1. Tell us a bit about yourself: how did you get into design, and how long have you been doing it?
I think calling myself a ‘designer’ is a bit of a stretch. (Designers nod in unison.) I do ‘design’ my charts, but my background is really in investigating things. I’ve done everything from newspaper reporting and competitive intelligence to political opposition research, private investigations and litigation support. My website — CHARTGIRL.COM — was really born out of a need to understand and explain complicated things I was investigating.

2. In 7 words or less, describe your style.
I guess I hope my charts are: smart, helpful, funny, thought-provoking, interesting and timely.

3. If you could take a seminar with one designer or artist, dead or living, who would that be? Why?
Mark Lombardi. Hands down, no question. I did do Ed Tufte’s seminar a month or so ago and found it fascinating, but my dream would be to bring Mark Lombardi back to life and ask him a million questions. (Lombardi was an artist and researcher who made diagrams of political corruption scandals and the like.)

4. What’s your favorite color? Why?
I don’t have a favorite color. I like stripes.

5. What is the biggest mistake you’ve made in your work and what did you learn from it?
Spending almost four years working at an incredibly depressing place. Steer clear of law firms and other places where people lack a sense of humor and an imagination, or both.

6. What about your biggest achievement? Tell us about the project you are most proud of in your career so far.
I guess having ChartGirl making TIME’s 50 Best Websites of 2013 would be the highlight.

7. Who should we feature in this space next?
Sam Bradd.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself: how did you get into design, and how long have you been doing it?
Lemonly is on a mission to make the world an easier place to understand. We do this through design, specifically infographics, data viz, and UI/UX design. We were founded in August of 2011, so we’re not quite two years old. We’re a small team of 10 located in little Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We may be on the prairie, but we got big ideas and visions for the information design industry.

2. In 7 words or less, describe your style.
Concise, creative, cool.

3. If you could take a seminar with one designer or artist, dead or living, who would that be? Why?
Herb Lubalin. He was brilliant at creating graphics out of type and manipulating letterforms to convey messages. Both type and communicating our message in a clear, concise way is critical to what we do at Lemonly.

4. What’s your favorite color? Why?
Ah yes, the color question. This is an ongoing office debate that changes regularly. Based on our work, we used teal the most in 2012 (we actually aggregated all of our graphics to form a report and the statistics don’t lie). Maybe we like teal because of our logo.

5. What is the biggest mistake you’ve made in your work and what did you learn from it?
Reaching “burnout” as a designer. Your work begins to suffer. It’s very difficult to produce your best work or try new design styles when you’re rushing projects to meet deadlines. The line between productive and burnout can be thin but it is good to remind yourself to walk away and approach your project later with fresh perspective.

6. What about your biggest achievement? Tell us about the project you are most proud of in your career so far.
Looking back at our 2012 with our Lemonly Annual Report was a very rewarding experience. I think too often as creatives we’re always thinking of the next project or looking forward to where we are going without looking back at where we’ve came. Building that report not only brought back the memories of all those past projects but also gave our team a great feeling of accomplishment.

Lemon.ly’s ‘One Sweet Year’ 2012 Annual Report infographic by Lemon.ly.

We’ve definitely had some incoming voicemails or emails from clients that made certain employees jump out of their chairs with excitement. A couple that come to mind right now would be Major League Baseball, Red Mango, Nike and that gigantic entertainment/media empire run by a little, friendly mouse.

7. Who should we feature in this space next?
He doesn’t have a Visual.ly profile, but hopefully he will after this. But Nigel Evan Dennis, the guy who did the Game of Thrones visualization, is incredible. That piece is comprehensive, it is visual, and it tells a very compelling story. Get that dude a Visual.ly profile! [Editor's note: We completely agree and were honored when Nigel agreed to contribute to our blog recently, with a blog post about the making of his Game of Thrones visualization. You can read it here.]

1. Tell us a bit about yourself: how did you get into design, and how long have you been doing it?
I was that kid that was always drawing something. I loved trying to redraw pictures from books, and art was definitely my favourite class. In high school, I took a bunch of computer classes, and learned the ropes of Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash (I still love Flash — bad, I know!). It wasn’t until probably my second year of university that I really “got” what design was.

I’ve been balancing my time over the past few years between finishing university and working various freelance design jobs. I got into information design and data vis only a couple of years ago, and I’m very glad that I did! When I’m not working some design magic, I’m usually found knitting, baking or enjoying a cold pint on a patio.

