Squaring the Circle at The Observer

Michael Agar told how a month off with his new baby in 2002 gave him time to rethink The Observer's graphical techniques. He had become disenchanted with a commonly used technique: creating a large circular inset in his infographics.

"The circle was dead, bubble had burst," he said. What was next? The square.

Using a grid of squares allowed for both the sequential ordering of information cleanly, but it also created an invisible grid at a 45 degree angle as well. As the Iraq War erupted, Agar said that war's whirlwind brought a typical degree of innovation and excitement to his and other newsrooms -- plus greatly added interest from senior editors in graphics.

"War," he said, "changes everything."

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