It’s always nice to hear from the people who are the best at what they do. Data visualization studio, Interactive Things has an interview series going, Substratum, that asks designers and artists the same set of questions. The most recent issue is with Amanda Cox from The New York Times and Nicholas Felton, who you know from his annual Feltron reports and now at Facebook.
Amanda Cox, the chart marker, on how her work and goals have changed over the years:
At one point — I call it my impressionist phase — I was really interested in making things abstract but interesting and beautiful. And then I had a “curves are fun” phase for a while where I was really into curved things. And then I had an “intentional simplicity” phase for a while, like, how stripped down can you make something and have it still be interesting? I don’t know what my current phase is, but it’s kind of an “aspirational reporting” phase. I’m not that great of a reporter yet, but I’m thinking a lot about how we can stop using the same information that’s already on the Internet and just remix that. I want to start working with more, deeper information, information that’s harder to surface.
This is coming from someone who has won an international award for being the best. So much to learn, I have.
Funny – If I change ‘reported’ to ‘designer’ every word of that quote applies to my journey. Not sure if I feel good or bad about that :)