THE VIRTUAL WATER PROJECT

TIMM KEKERITZ

People use large amounts of water for drinking, cooking and washing, and even more for producing things such as food, paper, cotton clothes, and almost every other physical product. Usually, the amount of freshwater that goes into making a product – its virtual water content – far exceeds the amount contained in it at the end of the process. The water footprint of a person, company or nation is not unlike their ecological footprint. It is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the commodities, goods and services that they consume. Based on data gathered by Hoeckstra et al. on the water footprints of nations, designer Timm Kekeritz created a set of infographics to make the issue of virtual water and the water footprint perceivable. In collaboration with his colleague Frank Rausch, the Virtual Water iOS app was created in 2010. Its design is minimalistic, using only silhouettes and elegant typography, and featuring the elegant typefaces, TheSans and TheSerif by Luc(as) de Groot. The design has became popular worldwide, published in newspapers, magazines, websites and blogs around the globe.