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Welcome to the latest issue of the 'Visualising Data Newsletter', chronicling the most insightful and delightful data viz content every month, straight to your inbox.
Each month I collect, curate, then publish a selection of links to 50 of the best, most interesting, most thought-provoking data visualisation-related content I've encountered during the previous month. This month's issue relates to new content I saw published during June.
With the format of this newsletter becoming established with many of you now repeat viewers, I'm going to cut down on the usual introductory text and instead divert you towards my 'Newsletter' page which has more info as well as the public archive of all monthly issues.
As always, I hope you continue to find this newsletter useful, whether you are working on a dataviz, working in dataviz, or working to get working in dataviz.
See you same time, same place, in August.
Andy
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Latest from me...
Firstly, some recent posts or announcements about my professional services and activities.
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My next public training event is a virtual delivery of my 'Masterclass in Data Visualisation' course. This will take place over Zoom on Tuesday 10, Wednesday 11, and Thursday 12 September, with three 4-hour workshops running 1pm to 5pm (UK, BST) each day. There are various discounts available which you can read about in this post. To make the course affordable and accessible to anyone and everyone, two places are offered on a 'pay what you can afford' basis.
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Since the last newsletter issue I launched the fourth episode of my Explore Explain podcast and video series. This latest conversation was with Dominikus Baur, Data Visualization Designer & Engineer, and Alice Thudt, Data Visualization Designer, who are based in Munich, Germany. We explore the story behind a project titled ‘Full Of Themselves: An analysis of title drops in movies‘ which analyses and visualises all instances in a movie when one of the characters says the title of the movie. I’ve been wanting to explore this curiosity myself and so I’m delighted that they’ve done this and absolute love what they have accomplished! As well as listening to this show, you can watch the video of this conversation. Head over to Youtube and visit the Explore Explain channel.
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In the next week I will be posting details on my site about the upcoming release of the 3rd edition of my book, 'Data Visualisation: A Handbook for Data Driven Design'. I don't have all the details to share right now about the selling arrangements but it is due for publication around mid-November and so will probably become available on usual book-selling platforms around end Nov/Dec time. I'll share links for pre-ordering on my site next week so check out my Book page for updates. I'm also going to be working out some promotional activities including contests, I'm going to try arrange pre-order discounts, and I am also exploring some exciting options for a book launch event.
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Visuals
The freshest data visualisation (or related) design pieces and collections.
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1. Under Orbán and Magyar, the left-liberal opposition has finally collapsed | Atlo
Some outstanding analysis and range of exquisite visuals from the Atlo team reflecting on the results, the outcome, and the consequences of the 2024 Hungarian elections held in June.
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In December 2023 Wendy decided to use the time she normally spent waiting during her travels - "for transport, people, food" - to practice sketching. This visualisation celebrates six months of this new hobby. "If I had a large wall at home, I'd organize them like this"...
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I encountered this incredible work via Jer Thorp and so I'll use his words to introduce it "I had a front row seat to the production of this astounding thing and I can attest to the absolutely staggering attention to detail that went into it. A masterpiece. An essential text."
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4. From Data to Yarn: Crocheting the Russian Football League’s 2022/23 Season | Anna Ivashechkina on Nightingale
A combination of passions for data journalism, crochet, and football led Anna to create 16 intricate crocheted figures representing the season's performance metrics for each Russian Premier League club.
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A visualisation project (in Spanish) with big creative ambitions profiling the teams and players taking part in the football European Championships in Germany.
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In French, this wonderful piece from Mathieu Rudaz looks at how the seasons are altering and affecting nature and is just full of creative flair.
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7. Ultrariches et superpollueurs | 24 Heures
Again, in French but you can grasp that title without translation, here we have a second immediate mention for the talents of Mathieu, I came across this amazing concept from 2023 looking at the disproportionate CO2 contributions of the ultra-rich.
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8. 57 Sandwiches That Define New York City | New York Times
Not pure data visualisation but qualifies for the 'visuals' section due to the delectable photography which is so yumtastic I'm suddenly feeling very hungry, at 15:40...
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9. World must exit ‘highway to climate hell’, UN boss warns, as records are again broken | FT
Spotted by Rob Simmon, check out the wonderful variation of the cycle plot showing the record breaking temperatures being experienced right now.