2. In 7 words or less, describe your style.
Go above and beyond, keep it fun.

3. If you could take a seminar with one designer or artist, dead or living, who would that be? Why?
I would love to take a seminar (or could we do lunch?!) with Nicolas Felton. He’s that awesome (and maybe a little crazy) designer who tracks random aspects of his daily life, and then turns that data into beautiful pieces of information design, known as the Feltron Annual Reports. The ways in which he presents the data is quite beautiful and simple. Some of the daily routine-type of stuff that he keeps track of is hilarious; I’d be curious to see how many times he would stop and record something during a lunch hour.

4. What’s your favorite color? Why?
Can you really ask a designer this? Not fair! If I had to choose, I would have to go with turquoise. It’s bright and vibrant, and it reminds me of a beach somewhere tropical. Now that I think about it, my favourites of my own design work usually incorporates some shade of turquoise.

5. What is the biggest mistake you’ve made in your work and what did you learn from it?
I often take on too many projects at once. I get excited at the thought of a new project and I usually find it hard to turn down new work.

6. What about your biggest achievement? Tell us about the project you are most proud of in your career so far.
This isn’t a specific project, but just over a week ago, I finished my final class of university (ahh!) and I will be graduating with a degree in Graphic Design. It involved a lot of great projects, late nights, and enough coffee that I could probably have opened my own Starbucks. I’m super excited to be done, and I’m looking forward to taking on new projects–look out world!

If I were to pick a project that I’m really proud of, I would choose the first graphic I ever worked on with Visual.ly, which was The Patent Wars infographic. It examined the at-the-time patent battle relationships going on between major tech companies. It was a challenging data set to visualize, and it was really amazing to see how viral that graphic went.

Patent Wars infographic by visually.

7. Who should we feature in this space next?
I really like the work of Lemon.ly. I find their quirky illustrations and use of bright colours to be very eye-catching.

I’m in the process of putting together my best design projects from school for our end-of-year showcase. Ping-pong tables make excellent workspaces for cutting, gluing and making a mess.

My at-home desk.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself: how did you get into design, and how long have you been doing it?
The first time I ever designed something on a computer was when my mom started her own business in the early 90s. She used to make ads for the newspaper (whaaa?) and I helped her out using ClarisWorks on a Mac Performa IIe. I think I was maybe 12 or 13. It’s just something I’ve always done, sometimes as a job and other times as a hobby, with varying degrees of enthusiasm. These days I’ve moved more into UX design, because my primary motivation is problem solving and user experience is where novel problems in the web and digital arena often arise.

2. In 7 words or less, describe your style.
Malevich and Tschichold. Stuff of my dreams.

3. If you could take a seminar with one designer or artist, dead or living, who would that be? Why?

El Lissitzky. He was working at the intersection of typography, formal abstraction, and architecture. My three favorite design-y things. I deeply appreciate the rigorous theoretical foundation of his work, and I admire the marriage of form and action that took place in Russian art and architecture in the nascent years of the 20th century. So much so, that I have some Constructivist architecture tattooed on my arm.

4. What’s your favorite color? Why?

Wait, is this a date? haha I find this question completely impossible. I guess my favorite color is “leather” and “coffee” and “brass”. And “heavy metal”.

5. What is the biggest mistake you’ve made in your work and what did you learn from it?

I’ve always tried hard to avoid having a boss. It’s rarely a relationship that has worked well for me. However, as I reached a point in my career when people began to work for me, I realized how much I could have learned about managing people if I had ever let myself be managed. But hey, when you’re young you think you know everything!

6. What about your biggest achievement? Tell us about the project you are most proud of in your career so far.

I’m proud of everything that I do at the time that I do it — and I think it’s all junk about six months afterwards (haha). That’s how I keep myself from getting complacent, I guess. The “What Are the Odds” infographic was the piece of work that garnered the most media attention, and it was pretty exciting to reach that many people. But I would be truly proud if I could create something that has a substantial and subversive social impact. I have zero desire to reach 2,000,000 Coca-Cola consumers with my brilliant advertising campaign; I’d rather be part of something like Occupy Design.

7. Who should we feature in this space next?

Viktor Timofejev. He’s not a Visually Marketplace designer, but he has a bunch of pages full of amazing art. I look at his art all the time (here and here).

