Organised by The Guardian
A weekend of lectures and exercises that will give you the tools to use data to create impactful presentations and stunning visuals.
Create a story that has a lasting impact, and discover how datasets can be communicated with beauty, in this not-to-be missed, highly informative, weekend class.
Discover, through interactive lectures, hands-on practical exercises and inspirational keynotes, how to structure your information, why it’s important to find your story within data and how to do it, how to produce your own visualisations and more.
If you’re new to design, or you want to reinvigorate your knowledge, this weekend of interactive and engaging sessions will provide you with the tools, motivation and confidence to view and use data in a brilliantly innovative way.
Course content
Day 1
- Fundamental principles of good visual design: Laura Knight will explain the ways we can structure information, such as location, time, category, and how these structures can help us to produce great designs.
- Workshop 1: Story finding and Wireframing. Adam Frost and Tobias Sturt will provide you with a choice of datasets and challenge you to uncover the story within. You will start sketching your own wireframes, allowing you to develop your thinking on how to effectively present information, with the option to submit these for feedback.
- The story of data journalism: award-winning data journalist Simon Rogers will share his insights and experiences in the field, from creating guardian.co.uk/data to becoming the data editor on the News Lab team at Google, with essential tips for anyone looking to develop their career in data visualisation.
- After hours chat with Shirley Wu: our conference hosts Adam Frost and Tobias Sturt will be conversing with award-winning creative Shirley Wu, to learn how she first got started in the industry, where she draws her inspiration from and what tips she has to offer for aspiring designers.
At the end of the first day, you will receive a handful of templates, enabling you to start creating your own beautiful visualisations.
Day 2
- Data visualisation at the Guardian: Ashley Kirk will showcase the Guardian Visuals team’s latest work and outline the thought processes behind them, including why specific visualisations were selected, how they were produced and what decisions were taken in the editing process.
- Workshop 2: Create your own designs. Adam Frost and Tobias Sturt will task you with producing your own visualisations, using the templates and tools provided at the end of the first day. You will have the option to receive feedback and begin to refine a compelling and attractive visualisation.
- Data Design: Seeing, Sensing, Stimulating. Learn from award-winning designer Valentina D’Efilippo exactly what it takes to create compelling visuals, and how she become a recognised figure in the industry.
This course is for…
- Anyone who needs to communicate information and is looking for more effective and compelling approaches.
- Anyone interested in learning how design can make data more engaging, memorable and shareable.
- You will be sent a link to the webinar 2hrs before the start time of 2pm (GMT) from The Guardian.
Tutor Profiles
Adam Frost was formerly head of data visualisation at the Guardian’s digital agency. He is now content director at Add Two, an agency specialising in data visualisation. His work has appeared on the Guardian, the New Statesman, Buzzfeed and elsewhere. Adam has also produced infographics and interactives for a range of public and private sector clients including the Department for Education, Google and Unilever.
Tobias Sturt was head of creative at the Guardian’s digital agency and is now creative director of Add Two. He has been working in digital storytelling for almost two decades using all kinds of media – from web to TV, games and infographics.
Laura Knight is a designer and educator whose research explores the relationship between visual representation and knowledge. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Graphic Design Department at University of the Arts, London. She was previously the Design Director at Data Design Studios where she worked with global clients to tell visual stories with data and images. She continues to work as a consultant and trainer, supporting teams in organisations and businesses worldwide to develop their capacity in visual storytelling and information design.
Simon Rogers is an award-winning data journalist, writer and speaker. Co-host of The Data Journalism Podcast with Alberto Cairo and author of ‘Facts are Sacred‘, published by Faber & Faber around the world. He has also written a range of infographics for children books from Candlewick. Data editor on the News Lab team at Google, based in San Francisco, he is director of the Sigma Data Journalism Awards and teaches Data Journalism at Medill-Northwestern University in San Francisco and has taught at U Cal Berkeley Journalism school.
Shirley Wu is an award-winning creative focused on data-driven art and visualizations. She has worked with clients such as Google, The Guardian, Scientific American, SFMOMA, and NBC Universal to develop custom, highly interactive data visualizations. She combines her love of art, math, and code into colorful, compelling narratives that push the boundaries of the web. Her work can be found at shirleywu.studio.
Ashley Kirk is a Visual Projects Editor at the Guardian. He interrogates datasets to find interesting news stories and then aims to communicate them in new, engaging ways. Prior to joining the Guardian, Ashley was a data journalist at The Telegraph and City AM. He teaches data journalism students at City University London.
Valentina D’Efilippo is a graphic designer with a special interest in information design. After studying industrial design in Italy, she moved to London and gained a postgraduate degree in graphic design at the London College of Communication. She has worked with a number of leading agencies contributing to award-winning campaigns for global brands. In 2013 she published The Infographic History of the World.
Details
- Date: Saturday 27 & Sunday 28 November 2021
- Times: 2pm – 5.30pm (GMT) on Saturday & 2pm - 5pm (GMT) on Sunday
- Price: £159 (plus booking fee)