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Excellent work by Alice Thudt and Dominikus Baur, the 'EU Gas Insight' visualisation tool helps to educate users, using participatory interactions, about the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources by 2040.
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11. Land doesn't vote, people do! French edition | @karim_douieb on Twitter
Enlightening animation from Karim offering a more accurate representation of European Election voting patterns across France.
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And another immediate demonstration of Karim's talent, with this animated particle flow map showing the dynamic shifts in Belgian politics.
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13. What Is the Migration Range of Blue Whales? | Maps.com
This map from John Nelson at Esri examines the migrations of the northern Pacific blue whale relying on "thousands of time-based observations from Movebank to track their seasonal migrations".
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14. AI Is Wreaking Havoc on Global Power Systems | Bloomberg
"We analyzed data on 1000s of data centers and found that AI data centers are coming online so fast that electricity demand is straining global power grids and threatening clean energy goals". If you can't access the paywalled version, check out the Twitter thread from Leonardo Nicoletti.
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How will your city feel in the future?
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"More than 90% of the streets named after individuals are dedicated to white men. The lack of diversity in toponymy speaks volumes about our past and contributes to shaping Europe’s present and future."
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This is a brilliant demonstration of the art of presenting data on the news, unpacking a complex story into one that becomes much more understandable.
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A load of stuff about strawberry varieties in Japan, commencing with an intriguing scatter plot which I cannot read as its in Japanese but I'm sure is compelling for those who can!
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19. Inflation Cookbook | Dentsu
"Inflation Cookbook is a digital grocery shopping tool that tracks real-time food pricing to help Canadians get inflation out of their cart. It addresses the complex challenge of price volatility in the industry by harnessing real-time data, tracking weekly price fluctuations of 400+ key ingredients across retailers at 80+ locations nationwide."
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"Where data reveals the very essence of scents and aromas, wander through the enchanted web of their creation". The visuals are certainly interesting but the architecture of the site as a digital gallery and the soundscape with it is the real star.
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A twitter thread reflecting on 15 consecutive days during which 24 new data visualisation products were published by Julius' team...
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22. A pattern set to failure | ABC News
Brilliant concept by Alex Lim on such a delicate and troubling topic: "Sensitive data requires thoughtful presentation. For this story about police failures responding to domestic violence incidences, I put on safety goggles and shattered some glass. Each shard represents a chilling story — much better than a chart can"
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23. Post-affirmative action | New York Times
"After the Supreme Court effectively ended affirmative action in 2023, many selective colleges said they still prized racial diversity and planned to pursue it. But how might they do that?". Expert scrollytelling piece from The Upshot team.
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No longer serving as a forecast - because its in the past - this was a brilliant set of visual tools to cover the possibilities in the lead up to and the developments during the night of the UK election
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There is never not a good time to encounter the latest pieces from Alberto Lucas Lopez and revisit his incredible body of past works, especially if you don't see them directly in the National Geographic.
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26. Gaza’s Cultural Heritage Sites Under Fire Amid Conflict | Youtube
Further demonstration of the power of satellite and photo imagery to identify the damage caused by conflict.
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27. The Vanishing Islands That Failed to Vanish | New York Times
"Low-lying tropical island nations were expected to be early victims of rising seas. But research tells a surprising story: Many islands are stable. Some have even grown."
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28. Failures To Act | YDC Podcast
The Pudding collaborated with NHPR's investigative team to analyse "1,281 court documents of alleged child abuse at New Hampshire’s youth facilities". This project explores scale and (inevitably) disturbing details behind one of "the largest youth detention abuse scandals in American history".
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29. Hundred Filters | Data Sorbet
[Translated from Thai] Krist Wongsuphasawat seeks to 'convey the beauty of poetry in a visible form'. "This piece is an experiment in arranging syllables from poetry onto a five-line musical note line that has been converted into a tone to clearly show the rise and fall of tones".
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30. The Rematch | Reuters
Now out-dated by Biden's withdrawal as Democratic nominee, nevertheless this remains a super piece that is sprinkled with the superstar visual charisma of Sarah Slobin.
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"Here I present to you our ridgeline poster for Le Tour 2024"
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32. "Contender for favorite chart of all time" | @AlecStapp on Twitter
Predictions vs. Reality for solar energy.
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Learning
Relevant articles, interviews, or videos to help further your development in data viz.