Editor’s note: We asked Sofya for a photo of her at her workspace… she sent us this. Thanks, Sofya! Now you’ve made us jealous:

1. Tell us a bit about yourself: how did you get into design, and how long have you been doing it?

My route into design was a rather long one. Ever since I was young, I’ve loved the visual arts. Some of my earliest memories are of staring, slack jawed, at the giant paintings that adorn the galleries of Northern England (this is one of my favourites).

I originally studied mathematics, economics and physics before taking a few years off to travel the world. When I returned it was to study history. After completing this and, following a further series of unlikely and absurd events, I founded NeoMam with the very talented Danny Ashton.

I currently manage a 12 strong team of graphic designers, copy writers, researchers and programmers. I also work with a budding data scientist.

2. In 7 words or less, describe your style.

Always attempt to avoid producing a turd.

3. If you could take a seminar with one designer or artist, dead or living, who would that be? Why?

Ernst Haeckel – One of those very rare people that had a very firm grasp on both the arts and sciences; Artist, physician, philosopher and naturalist. His Kuntsformen der Natur sits on my desk and is a constant source of wonder and inspiration.

4. What’s your favorite color? Why?

30FFCE – It makes me thinks of Miami Beach

5. What is the biggest mistake you’ve made in your work and what did you learn from it?

The biggest mistake that I’ve ever made at NeoMam was accidentally switching the columns on an excel sheet. This sheet was then passed along to one of our designers who proceeded to spend three days visualizing the data. Once the mistake was discovered we had to spend another three days fixing it.

I now have someone to double check everything. It’s the best investment I ever made.

6. What about your biggest achievement? Tell us about the project you are most proud of in your career so far.

The graphic I’m most proud of is with is one we recently produced for carloan4u.co.uk, it got mentioned in the Guardian newspaper. It’s not easy task to get a mention from a national newspaper so I was very, very happy.

The Race for the First Driverless Car infographic

7. Who should we feature in this space next?

Anyone from hyperakt.com, they really are the bee’s pyjamas.

 
 
 
1. Tell us a bit about yourself: how did you get into design, and how long have you been doing it?
When this question is asked in a room, it’s normally the point that the people who know me, just up and leave. Here he goes again…

I’m Simon Ramsey; I’m 31 and gearing up for the big 32. I’m told you’re supposed to have grown a beard and written a book by the age of 32. I’m not really the copy writing type, and when my wife came back from the supermarket with a new shave gel that read in a hideous, default white star “60 shaves,” she was giggling because she knew that would last me a year. I won’t be doing either of these things.

I’m a rare breed of un-manageable creative, or so I’ve been told. Of course, like most arty folk, from an early age I could pretty much be dropped off anywhere with a felt tip marker, a pad of paper and been happy as a pig in shit. At 16, I used my first Mac (sorry: Macintosh in those days) and Photoshop 3.1, before it even had layers!!! I remember being taught how to make bevels and drop shadows with channels alone. Like technology, thankfully my skills have evolved over time. Now having had 12 years commercial design experience in UK-based marketing and advertising agencies, I’ve worked on a hugely diverse range of projects and used data vis as part of clients’ search and social strategy. I have learnt an absolute ton and I’m always trying to develop. Currently fascinated with motion graphics and 3D; I’ve been well and truly sucked into all things Cinema 4D and After Effects.

I finished my employed career last summer as Lead Creative to start my own business. Which is amazing… And would have been a lot less stressful if I hadn’t decided to do it four weeks before I got married to my wonderful wife Hannah. If anything, it just gave me even more drive for my decision to be a success. Luckily, all went perfectly well. And Ramsey’s Design Lab continues to grow to this day.

2. In 7 words or less, describe your style.
Promise a little, deliver a lot.

3. If you could take a seminar with one designer or artist, dead or living, who would that be? Why?
Wow this is a tough one… So tough I’m having three. Many great designers and artists have been a source of inspiration over the years, but a few to whom I owe an awful lot of respect. So first up is Bert Monroy. An absolutely brilliant digital artist, and I’ve learned a shed load from watching him on his classic pixel perfect podcast tutorials. Second: Aaron Blaise. In my opinion, the world’s best freehand illustrator and Photoshop power user. A true master of animation and illustration, having worked on some of the most famous Disney films of our time. Lastly, but by no means least: Nick Campbell. This guy is extremely talented and continues to pass on his years of knowledge in design, freelancing and cinema 4D to the thousands of C4D fans that follow him on his blog. High five Nick!

