 1987 over a weir the day two days later Average with a barge 15 CANADIAN 13 height of a Oxford Crew before the race man (UK) Mutiny 16 GERMAN 7 6ft 10in 5ft 9in (2.08m) (1.75m) 1998 2015 2018 8 NEWZEALANDER 6 1989 TALLEST CREW Cambridge 1999 Men’s record Women’s Boat Women’s 5 SOUTH AFRICAN 1 1996 Average athlete height = 6ft 7in (2m) Both Men’s time of Race moved record time, True Blue 1 DUTCH 5 Crews had to Tideway of 18mins 33s (film) 16mins 19s female 1990 and became (Cambridge) 0 NORWEGIAN 4 released (Cambridge) coxes for televised 1 CROATIAN 2 the first 2000 2010 2018 2 IRISH 1 time 1 TASMANIAN 1 6ft 7in Standard door = 6ft 6in (2m) (1.98m) 1993 1 FRENCH 2 Cambridge 2 AUSTRIAN 0 HEAVIEST CREW Oxford 2009 Athlete average weight = 15st 10lbs (99.6kg) were first to 1 BERMUDIAN 0 use hatchet blades 1994–2004 2010 2012 2016 0 GREEK 1 2003 Robin Williams Winklevoss Men’s Boat Race Cancer Research 1 CZECH 0 Closest ever Men’s Boat Race; coached twins rowed for interrupted by UK became the 0 SWISS 1 the winning distance was 1ft. Oxford, best swimmer. official charity Cambridge Men 0 POLISH 1 (winning 8/11 races) Two pairs of brothers raced known for suing Australian, against one another. James Facebook Trenton Oldfield 0 SWEDISH 1 Combined crew weight = 124.7st (792kg) (Cambridge) & David (Oxford) creator, Mark was protesting 1 DANISH 1
Livingstone and Matthew Zuckerberg, for against 0 ITALIAN 1 (Oxford) & Ben (Cambridge) Smith $65 million government cuts 0 SERBIAN 1
0 PAKISTANI 1
0 THAI 1 For full infographic and references, visit www.TDL-creative.com/boat-race-infographic/ Large dairy cow = 107st (680kg)
For full infographic and references, visit www.TDL-creative.com/boat-race-infographic/
Final artwork as three posters
What was the effect? Contact: After consultation with the Media Team We are currently in the process of name: Oliver Tomlinson and some minor amends, the poster format updating the artwork so it can be used in company/organisation: TDL Creative of the infographic was used in the Media the media centre again this year. e-mail: [email protected] Centre during the 2019 event. website: tdl-creative.com