Organic Data Visualization

I’ve recently become a huge fan of data visualization graphics. It is often a real challenge to make something that is clear, informative and visually engaging. As media consumers we are bombarded daily with an overload of information that often gets lost in translation. With so many statistics, headlines, comments and relationships to process data visualization graphics often collapse under their own weight.

Creating a successful, easily interpreted graphic is an art in itself. But sometimes conveying just the information falls short. Below are some graphics produced by GridPlane, a fantastic design studio out of Portland whose work I love. They have a distinct, clean and crisp style. But by just glancing at them you cannot tell what the information is about, there is no context. You need to rely on the text, numbers and other info displayed to even get the most basic concept.

Designs that rely on just color, shape and size to relay statistics feel static and sterile. That is why I am especially fond on the graphics produced by Imitate + Informate. Their visual aesthetic often has a direct correlation with the information itself. They use grass to depict forest growth, bacteria to depict the prevalence of tuberculosis and so-on.

I’m also inspired by their process. Here is a snippet from their website:

We are inspired by nature or other real phenomena and try to transform formal aspects of it into data visualization systems.

We apply computational and generative strategies for working with the data.

Of course this sort of treatment isn’t always appropriate, but it can augment the emotional relationship between the reader and the information. Creating that deeper relationship is key to making sense of such intimidating analytical displays.