4. What’s your favorite color? Why?
Right, I’m gonna tell you a secret here… I’m actually colour blind. No joke. I can see colour… I know what colour is… Just I get some mixed up sometimes. Let’s just say it’s lucky I have Hannah to go shopping with, as I don’t really pull off pink so well. Having spent years in a design agency environment, you learn not to be too precious about colour. As in design there are rules. Normally dictated by brand guidelines. But to pick a favourite palette or colour is impossible, as it just changes depending on how I feel about the project or what fits the brief…. I’m fence sitting again. Ok ok… Blue. Blue you can trust!

5. What is the biggest mistake you’ve made in your work and what did you learn from it?
Not sure about biggest, but definitely most embarrassing: One of my first jobs in print design shop many years ago, whilst I was still a very green designer, a lady walked and asked if we would create some nice bottle labels for her collection of essential oils and skin products. As you can probably imagine, the ingredients were weird and wonderful. After a very lengthy amendment process, the job became one I was glad to see the back of. I didn’t see her again for six months and assumed all was well. That is, until she stormed back into the shop one day demanding a refund. Checking the labels I then realised she had been bottling “hope” instead of “hops”!

Learning from this is clearly check, check and check again. Then check some more. Spelling mistakes these days in our digital kingdom are too common but equally embarrassing. In print it’s permanent. You learn that quickly…. Hopefully.

6. What about your biggest achievement? Tell us about the project you are most proud of in your career so far.
There are a few projects that have stood out through the last few years. Working on our very own iPhone game for charity-based organisation Living Coasts, Mission: Penguin. Being in the game credits as Graphic Design by Simon Ramsey was a great feeling.

I’ve done a whole lot of front-end website design, but very recently I’ve re designed a five-star holiday cottage website, www.bluechipholidays.co.uk. It will go live in June with my new design. I’ve pushed myself to re-think property marketing from the ground up. The new site is a beautifully elegant luxury holiday user experience. And will act as a game changing property platform.

More recently, I’m most proud of my work on Visual.ly: a couple of my most recent infographics have done really well. I’ve never known what it’s like to have something viral. And then to have one as a staff pick was just inspiring. The very fact that I’m writing this is just pretty damn incredible, if you ask me. So thank you, Visual.ly, you guys are awesome!

7. Who should we feature in this space next?
Boris Benko. This guy is simply a fantastic illustrator. But also, his infographics have great composition. He uses characters to really inject impact. He has a very clean style and is a great designer.

[Editor's note: you ask, we deliver! Read our recent spotlight on Boris Benko right here on our blog.]

Name: Michael Jeter
Age: 29
On Visually: ishothim
In Design: 5 years
 
 
 

1. Tell us a bit about yourself: how did you get into design, and how long have you been doing it?

How did I get into design? Well, in elementary school I used to get really bored after I finished my work. I used to draw Bugs Bunny, the Tasmanian devil and shit like that. I would dress them up in funny clothes and give them to people to make them laugh. Even the pretty girls would laugh, and at that moment the value of being an artist became very clear.

Fast forward a bunch of years and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to start a studio almost five years ago with a few talented people while in grad school, and I have been loving life ever since.

We’ve been able to carve out a path in the design field that has allowed us to work primarily on social and civic issues.

2. In 7 words or less, describe your style.
always evolving, never enough

3. If you could take a seminar with one designer or artist, dead or living, who would that be? Why?

I’m going to be greedy and pick two. Milton Glaser and Maurice Sendak. Without those two individuals I would not be who I am today. Their impact on design and illustration, in my opinion, is greater than anyone else’s.

4. What’s your favorite color? Why?

I’m not sure I have favorite color. But now that I think about it, green is a pretty prominent color in my life. I have a green bike, green bag, green pants, etc. However, green is not really a prominent color in my work. As far as my work goes, I love black. If I’m feeling lazy, black always works for just about anything.

5. What is the biggest mistake you’ve made in your work and what did you learn from it?

I’m awful at proofreading. I’ve had two major fuck-ups with typos. It’s cost me money and time and stress and sleep. It’s also wildly embarrassing. I’ve learned to always have someone read everything twice and then ask someone else to read it three times.

6. What about your biggest achievement? Tell us about the project you are most proud of in your career so far.

I don’t really think in those terms. I believe you are only ever as good as your next project. As soon as I finish a project, I’m super critical of it and can only think of the millions of things that I have learned and will use in the next project. That being said, I really had fun creating http://www.nycreadinesschallenge.org, New York City’s disaster preparedness education tool.

