Today’s MOTD is an infographic about the mechanical ’species’ that are found in the rainforest. Created by Oro Verde, The Rainforest Foundation, it is a clever and simple statement against rainforest destruction.

Today’s MOTD is a powerful model of customer experience tracking in the airline industry. Developed by Lego, it details the steps of obtaining a plane ticket, flying, and exiting the destination airport.

The graphic asks the question, “how can this be a positive experience” at each action point. By asking this question, powerful insights can be gained about what is important to the customer and how to keep them flying on your airline. Also, by analyzing this data, the creators found the “make or break point” where customer experience is extremely important.

From DTN, or designing the news, a group which specializes in visually editings the headlines or “representing news headlines by replacing the words with symbols, while maintaining the message”, hails MOTD #56.

The philosopher in me enjoys open-ended questions, and I feel that this approach to news headlines allows for a reader to draw conclusions based on their own experiences and opinions rather than have to digest those viewpoints of journalists.

Also, the use of imagery always boosts info. retention, so it’s quite possible that a viewer would strike up conversation about a news headline employing this approach as opposed to a linear text based message somewhere else in the paper.

Be sure to check out the images without the titles and you’ll realize they may not even be necessary to communicate the message!

Today’s MOTD is an award winning campaign from the Dubai branch of ad agency PF7 on behalf of Brainobrain Jumeira Child Development Program. Illustrated by artist Jason Freeny of Moist Production, the anatomy schematics for kids took top honors at the 2009 Dubai Lynx International Advertising Festival presented by Cannes Lions, earning the Gold Medal in Print and the highest award of Grand Prix in the Outdoor category. As a result, $20,000 in scholarship money was given to the Brainobrain Jumeira Child Development Program in honor of this award.

The ads are playful, elegant and detailed - with multiple layers of information, packaged in kid-centric visual metaphors. Science IS fun when you use balloon animals, legos and gummy bears - and use map real estate to build on the metaphor, as seen on the balloon animal poster with instructions for making the balloon dog.

The ads utilize an important principle of mapping: map as platform to expand your brand. The map employs the Brainobrain Jumeira program signature approach of whole brain development-based education for children by “activating left and right hemispheres of the brain,” through the use of both logical and creative elements (i.e. visual information). Truly an excellent example of how proper execution of information design can reinforce the connection between your brand and your audience.

Ads that make you smarter - go figure!

The Economist “Get A World View” pizza boxes: Using pizza boxes as a method for delivering more than just a pizza pie, British news magazine The Economist topped pizza boxes with pie charts showing stats relating to world food distribution, such as world cheese imports and global wheat consumption. Distributed through 20 Philly-area pizza shops with close proximity to universities, the charts aimed to inform students about how their consumption affects the rest of the world and also to show that The Economist’s content is not only educational but also relevant to their lifestyle.