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What’s a diagram?

In broad terms, a diagram is a visual representation of an idea or a system of related parts. It might explain how the parts function together or, it might just depict how the parts relate to each other in physical space. A diagram is usually a drawing or a flow of symbols representing and simplifying the workings of something.

Can a photograph be a diagram?

I think so. A photo can be labeled with words or over-laid with symbols that clarify what you are looking at or, how the different things in the photo relate to each other. I can remember school textbooks full of diagrams, from drawings showing the organs of a plant cell to photos labeling the parts of an airplane wing. I would pour over them for hours and I still love looking at them today.

It seems like a lot of old technical instructions came with roughly labeled black and white photos too. I had a motorcycle repair manual that was full of terrible black and white photos with what looked like taped-on labels. Things like lawn mowers, power tools, instruction manuals from small factories…these often used to come with labeled photos.

When I was a boy, some of these diagrams inspired me to take apart appliances when my parents weren’t home and draw pictures as I went so that I could put them back together again. These were my own diagrams and they worked! Usually…

IKEA

IKEA is notorious for it’s cryptic diagrams aimed at having a single instruction manual that works across all languages and cultures. This is a pretty ambitious goal and I don’t think it always works. The IKEA diagrams have become kind of a universal joke with anyone who has had to sweat over assembling a flat-packed bookcase or file cabinet. Over the years, I have gotten a little better at understanding them but….I also think I could improve them quite a bit. That would be a fun job : )

The Calypso

The Calypso was Jacques Cousteau’s ship. When I was small, all I could think about was the ocean. I read everything I could in the school library and then begged my parents for my own Jacques Cousteau Encyclopedia. Eventually they got me the books. My absolute favourite book was the last volume. In it was a 4 page foldout of all the rooms and systems on the ship. Both sides! The rest of the books are long gone now but the Calypso book is still on my bookshelf. This is a classic diagram with numbered lines that correspond to a key on the opposite page. It is one of my favourite diagrams of all time.

Here is one side of the Calypso diagram:

How we arrange all of our “things”

Something I like to do on Instagram: when someone posts a selfie or other photo taken inside their house, I like to zoom in on the backgrounds and have a look at what is on the walls, what is on a bookshelf or a table. I like to see how people arrange their “stuff”. The background is sometimes more interesting than the main subject.

With that thought in mind, I had a look at some of my old photos and also around my apartment to see how my things were arranged and how they might relate to each other. Sometimes arrangements seem random but other times there are patterns…the stuff we use more often is easier to access. Or things that get used together are grouped together. Sometimes there is a logical flow to the physical arrangement of our things. And sometimes, there is a kind of beauty to the random placement of things, how they just happen to end up in space. I often think how difficult it must be for art directors on a set to get all these kinds of details just right to make a fictional environment feel believable.

My photo-diagrams

Below are some diagrams that I made of stuff around my house or things in past pictures. I like the look of these kinds of labeled photos. They remind me of old parts manuals or science fair projects when paper and glue was the only way…

Diagrams as art

I think there is something meaningful and personal about the way we arrange our “stuff”, our tools and our less functional objects. And I also think there is both art and science in good diagrams. I tried to combine both ideas here into something fun and engaging. What do you think? If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave them below. And subscribe if you would like a note about new posts. Thanks for reading!