It was the first time that I was able to fully integrate my illustration style in a user interface and experience. That project was a stake in the ground for me. I want to do that sort of stuff all of the time.

As I get older, I realize that I get way more stressed out on projects that don’t include illustrations.

7. Who should we feature in this space next?

This one is tough, because there are so many inspirational people out there. Three people come to mind. Erik Marinovich, Celeste Prevost, and Scott Hill of Foundry Co. These three people make me love being in the design field. Erik is an aspirational person on so many levels. He’s one of the kindest human beings ever, and a master at his craft. He is always testing his boundaries and daring to try something just for the experience. Celeste exists in so many realms of design and all of it seems so damn effortless. She is also on the hunt for continuous challenge in her work life and that is inspiring. Scott, I only know through chats online, but I really love every single thing he does. There are very few designers out there that can do it all and do it all well, and Scott is always outdoing himself.

Below, Mike Jeters at the iShotHim studio:

Name: Antonio di Vico
Age: 31
On Visually: antoniodivico
In Design: 9
 
 
 

1.Tell us a bit about yourself: how did you get into design, and how long have you been doing it?
Although a significant part of what I have done in the past 10 years is design, I wouldn’t quite define myself as a designer. I would say I am much more of a communications expert with an instinctual design intuition.

When I graduated from the University of Salerno, Italy, with a degree in Communications Science, my final thesis focused on the role of music in advertising. At that point I really wanted to work in advertising, which I did through establishing my own company.

I then travelled to India for the first time with my camera and came back home with about 50 rolls of unexposed film. I had fallen in love with the world and with photography and ended up far away from advertising on a travel around the world. Soon I found myself working for a photo agency covering social issues such as prostitution and transgenderism, as well earthquakes and rural traditions in Italy.

My travels in developing countries exposed me to and made me very aware of poverty, as well as developmental and human rights issues. This in turn gave me the motivation to radically turn my career into a different direction and contribute my skills to non-profit organizations. In the past three years, I have worked as a communications professional for several United Nations agencies and NGOs on themes such as climate change, literacy, water wastage and violence against women.

Information design is probably just another step in my personal and professional evolution, which passed through several phases: painting, photography, digital art, advertising, web management, and so on. But I feel that information design is something that is here to stay. Both in the communications panorama and in my life.

2. In 7 words or less, describe your style.

Clean. Accessible. Reassuring. European.

3. If you could take a seminar with one designer or artist, dead or living, who would that be? Why?

If I had a time machine, it would certainly be Leonardo da Vinci. A scientist, artist, inventor and so much more, a genius who was centuries ahead of his time. Among the living, I’d like to take a seminar not with a designer but with Steve Mc Curry, a photographer whose work never ceases to amaze and inspire me.

4. What’s your favorite color? Why?

My triad is white, red and black. They are pure, strong, elegant colors that work amazingly well together. I love white because to me it means endless possibilities, red because it’s such a primitive, visceral color, and black for its uncompromising and absolute qualities.

5. What is the biggest mistake you’ve made in your work and what did you learn from it?

Thankfully, I don’t have many horror stories in this regard, although I have had my share of tragi-comic ones. I’d say my biggest mistake was accepting a project with a very, very vague brief without reading it properly. I assumed the customers had done their homework. But they hadn’t. Needless to say, I should have simply asked the client to revise the working document and come back to me at a later stage. But I didn’t. This meant working twice as much, an unsatisfied customer and a final result I wasn’t proud of. Bottom line: never accept a poorly written brief. And, yes, read your email with attention.

6. What about your biggest achievement? Tell us about the project you are most proud of in your career so far.

It’s in my nature to rarely be satisfied with my work. Only a few hours after I have delivered a project, I can already see with painful lucidity all its shortcomings. But design, like art and life in general, is a process and I try to treasure both the things I did “wrong” and the few ones I think I did right for the next assignment. Trial and error, it’s always the same story. Although stressful, I realize I love working on projects with a big visibility like infographics, because it pushes me to raise the bar each time.

Despite all this, I am very proud of my latest infographic for UNESCO on water collaboration, both for the incredibly interesting topic and the way I managed to communicate such a complex issue.

Fresh water for all infographic by antoniodivico.

7. Who should we feature in this space next?

Angela Morelli. She is probably already well known on visual.ly and elsewhere. Her work is brilliant and inspiring; a perfect combination of beautifully organized content and social activism. I’d love to work on a project with her.

