Yaay becomes Superdot
The Basel-based agency "Yaay - Visualizing Complexity", which specializes in information design, becomes "Superdot - Visualizing Complexity". The new key areas of the agency are information architecture, information visualization and information aesthetics. The aim is to make the leap into the international arena.
Reinventing themselves: Nicole Lachenmeier and Darjan Hil, co-founders of Yaay, launch Superdot.
It all began with information design, when no one was talking about this discipline yet. Now, these simplified, condensed forms of conveying complex information through vivid, striking graphics, visual grammar and animation, and little text are on everyone's lips and are shaping everyday media life as well as corporate publishing. The Basel-based agency Yaay anticipated this trend early on, back in 2011. Now the six creators are going one step further. "Yaay has been operating in the national niche of information design for the past eight years. We're now ready to position ourselves internationally with a sharpened offering. It focuses on three specializations," says Darjan Hil, co-founder of Yaay and Superdot.
Superdot.studio: Far and wide no "burger" - screenshot from the new webpage.
Superdot.studio shows new key areas
The new Website of the Basel studio illustrates - among other things on the basis of concrete cases of assignments for the Swiss Tropical Institute in three African countries, for UNICEF or Roche - the three central fields of action: Information Architecture, Information Visualization and Information Aesthetics. "The three areas basically define the findings of the project and teaching practice of the last eight years. These schools of thought are in vogue worldwide when it comes to crystallizing and compressing complex issues. In doing so, we always take a data-based approach and also pursue a socially enlightening claim," explains Nicole Lachenmeier, founding partner of Yaay and herself a lecturer in information aesthetics as part of the "Digital Ideation" course at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts HSLU in the Department of Design & Art.
The first area, information architecture, is about structuring and analyzing information. In information visualization, the explorative visual translation of content is called for, while information aesthetics is about the creative manifestations of the final design. And the Baslers take themselves right at their word. They conspicuously show why Yaay is outdated and a new name is in order. "It's always nice to put the old notebook in the archive and start over with a white sheet of paper, isn't it? Part of the practice of design is just that - making a design or sketch over and over again. Why don't we do this on a corporate level as well, why don't we reinvent ourselves over and over again?" - this is how Darjan Hil describes the motives for the name change - from Yaay to Superdot.
Instead of classic forms: easy-to-understand information design on health topics in three African countries - developed by Superdot for the Swiss Tropical Institute.
