Fantastic Voyages

We took people on mind-expanding journeys to the edge of the solar system, the depths of the ocean and the core of the Earth.
Client

BBC Future

Project TypeExplainersWebsitesData journalism
Two illustrated images seperated by a diagonal line through the middle of the picture. On the left, a white space rocket with its thruster burning as it points to the left of frame. On the right, a 'drill capsule' is digging through a tunnel, it's drill pointed to the right as it moves in that same direction.

Two interactive visualizations, two fantastic voyages. With just the flick of the mouse, we took people on boundary-busting journeys that shot through the stratosphere and plunged our planetary depths.

Visit 'Space Race' Visit 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth'

In ‘Space Race’ a rocket blasts off from its launch pad on an interplanetary trip filled with facts, animations and illustrations. We wanted to evoke the nostalgic feel of the ‘60s space race with a colour palette inspired by vintage Soviet and US posters.

As we exit the atmosphere, we complemented the fact-filled flight with an iconography of stars, planets and shuttles inspired by the aesthetic of children’s books: simple, inviting and colourful.

And for ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’, we used a coastline split-screen to seamlessly tell the stories of land and sea together. Fittingly, this story took inspiration from Jule Verne’s stories, with a touch of modern-retro steampunk style.

In both visualizations, playful visual/editorial touches lent life to the narrative: warnings flash as the rocket passes through the Van Allen belt’s radiation zone, while the submarine’s lights scan the oceans as it ventures into the darkest depths.

The final pages went on a journey of their own, landing to a warm welcome in a viral Reddit thread.

A screenshot from the start of the 'Space Race' website. It shows the title 'Space Race' and a low-poly illustration of a rocket sat on a launch pad pointing down the page.
An image from the start of 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' page. A title with the same name sits in the middle against a blue sky and two illustrated exploration vehichles sit below it. One vehichle sits on the ground above a deep hole, the other sits suspended from a crane on a boat above the ocean. Both point down, about to start their voyage.
A screenshot from the 'Space Race' website. It shows an illustrated rocket flying down the page through space. On its left is a marker of the Hubble Space Telescope's orbit of 570km. Ahead of the rocket is a dotted line labeled. Above the line is the label 'thermosphere'. Below the line is the label 'exosphere'. In the background an illustrated spaceman floats in space.
Two sketches of the underground and deep sea explorers designed in the steampunk style of Jules Verne's story. On the right is the final illustration of the deep sea diver used on the Journey to the Centre of the Earth page.
An image from the Space Race fantastic voyage. It shows a rocket flying down the screen. Ahead of the rocket to the left of the page is an icon of a dog in a space helmet. It's accompanied by the text 'Farthest reavelled by a dog 1,660km. The Soviet space dog Laika in orbit aboard Sputnik 2 in 1957.'
A screenshot from the 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' page. The page is split in half between ground and ocean. An underground drill explorer and submarine capsule both head deeper into their environments, passing facts about the different depths they're crossing.
An image from the Space Race fantastic voyage. It shows a rocket flying down the screen. Alongside the rocket are various facts about different distances of objects and records in space
A screenshot from the 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' page. The page is split in half between ground and ocean. An underground drill explorer buries deeper below the ground as the ocean explorer bottoms out at the deepest point in the ocean.

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