Name: ElkanoData
Age: The average age of our team is 26.5
On Visually: ElkanoData
In design: 1.5 years
 
 
 
1. Tell us a bit about yourself: how did you get into design, and how long have you been doing it?
It all started a year and a half ago. Pau was convinced that data visualization and information design were the solution to many of the challenges that are part of the digital age. On one hand, being able to manage, analyze and visualize big data was a key problem faced by many organizations, companies and institutions. On the other, content marketing was evolving and the demand for visual content was rising due to the consumption habits of digital users.

So there was a feeling, an intuition that data visualization, motion graphics and infographics could be a nice market to get into and so he decided to start the company and began looking for the right people to make that happen.

First, Oscar joined the team, bringing his creativity and fresh ideas along with his solid animation and image background. Not long after came Michael with his great design skills, high attention to detail and determination to achieve visual excellence.

In the second term, Cristiam joined the team, giving us the chance to play with new code languages, using open source tools and bringing infinite possibilities and technical solutions to our ideas.

Guim´s incorporation was music to our ears (literally) giving that extra quality we needed in motion graphics through sound design.

And last but not least came Belén, helping us to work with new clients, in new markets, and helping us look at our products from a different perspective.

We are a very close-knit team, who really enjoy working together and making great things happen. We genuinely believe that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and that each of us wouldn´t reach his or her full potential without the rest of the team.

And well, that´s how we´ve got here! It is a pretty short story, but quite intense! And we hope to continue writing it for a long time to come.

2. In 7 words or less, describe your style.
Creative, rigorous, skilled, passionate, multidisciplinary, innovative and techy.

3. If you could take a seminar with one designer or artist, dead or living, who would that be? Why?
Pau: Steve Jobs (can he be considered a designer?) and Pablo Ferro, one of the best title sequence designers ever.
Michael: Charles and Ray Eames for their creative work process and for how they made their projects so multi-faceted.
Oscar: Michel Gondry because of his risk-taking innovations and creativity which have always been genuinely inspiring.

4. What’s your favorite color? Why?
Blue and Burgundy (Blau & Grana) – we´re located in Barcelona, can you guess our favorite soccer team?

5. What is the biggest mistake you’ve made in your work and what did you learn from it?
Well, I think our biggest lesson so far has to do with contests and crowdsourced initiatives.
One time we entered a contest that had a generous monetary prize for the winners. It was quite an interesting exercise and we knew we could do a great job. It seemed like it would be a beautiful project to work on, and that the prizes made it worth the effort. So we all worked really hard and created one of the projects we are the most proud of. We were pretty confident that our proposal was technically very strong, visually solid and conceptually innovative, and so we thought we would be among the winners. But then the results came, and it turned out that the judging criteria had nothing to do with what had initially been explained (and consequently had little to do with what we had delivered) and that our entry was not the right kind of profile they were looking for in the contest. It was a big disappointment and we all looked at each other and thought “What!?!?”…

Nevertheless, being positive about it, we knew we had learned a lot, and had pushed our skills to the limit (there was very little time to do what we did), and therefore learned a lot on how to improve our workflows and technique. In the end, we had developped a great product that could be showcased to future clients.

So, the lesson here is that it is very important to be sure that the judging criteria is very well defined, and that you really match what is being looked for in the contest. If you are only interested in the prizes, our advice is not to enter a competition as it depends too much on third parties and there is a high probability of being really disappointed and feeling as though you wasted your time.

If, on the other hand, you want to try new stuff, challenge your limits, show others what you can do and are willing to do that for free… then go ahead. That has been our conclusion from our biggest mistake so far… and at least we have gained some good insight for the future.

6. What about your biggest achievement? Tell us about the project you are most proud of in your career so far.
The truth is that every project is an achievement for us. We really enjoy doing what we do, so being able to get clients that like our work and give us creative freedom is really exciting and something to be really proud of. You can take a look at some of our most recent work here.

But, if we have to choose: we are really proud of the infographic and motion graphics we did for The Economist and PEJ contest organized by Visual.ly:

The Explosion in Mobile Audiences infographic by ElkanoData.

Also, it was very exciting to see that our visualization using the World Bank´s CO2 Emissions Open Data had been chosen as one of the 20 great interactive visualizations of 2012 by Visual.ly.

And The Value of Innovation in Healthcare: an interesting issue, a lot of complex concepts and a conference held at the Harvard Faculty Club with prestigious attendees from the international healthcare sector. It was a real honor for us to work on that.

