The principles of good design are also indifferent to time, indifferent to space. Tufte s examples of good design include a Japanese spy s copy of a Japanese railroad schedule, reproduced in Envisioning, and a courtroom chart given to him by John Gotti s lawyers, Bruce Cutler and Susan Kellman, which helped lead to the reputed mobster s acquittal in 1987. The chart listed the Government witnesses against Gotti and their own criminal activities. Though only 37 percent of all the possible combinations are marked, Tufte writes, they dominate the spreadsheet grid. Where crime and witness intersect, the mark is a powerful X. Together, the 69 bold X s impugn the Government witnesses with all the power of an old-fashioned warning on a poison bottle.
Bad examples are easier to find than good ones.
Tufte fights what he calls chartjunk which he defines as content-free decoration and quantifies the lie factor of bad graphics, like those that use dollar figures without adjusting for inflation. Some practicing graphic designers see Tufte s standards as overly academic and rigorous. Time s Nigel Holmes, creator of the diamonds graph, was understandably irked when Tufte criticized it. Holmes admits his work has sometimes been exaggerated, but feels that Tufte, in his insistence on absolute mathematical fidelity , remains trapped in the world of commerce, with its need to grab an audience. But even Holmes admires and admits to having been inspired by Tufte s books.