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A Division of UnderConsideration

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2009
–
2017

Originally published in 1970, One Million is an attempt by New Yorker editor Hendrik Hertzberg to give the concept of “one million” a context and frame of reference. Each page has 5,000 dots, progressing from 5,000 to 1,000,000 over the course of 200 pages — 5,000 × 200 = 1,000,000 — with each page revealing all kinds of statistics. New York-based Think Studio was given the almost unenviable task of designing the new edition of this book.

The plan of the book is simple: two hundred pages; five thousand dots to a page. The result: one million dots. Notes that correspond to occasional numbers point out unusual and informative historical, political, anatomical and sociological information that add up to help the concept hit home. Author and New Yorker editor Hendrik Hertzberg wants the reader to actually see, perhaps for the first time ever, exactly one million of something. To keep the simple design lively, the value of the dots were varied so they twinkle and animate a bit.

So there you have it, a proofing nightmare but a fun and informative project for any designer.

It took some programming to have the dots change value on each page. And, we had to verify that the dots we pulled out for specific info (like, 911,340: Hours of television watched by U.S. households per month, from September 2007 to September 2008) were, in fact, the correct dots.

A great example of humor intertwined with good information design.

Cranky Pressman Coasters

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Art Crank Poster

One Million by Hendrik Hertzberg

Production Method

Design

Think Studio: Herb Thornby and John Clifford

Printing

Cover: Lehigh Phoenix
Interior: Worzalla Printing