7. Who should we feature in this space next?
Accurat for their artistic, Italian approach to data visualization and also Catalogtree with their more Dutch, architectural stylings.

Name: Yiying Lu
Age: 30
On Visually: yiyinglu
In Design: More than 10 years
 
 
 

1. Tell us a bit about yourself: how did you get into design, and how long have you been doing it?
Hello. My name is Yiying Lu. “Yiying” is 2 characters in Chinese. “Yi” means happy; “Ying“ means creative; and you need to smile to prounce the name right! (Bet some of you think I’ve just made this up… but that was indeed from my grandpa…)

I grew up in Shanghai, China, with crayons, vintage cartoons and piles picture books. I guess the first time I got into design was at the age 5: I was giving away candies to friends in kindergarten. Those candies were in different fruit flavors with no packaging, so no one really wanted them. I decided to draw various fruits on white paper to wrap those candies, then those were a hit… I’m just suprised that no one has ever compained if that caused any tooth decay yet.

Despite the love of art, I went to a technology high school because a of a bet (more on that later), where I studied hardcore math and science. Later, I moved to Australia and the UK for University education in Design. I figured that Design is a great integration of my childhood artistic practice and my teen technology learning experience, and I am fond of Koala & the Beatles. After graduating with 1st class honors in Bachelor of Design Visual Communication from University of Technology Sydney and an exchange study in Advertising & Illustration at Central Saint Martins Collage of Art & Design in London, I worked at J. Walter Thompson, McCann Erickson and taught typography at the University for the past seven years. I have also been runing my own art & design studio in parallel, and I was fortunate enough to work with amazing people, companies and organizations, such as: Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco, The Shorty Awards, South By Southwest, Mashable, Scholastic, Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble, 500 Startups, Pepsico, Smashing Magazine, Australian Museum, New South Wales Trade & Investment, Twitter and the Visually Team. (O.K. I better stop bragging and do more design now!)

2. In 7 words or less, describe your style.
Simple, Direct, Clear, Concise, Colourful, Diverse, Yiying

3. If you could take a seminar with one designer or artist, dead or living, who would that be? Why?
That would be Milton Glaser. Not just because of his the iconic design of “I Love NY” or wonderful Bob Dylan poster art, I was rather inspired by his TED talk on “Using Design to Make Ideas New,” where he introduced “the idea of doubt into graphics”. I also found it’s fascinating how he was equally affected by both Giorgio Morandi and Pablo Picasso, the two very opposite design personalities: Morandi’s modesty, his dedication, his simplicity, his desire for nothing except the work and Picasso’s egocentric, narcissistic self-expression, his willingness to take chances and his fareless artistic courage.

And he tells great jokes!

4. What’s your favorite color? Why?
Chartreuse.

In nature, this is the color of most new buds, symbolizing new life and possibilities. I love the fact that it also happens to be the most visible color to the human eye, because it sits directly in the middle of the frequencies of visible light.

Another interesting personal discovery on Chartreuse, from my color theory research and yoga practice: In yoga, there are seven energy centers in the human body called Chakras; each chakra is associated with a particular color. The color Yellow is associated with the third Charkra, the Solar Plexus Center, which symbolizes personal power and inner intelligent awareness, whereas the color Green, associated with fourth Charkra: the Heart Center, symbolizes the consciousness of love, empathy, selflessness and nature.

Chartreuse, following the above perception, would be interpreted as the process of moving through Yellow (Solar Plexus Chakra) to Green (Heart Chakra), transcending from the ego, individual & materialized world into a journey with others, the higher realm of the global consciousness…

Oh, and last but not the least, I love Kermit the Frog!

5. What is the biggest mistake you’ve made in your work and what did you learn from it?
For a long time, I used to think that going to a technology high school was probably the biggest mistake I’d ever made. In my elementary school, one of my best friends had a bet that I wouldn’t dare — nor be able to — get into a technology high school, knowing that I was good at art and terrible at math. Yet, I won the bet by getting into a selective technology high school, which seemed a triumphant success in the beginning, yet it resulted a miserable seven years of hard-core study in math, science and computing. During my entire teenage years, I spent a lot of time regretting that I did not follow what I am naturally good at – ART, but chose to pursue something I really struggled with – SCIENCE, all because a silly little bet.

