A 30 year old German Designer, let us dive in the complex world of data and visual co-relation, this is The Department’s interview with Daniel A. Becker

First of all, who is Daniel Becker? can you tell us a little insight about yourself? Where are you from and a little bit about your personal daily life?

I was born in Germany 30 years ago. I am living in Frankfurt and I have studied design at the University of Applied Sciences at Mainz in Germany. Before I started my studies, I worked as a graphic designer for several agencies in Frankfurt. After about four years of working for an agency, I decided to start my studies of design, to work freestyle and to establish my business as a free designer. In 2007, I made a seven-month internship at an agency in Tokyo, and I have finished my studies a few weeks ago. Since then, I have been working as a free designer for different clients across Germany.

How and when did u get involved with Generative Art and what kind of studies have you taken in the past.

During my studies, I was introduced into the work of a technical illustrator called Harry Beck, who has worked at the London Underground in the thirties. I was fascinated, how this man simplified the underground map in a revolutionary way. This main idea of simplifying complex information was an important trigger for my first project in data visualization: Visual DNA. I have done this project for my pre-degree in 2006.

Whats your usual agenda as a Generative Artist?

First of all, I ask myself the key question: Which information do I want to transfer? At this point, it is very important to realise that it should not be not too much information. Then I spend quite some time to draw sketches, which help me to find the basic concept how I want to display the information. Sometimes, I carry some sketches to Adobe Illustrator. After that, I start programming the design in Processing. Finally, I experiment with the variables in the code.

Whats your own perspective about Generative Art and graphic processing?

Since the big nationwide daily newspapers appeared, more and more information has been getting through to us daily from all places over the world. The media were for a long time only in the role to hand the relativley limited news over to the consumer, who would then select and filter the news by himself. But then, the information started to grow and it shows, that the consumer is not anymore capable to select by himself. This is a problem, because the amount of news grows bigger every day. Here, we designer can support the consumer to find his way through the large amount of information. This challenge is getting a bit more pressing because the consumer´s time is quite limited. In this situation, a graphic or diagramme can accomplish a lot, because it allows to transfer many information at a glance. The widening of 3D or information graphics in the media shows the growing demand for graphical illustrations. But the challenge will be to find new graphical ways, to transfer information. These ways will appear unorthodox or even abstract in the beginning, so that the consumer has to learn how to read these illustrations. One example, why I think, these new ways are necessary is the undergound map of Tokyo: The old system established by Harry Beck can obviously not cope with its new task in this city.

Do you think experimentation is a display of not knowing wich approach to take on a certain project or it reflects your eagerness for achieving interesting results?

Processing offers many possibilities to try out quite different illustrations in changing only a few code lines. Sometimes it will do to assign some variables with spontanious values to get quite surprising results. I deliberately use this possibility to experiment with the design to achieve more interesting results.

During the period in wich you have made Art, do you think you have created a particular visual style? or your studies revolving science and mathematics are your personal signature in each piece or set you release disregarding visual appearance as the main aspect of your work?.

I have learned, that information has not only to be displayed in an understandable way, but that the illustration has also to be attractive to the viewer. I have made this experience at my first data visualisation project Visual DNA. Moreover, I try find ways, to extract the main information, so that they are understandable at a glance. By and by, it became more and more clear to me, which information is redundant. The idea of reducing the information is reflected throughout my present style of my work. Here I work with clear colours and forms to free the viewer from the apprehension of not understanding the context.

Is Generative Art the only genre of Art you have explored or do you take on different styles and techniques?

Generative Art is my main focus. I think, the subject of Generative Art is a very important matter now and in the future. That´s why I probably will keep myself busy with it in the future. But I think that sometime later, there may be other areas which I will occupy myself with.

Thanks to Daniel for being so kind and giving us all this insightful words and thoughts into the Generative Art world. You can go check out his website, Leave us a comment if you liked the interview or see his published work in this magazine.