San Francisco Public Utilities Commission | October 2023
SF Water System Infographic Poster
The SFPUC asked me to design an infographic that represents their water system. Their directions were vague but they encouraged me to take creative freedom. I found a way to give the content context and make a design that’s visually appealing.
11 x 17 inches
SFPUC’s Prompt
Create an infographic that represents the SFPUC water system.
12 in-city reservoirs
4 used as terminal storage for the Regional Water System
1,234 Miles Distribution Pipelines
188,000 Customer Water Meters
14 Pump Stations
8,500 Low-Pressure Fire Hydrants
6 Water Tanks
Although a lack of clear guidance initially posed a challenge, I realized that this presented an opportunity for limitless creativity. I knew that I needed to go the extra mile and design something that would captivate the viewer's attention while delivering valuable information.
Concept Creation
Given a short list of items, I had to provide context and demonstrate their significance. To do so, I delved into researching SF's water system, gathering information and weaving it into a compelling narrative.
Composition
Once I had all of the written content figured out, I needed a way to display it. I did some rough sketching of possible compositions, testing out the best way to support my content both structurally and conceptually.
Grid system
To ensure a sense of orderliness and balance in the formation of my pipe design, I implemented a grid system.
Visual Storytelling
With the structure in place, the next step was to start adding and organizing the content. I used the pipe to guide the eye from the top to the bottom of the page, giving the content a story-like order to what’s really a list of facts.
Hierarchy
I broke up the content into two overarching questions for quick comprehension and organization. Within each fact I highlighted the most important parts to have them stand out and give the eye something to latch onto if reading over quickly.
Supporting Icons
The SF skyline is a vector I created for a CNC and laser cutting company that I repurposed for this design. It was originally designed 5 feet wide, but vectors resize with ease.
As for the other icons, I downloaded them from flaticon.com with a paid subscription. They downloaded as SVG files that I edited in Illustrator to suit the brand identity of the SFPUC.
Fonts
The SFPUC uses primarily Proxima Nova so I used it as the body copy font.
For the headers, numbers, and highlighted words I chose Brevia. I thought its soft edges and brush-like curves would suit the water-focused graphic nicely.
Recoloring
Nearing the end of the project, with majority of the content laid out I recolored some elements. I decided to change the background to blue to make the poster more eye-catching, and the pipe to white so there’s more contrast in the words to enhance readability.
Regarding the lower section, I opted to alter its color to white to enhance the SFPUC logo and the skyline. Additionally, this modification ensures a smoother visual transition with the pipe.
Final touches
To enhance depth, contribute to a seamless downward movement, and resemble a sky behind the skyline I incorporated a subtle gradient into the blue background.
To finish it off I shared some information about the SFPUC and created a QR code that directs to their website.