However, towards the end of my high school, I came across Left Brain & Right Brain Theory, which made me realize that that “mistake” could be a blessing. Our two different hemispheres of the brain are responsible for different manners of thinking: Left Brain thinking is logical, sequential, rational, analytical, objective and looks at parts, whereas Right Brain thinking is random, intuitive, holistic, sythesizing, subjective and looks things as wholes.

You see, I was born as a Right-Brain dominant thinker – whose strength is being imaginative, spontaneous and intuitive, hence good at expressive and creative tasks = ART; but its weakness is the lacking of logic, critical & analytical thinking (Left-Brain thinking). My seven years’ learning experience at a TECH high school, which I thought was a huge mistake, actually helped me focus on my logical thinking, analysis and accuracy. It effectively developed my originally weaker left brain and made me a “whole-brained” thinker with the ability to think with both left and right brains, shifting tasks to the hemisphere of the brain that’s best equipped to tackle them. During my University period, I realized that I could easily learn and master a new software / app / language to design and create visual art work. I started to appreciate the solid foundation I have gained from math, science and computing study during high school.

Going to Tech high school for me is very much like the process of fixing a lazy eye. By putting a patch over the good eye (right brain thinking), this forced the ‘lazy eye’ (left brain thinking) to work harder and strengthened its muscles (thinking ability). This allows both eyes (brains) to function together properly as a team (whole brian thinking).

I did not realize this until very recently. Just like Oprah Winfrey said, “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” I thought I’d like to share my experience and this might be an idea worth spreading:

“Every single mistake is a blessing in disguise…there are actually untold blessings hidden within every mistake.” – Tao Te Ching

6. What about your biggest achievement? Tell us about the project you are most proud of in your career so far.
I would have to mention this personal artwork named ‘Lifting a Dreamer’, which eventually became the Twitter’s overcapacity icon – the “Twitter Fail Whale”. When Twitter experiences an outage, users see this illustration of eight orange birds using a net to hoist a whale from the ocean, captioned “Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try again.” Soon, there were hundreds, probably thousands of creative works inspired by this single illustration: from 3D sculpture and cupcakes to lego versions and real tattoos, and some of the beer bottle label entries for The Fail Whale Pale Ale label contest.

There are many funny ‘modified’ Fail Whales out there, here are just a few of the clever, talented and amusing homages and take-offs I enjoyed. Amazed by the power and creativity of the Twitter user community, I have also created a page dedicated to all the whale sightings.

Perhaps most people do not know that this illustration was originally created as a personal birthday e-card to my friend overseas. My initial idea behind the illustration was: I am sorry that I can not travel overseas to celebrate your birthday, so I drew these little red birds to carry my big wish (the Whale) across the water to you! An illustration of an impossible dream came true. It fascinated me when Twitter co-founder Biz Stone picked this image, he saw the art as the whale symbolizing Twitter’s scaleability issue, and those red little birds represent Twitter employees working hard on fixing the problem.

It is a serendipity for the image to be found and used on a major social media website, which allows the art to be seen by millions or even billions of people. Milton Glasers once mention the concept “In Search of the Miraculous”: Art is the act of making things that move for the mind, which is our [artists'] deep aspiration. I will always remember how grateful I felt when I read the Wired article titled “Fail Whale Gives Frustrated Twitterers Something to Smile” back in 2008; every time I receive personal emails & tweets from people saying thank you for the happy art, that makes me feel better even if twitter is down; and more and more companies were inspired by this and started to create their own visual 404 page art, which humanizes the technology.

An Eureka moment: back to our discussion on my favoriate color, I found this entire phenomena is relevant to my perception of Chartreuse earlier: from a personal use (a birthday wish to my friend), to a visual message to global audiences – bring the art to everyone; that is really the process of moving through Yellow (Solar Plexus Chakra) to Green (Heart Chakra), transcending from the individual into a journey with others, the higher realm of the global consciousness.

And of course, what I most grateful and proud of is being commissioned by Conan O’Brien and his team to create the “The Pale Whale” art below for Conan’s big premiere on TBS and on TeamCOCO website as an animated 404 page!

I am proud of this project not just because it is well paid (laugh), but the fact that Conan is my personal hero. His advice to young people in his last show on NBC truly helped me go through some of my toughest time in life: “If you work really hard, and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.” I created this piece of artwork with my highest regards with the use of the palest color pallet!

7. Who should we feature in this space next?
Nigel Holmes – his 50 Years of Infographic Designs are both delightful and informative.

Yiying Lu in her workspace, creating the Holiday Card infographic for Visual.ly:

Follow @YiyingLu on Twitter.