Eyes On The Sky Flick-Through from Jed Carter on Vimeo.

The way we view data has changed. In order to capture an audience, data must be visually engaging, intuitive and well packaged. We previously wrote about Haze, a weather app that communicates the forecast through a series of dynamic visual cues. In line with this theme, Jed Carter created Eyes on the Sky, a book of 'paintings' depicting European weather patterns. Carter linked 64 public-access web cameras around Europe and each camera recorded the color of the sky at regular hour long intervals. These pictures were then compiled into a book that illustrates one week of weather patterns. The overall effect of the images is almost akin to an Impressionist watercolor.

Carter was focused on how people respond “more intuitively to simple colors than complex units of data found in weather reports.” In a sense, the book is a visual almanac, a manifestation of weather conditions based on the quality and color of light. Eyes on the Sky is yet another example of how design and data can combine to create something that is both beautiful and informative.