Cubs at the Zoo

No, I'm not talking about these cute little cubs (though they're important too!) but the Chicago Cubs baseball team. 

Last weekend I went to the Brookfield Zoo in the suburbs of Chicago (that was my first time in the burbs and I was surprised to discover that the burbs I saw looked nothing like the East Coast huge, development suburbs I was used to but that's a different story). While at the zoo I noticed people were wearing Cubs shirts/hats and White Sox shirts/hats and it made me wonder: How many people were wearing Cubs gear vs White Sox gear? And that made me think how many people wore sports gear and for which sports teams? And that's when I came up with the idea to collect data and start this blog.

Last semester, I took a class called "Telling Stories with Data" and I enjoyed it immensely. We focused on the presentation of data and the concept of letting the visualization tell a story. We also touched on a project called Dear Data (check it out!) where two designer friends observed some sort of data every week and sent each other a postcard with what they observed. When I learned of this, I thought it was awesome and proposed the idea to my two sisters as a way to keep in touch. We all agreed and started to observe laughter. And it was impossible for me, I didn't even notice when I laughed, let alone remember to document it. So that fizzled out quickly. But at the zoo I realize that it's MUCH easier to observe what people are wearing if you are looking for certain things such as a hat, or blue, red, black t shirt with a graphic on it. 

So each week I will choose a new theme to observe and write it down in my little notebook. At the end of the 5-7 day period of observation I will make an excel spreadsheet of what I observed and hand draw sketches of visualizations- something I learned to be very helpful thanks to David Newbury. I will then make a visualization on the computer based on the sketch I like the most and post it as a blog entry. 

My first data blog post will be sports team logos. Which teams are represented? How often? Which item of clothing is most common? Since I'm in Chicago, which team has the most hometown pride (based on how many I observe). Keep an eye out for it soon!