##Color and Information: Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information This chapter had many beautiful ideas that I think were applicable to art and design in general, not just data visualization. A main point was not to overuse bright colors- most of the image should be muted, greyish colors, with a small amount of strong colors scattered in like islands in the sea so that they really pop out against the duller backdrop. I noticed this principle used frequently in character designs, such as a wolf with dark brown fur, but electric blue eyes and paw pads, and in the outfits of my friends - mostly grey or black clothes, but accessorized with bright red shoes and watch. I also loved the quote, more specifically relevant to data visualization, “to see is the forget the name of the thing one sees” - color should encode information as effortlessly and intuitively as possible, so one does not have to be constantly comparing a color to a key to work out what it means.

##The ChartJunk Debate This article introduces the debate between the idea that graphic representations of data should be minimalist with no embellishments, and the idea that artistic embellishments that do not convey additional relevant information are helpful for data visualizations, and explains why a past study that appeared to show embellished charts to be better was flawed. I personally think that embellished charts are harder to read, even though they are more memorable. It would be better to ensure memorability with well written captions than risk decreasing the interpretability of the chart.