There are a few questions that are notoriously difficult to answer. “How do you solve a problem like Maria?” obviously tops the list of puzzlers, but it’s closely followed by that age-old conundrum, “How do you illustrate a subject like outcome-based commissioning?”
We produce Ethos magazine on behalf of services company Serco; it’s designed to further the debate on the future of public and private service. In the most recent issue, the FT’s Alex Barker wrote an article on outcome-based commissioning (OBC), which is essentially where the government pays for results (outcomes) in public services, rather than prescribes the process. This idea could apply to anything from welfare to work schemes and street cleaning contracts to leisure centres and healthcare.
Our art director, Ian Dutnall, asked a fantastic illustrator called Gavin Potenza to come up with a striking and creative visual to accompany the article. The resulting illustration borrows from the world of information graphics, but avoids getting too flashy or obscure. We like it because we think it successfully and subtly depicts a tricky concept. It gets across the connection between the UK Parliament and its goals, and uses fluid lines to imply the freedom of innovation that OBC encourages.
To read the article, go to www.ethosjournal.com, and for more of Gavin’s great ideas, check out his website: www.gavinpotenza.com