Wimmelbilder

Ever since I was a child reading through Richard Scarry books I have been fascinated by illustrations that can be labeled "Wimmelbilder" (from the German "teeming with" and "pictures".) If you are a bit younger than me, think of the Where's Waldo series. I actively sought books (Wimmelbucher, to use the German) like those from Richard Scarry; Joe Mathieu's Busy City; Mad Magazine illustrators like Jack Davis and Tom Bunk; and anything by David Macaulay. On Sundays, I would always hope to open the paper to "The Family Circus" and get one of the great "dotted line" panels, which were murals of one of the kids from the family wandering around trying to fit as much into his/her day as possible.

Wimmelbilder, in a traditional sense, are composed of individual subjects engaged in "mini stories" or interactions within the larger picture. These kinds of pictures often have an educational purpose like Richard Scarry's Busy Town. Prior to widespread literacy, Wimmelbilder were an effective means of driving home religious or moral points- think of The Sistine Chapel, Pieter Bruegel the Elder's "The Battle Between Carnival & Lent" and Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights.

To me, images of crowds or traditional "street scenes" are not, properly, Wimmelbider because these images are intended to depict a group or scene together- not the individual actors, concepts and actions. Wimmelbilder lead the viewer to explore all of the elements within the image.

There are numerous variations within the Wimmelbider genre, such as:

• puzzles (like those from Jan van Haasteren)
• mazes (of which Rosie Munro and Tom Parker are masters)
• fan art (like the classic 101 Dead Songs, Phish, Parasite, Jazzcats Crossing the Hudson and Quentin Tarantino) It could be argued that Raphael's School of Athens is an example of Renaissance fan art/Wimmelbid.
• isometric maps/scenes (of which Nho Huy Le's "Snack Attack" is an outstanding example)
• cut-away sections, panoramas and exploded views (such as those by Stephen Biesty)
• processes & concepts (absurd processes like those depicted in Rube Goldberg illustrations and actual processes like David Macaulay's "Supply Chain")

In its own genre would be Howard Hallis' ambitious "The Picture of Everything."

Wimmelbilder & Business

I am not, by profession, an art historian nor a data visualization expert- just someone who has always been drawn to complicated, sometimes riotous/sometimes ordered, detailed illustrations. I like to think that I've been able to convert at least a portion of that interest into a set of useful skills in depicting concepts for my clients and co-workers.

Network diagrams, process diagrams, org charts, logo salads, and dashboards are members of the Wimmelbilder family. I incorporate visuals into proposals and internal discussions with my team, because a picture of an entire process is (more often than not) more effective than a written or verbal narrative. Images tend to foster a shared frame of reference and control the interpretation of the concept one is trying to depict.

Author's Note: Of course, there are more profound insights to be drawn from the connection between children's Wimmelbucher and data visualization, but I was more interested in sharing a bit about a subject I find interesting...and then tag on a slap-dash business reference at the end (since this is LinkedIN, afterall.)