Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft: Bildstatistisches Elementarwerk - Einfuhrhandel nach West- und Mitteleuropa [14080.035]
The pattern
This still is filed under Data as proof.
Define
A chart, map, or count that is the argument, not an illustration next to the argument.
Mechanism
Sighted evidence. The reader is asked to believe their eyes: a bar, a share, a spread on a map.
Verdict
The claim is comparative or quantitative and the figure can be read without a caption doing the sell.
Why it works
Two encodings are layered without collision: flat colour carries the structural category of the economy while black icons carry the specific goods, so the reader gets type and content in one pass. The icons are drawn as objects rather than abstract marks, which makes the legend for goods unnecessary and leaves the written key free to do only the harder job of defining economic types. Naming the regions in spread capitals inside their own fills keeps labels off the data and reinforces the region as the unit of analysis. The destination, West- und Mitteleuropa, is left almost bare, so the flow direction is implied by everything pointing at an empty centre.
Steal this when
Use this when your audience needs to see both what each source supplies and what kind of thing each source is, for example supplier maps, channel maps or partner ecosystems where type and contribution are separate questions.