Thursday, September 7, 2017

How to have fun with visualization

I'm often amazed by the power of visualization and infographics to unveil truths hiding behind complexity. Surprise and wonder are emotions a good graphic may cause. However, I don't remember myself laughing out loud when exploring a data visualization.

This changed a few months ago, when my friend Xaquín. G.V. (Twitter) began working on a project that's part of my ongoing collaboration with Google News Lab. As you may remember, I'm art-directing a series of experimental visualizations by top designers from all over the world. You can see them all here.

Xaquín has been head of visuals at The Guardian, and a graphics editor at National Geographic magazine, The New York Times, Newsweek, and El Mundo, in Spain, where we worked together between 2001 and 2005. His virtues are many, but the one that you'll first perceive if you ever meet him in person is his wild sense of humor. Xaquín is a genuinely funny fellow, and that shows in his style. Just take a look at his project for us, titled How to Fix a Toilet, and the article explaining how he made it.

And, yes, as Xaquín wrote in that article, this is my favorite animation by far: