# Charting the Beatles

**Years:** 2010, 2015
**Role:** Researcher, designer, developer
**Client:** Self
**Tags:** stories-and-dataviz, music, personal-projects
**Case study:** /work/charting-the-beatles
**Live project:** https://chartingthebeatles.net

A series of infographics exploring the Beatles' catalog — songwriting, musical
structure, lyrical references, recording sessions. Originally designed as posters
in 2010, going viral. Later updated to be interactive.

[Explore the project →](https://chartingthebeatles.net/)

![Charting the Beatles — Authorship poster](/work/charting-the-beatles/cover/01-beatles-cover-authorship.jpg)
![Charting the Beatles — Recording schedule poster](/work/charting-the-beatles/cover/01-beatles-cover-schedule.jpg)
![Charting the Beatles — Tonality poster](/work/charting-the-beatles/cover/01-beatles-cover-tonality.jpg)

### Republished and referenced

- **Books** — *Understanding the World* (Taschen); *Atlas of Knowledge*
  (MIT Press); *Data Visualisation: A Handbook for Data-Driven Design*
  (Andy Kirk).
- **Magazines** — *National Geographic*, *étapes*, *Ouse*, *Trip*, *Newsweek*.
- **Film** — a scene in *Tron: Legacy* references v1 of the "Meta Lyrics" graphic.
- **Blogs and editorial** — *The Guardian*, *Gawker*, *Brain Pickings*,
  *Mental Floss*, *FlowingData*, *Kottke*, and dozens of others when the
  series broke.

Since bespoke long-form infographic series weren't as ubiquitous in 2010,
and given many of us love the Fab Four, it was one of my more viral moments.
After getting picked up by dozens of blogs in a short period, the project
temporarily took down Cargo, the portfolio host I was on, along with the
other designers' sites it served.

## Interactive rebuild

[ChartingTheBeatles.net](https://chartingthebeatles.net/) has songwriting
notes on every song the Beatles ever recorded.

![Song structure interactive — screencap](/work/charting-the-beatles/beatles-song-structure-screencap-2.mp4)

## Posters

![Self-reference graphic — expanded poster](/work/charting-the-beatles/beatles-26-06-02-self_reference--poster-style--expanded.jpg)
![Authorship poster — 24×36 composition](/work/charting-the-beatles/beatles-141109-PosterComp-24x36-authorship.jpg)
![Recording schedule poster — 24×36 composition](/work/charting-the-beatles/beatles-141109-PosterComp-24x36-schedule.jpg)
![Tonality poster — 24×36 composition](/work/charting-the-beatles/beatles-141109-PosterComp-24x36-tonality.jpg)

## Newsweek 50th-anniversary commission

In 2012, *Newsweek* commissioned a new graphic for their Beatles
50th-anniversary special issue.

![Newsweek 50th-anniversary Beatles issue spread](/work/charting-the-beatles/beatles-newsweek-photo.jpg)

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