Dimitri BurkhardHow many eggs do the Swiss consume in a 24 hour period? And what percentage of the Swiss population plays a musical instrument?
The answers are 3.9m eggs, and 20.9% of the population. These and hundreds of additional facts from banking to bunkers are covered in the new publication. What makes this book so rich is the collaboration between the author’s in-depth knowledge of how Switzerland ticks, and the illustrator’s keen eye on all those important details.
The result is 129 pages of colorful infographics about Switzerland. In essence, these miniature works of art manage to reduce the complexities of Swiss life to a two-dimensional image.
What makes Switzerland tick?
The clocks certainly help, but so do chocolate and women’s voting rights. This is a complex question, and this book does not pretend to give a straightforward answer.
But all the infographics and tidbits of information paint a picture for the diligent reader or occasional browser. I am more of the latter type, occasionally opening the book on random pages.
This is how I found out that Swiss people drink an average of 10 liters of Rivella per year. So for everyone who hates the beverage, someone like me has to drink 20 liters…
Infographics have gained more popularity as of late. As a design aficionado, I like to study infographics for pure fun.
And I can tell that if done correctly, they can convey lots of information in a fashion that is easy to digest, such as statistics about the Swiss Army knife or Heidi and Tell. (Did you know that Johanna Spyri’s Heidi has been translated into 50 languages?)
Susan Sitzler
Author Susann Sitzler has been looking at Switzerland from the outside in. She moved her residence from Basel to Berlin in 1993 where she has been working as a freelance journalist. Most of her publications focus on Switzerland, such as her guide to understanding Switzerland for Germans (Grüezi und Willkommen. Die Schweiz für Deutsche).
Sitzler has teamed up with the talented designers at no.parking, an Italian communications agency. With combined forces, the five women stir in visual cheese fondue and take us on statistical mountain peaks. We are loving the result, and we are convinced that readers of Newly Swissed will love this book, too.
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