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33. Visualizing the destruction in Ukraine: A years-long project following satellite clues | Marco Hernandez
Marco takes us through (extraordinary generously) the technical process behind how he produced this stunning graphic, 'What Ukraine has lost', which had just been released in its print version.
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34. Fix my chart: Map Annotations | Rose Mintzer-Sweeney
"An advice column for all your data visualization questions". This is brilliant content expertly put together by Rose.
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35. Open Your Ears and Take a Look: A State-of-the-Art Report on the Integration of Sonification and Visualization | K. Enge, et al on Computer Graphics Forum
This is an open access paper offering a state-of-the-art report on the integration of sonification and visualization.
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36. A Delicious View of U.S. National Parks | Chartography newsletter
A lovely looking project from RJ Andrews and Wendy Shijia (second mention!) triggered by the curiosity 'what if each U.S. National Park had a cookie-cutter section removed and placed on a giant chessboard for easy comparison?'
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37. UEFA Euro 2024 Brand Identity | Behance
Julian Hoffmann Anton shares some of the design choices behind his work on the visual identity for the Euros.
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Julie's latest piece for her 'Good Morning Data' column explores "the modern freelancer's challenges with client calls and the shift to Zoom meetings"
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39. "The important thing is to give the reader just the right amount of information' | El Pais
An interview (in Spanish) with the SND's 'world's best designer', Adolfo Arranz of Reuters.
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A very useful weekly collection of geospatial papers and references published in summary form on Twitter but covered in more depth in Yohan's newsletter.
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Tristan and Jessica mark the release of Tableau 2024.2, and the launch of the 'Viz Extensions' - "a portal between a Tableau Worksheet and a web page that allows the creation of visualizations using d3, SVGs, javascript, or any web technology" - by offering a post to answer all the frequently asked questions.
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News
Latest developments, announcements, or announcements affecting the data viz world.
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The publication of the annual report for 2024, "reveals new findings about the consumption of online news globally" based on a YouGov survey of more than 95,000 people in 47 countries representing half of the world's population. Although its about the news industry its findings about audience consumption habits and behaviours transcend that domain and are relevant for all producers of visualisation work.
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43. New conference! | Cest-La-Viz
Details of a new conference event scheduled for 15 November 2024 in the Netherlands, organised by Goof van de Winkel of Graphic Hunters.
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44. StructureFlow Raises $6m To Expand Legal Data Visualisation | Artificial Lawyer
Sharing as much because, in my experience, the legal profession is perhaps the industry I have had the least engagement with in data vis teaching and/or consultancy, so anything that suggests there is appetite for doing more with data in that field intrigues me.
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45. The Visual Economy Report | Canva
This is the 2024 edition of Canva's own perspective of how visual communications, broadly, is "enhancing productivity, creativity, brand awareness, and employee culture" from surveying 3,707 global business leaders. Even if you instinctively find some of the responses somewhat peculiar (eg. the extent of upbeat attitudes towards AI enhancements) its a useful insight into what organisations are thinking.
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"Microsoft has released Data Wrangler, a VS Code extension that gives you a UI for data viewing & cleaning and that generates clean Python/pandas code."
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Demonstrating the soon-to-be-launched Notion Charts feature.
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Second mention for Attila Bátorfy, who announces he will be publishing a book which I expect will be an excellent addition to the data viz library.
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Sundries
Additional references to pieces covering broader data, tech, or design matters.
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Incredible art piece that offers four distinct perspectives formed out of fragments that appear chaotically arranged from different angles and yet are anything but.
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"Everyone knows that in animation, notes are key. Here's a comprehensive thread of everything wrong with this goddamn abomination"... see thread
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Thanks for reading!
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I’m ANDY KIRK, an independent data visualisation expert based in the UK. My vision is to deliver data viz excellence, everywhere. I offer data visualisation professional services to clients worldwide in my capacity as a design consultant, a prolific and experienced trainer, as a three-times published author, as a researcher, and sought-after speaker. I'm editor of visualisingdata.com and host of the Explore Explain video and podcast series. If you have a desire to elevate your data viz capabilities, whether at the start of your journey or further along, get in touch. |
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Newsletter compiled and published by Andy Kirk on behalf of Visualising Data Ltd, 41 Talbot Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS8 1AG
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