Storia della Sinistra Italiana 1892 - 2020
A data-driven poster explaining the evolution of Italian left-wing parties.
The project "Storia della Sinistra Italiana" ("History of the Left wing parties in Italy") is a data-driven poster that showcases the rise and fall of Italian political parties over time, from 1892 (the year the Italian Socialist Party was founded in Genoa) to 2020. The visualization takes the form of an arc-shaped timeline, with concentric arcs representing the years of activity of various parties. Historical periods are highlighted on the circumference with different colored sectors, which allow the viewer to understand the historical context in which each party was founded or dissolved. This graphic approach also draws on the iconography of the rising sun, a symbol commonly used by socialist parties until the 1980s.
The data collection process was entirely "manual", as the political situation in Italy, especially after World War II, was highly complex: dozens of parties were constantly being founded, merging, and splitting, and there is no official, unified historiography. Organizing and restructuring this data took a significant amount of time.
I created the timeline visualization using D3JS with the database I compiled. I then exported the chart in SVG format and, after importing it into Figma, added all the graphic elements, texts, and illustrations. The illustrations (inspired by Soviet propaganda) and the portraits of the politicians were all digitally drawn by me using Procreate.
A printed version of the poster is available for purchase, while the PDF version can be downloaded for free.