First challenge is now closed for submissions.

Thank you all for the great work. Winners for the first challenge can be seen here.

Check out our design, interactive and napkin challenge shortlists.

For general inquires, please email editor@informationisbeautifulawards.com

Welcome to our first challenge. It’s called Stock Check.

We’d like you to visualise this data on the Earth’s non-renewable resources. Stuff like tin, aluminium, gold, coal, oil – the stuff that we can’t replace. (Unless a huge, ore-bearing comet slams into the planet, of course).

We’ve done a metric tonne of research into the reserves of various earth metals and minerals. Now we’re looking for a graphic that conveys it all.

You can enter in two ways. With a finished ‘design’ or a well-conceived ‘napkin’ sketch.

resources for this challenge

data: http://bit.ly/stockcheck2
some graphics you can use : http://infobawards.s3.amazonaws.com/infob_stockcheck.zip (PDF)

the prizes

$2000 for the winner of the design challenge
$1000 for the winner of the napkin challenge
(what’s the napkin challenge?)

Signed copy of Information Is Beautiful and a poster for the 2 runners-up in each category.

Design challenge winner is immediately shortlisted for the Information is Beautiful awards. And maybe the napkin winner too. (It’s a bit of an experimental idea. So we’re not sure if that’s going to work or not)

how to enter

Email your finished designs to design@informationisbeautifulawards.com
Email your sketches & concepts to napkin@informationisbeautifulawards.com

some important dates

Mon 19th September – the challenge launches!
Mon 10th October 6pm GMT / 1pm EDT – the challenge closes
Mon 17th October – shortlisted entries released and blogged
Fri 21st October – winner announced
(NEW DATES!) Tue 1st November - next challenge unveiled

some guidelines for entering

Real world – our data is in a ‘real world’ state as possible. It’s organised but it will require you to study it.
All or nothing? – sometimes it isn’t necessary to visualise all the data. Sometimes just a story or aspect is enough.
Extras – feel free to research around this information or come up with your own data or algorithms
Metrics – we’ve used certain metrics. Do you think there are more? Is there another way of measuring or presenting these amounts?

some rules

: You’ll get a confirmation we’ve received your entry but no other correspondence until we announce shortlists & winners. Sorry!
: Only one entry per person per challenge please
: You can enter the design challenge OR the napkin challenge. Not both.
: If you want to correct your work or submit a new version, that’s cool, just send it over with the same subject line
: Entries received after the closing date and time will not be counted in the competition.
: Interactive entries are welcome. Bring it!
: Submissions end on the 10th of October at 6PM. Sharp!

some notes on the data

Recycling- We haven’t included any element of recycling in our figures. Recycled materials end up flowing back into consumption, around and around, in a way that makes the maths super-complicated. Also, some recycling – like tin – is really badly tracked, so we can’t be sure what does and doesn’t go round again. We’ve kept things simple by gathering data only for what could happen if we don’t reuse anything.Reserves vs Resources There’s a difference between reserves and resources. Resources are the total amounts of materials we know about on the planet. Reserves are the parts of those resources which are currently economic to extract. We’ve focused only on reserves figures here – the materials which are viably accessible at the moment. Reserves change over time as prices and extraction technologies change.

The First Challenge