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Here in Melbourne, like many parts of the world, we're currently in lockdown (again) and, well, it kind of sucks. While we're lucky that it's (mostly) business as usual for our video, illustration, and graphic recording clients, we still can’t wait to safely get back to doing all of those things we once took for granted: eating at cafes and restaurants, filming in our studio, visiting other people's homes, seeing live music, getting inspired at galleries, and travelling! It's clear that none of this will happen until enough people are vaccinated against CoVid-19, so we thought we'd join the movement in encouraging everyone to get the jab. Our entire team are grateful and proud to be fully vaccinated, so we thought we'd "wear it proud" by way of a virtual background in the virtual meetings we have with friends and colleagues, to celebrate where we’re headed and encourage others along the way.
And you can too! These images will work with any videoconferencing software that supports virtual backgrounds—Zoom, Teams, WebEx, or something else—and are completely free for you to download and use. There are no restrictions on use, or any credit necessary. Just download the image, set it as your virtual background in your meeting platform of choice, and spread the word. Because the more people who can get vaccinated and do get vaccinated, the better off we’ll all be. To download the virtual backgrounds, right-click on the image and select "Save As".  
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CATEGORIES: TECHNOLOGY, SALES The Client Squirrel Business Hub The Problem Squirrel is a fast-growing technology consulting firm that specialises in the installation, configuration, and integration of business systems—in particular Customer Relationship Management systems (CRMs).  Every business reaches a point at which they need a CRM to handle incoming leads and customer conversations. Unfortunately most small businesses owners don’t even know what a CRM does. Our Approach We believe that education is the most powerful sales strategy. The goal of this video was to build authority and trust with the audience by explaining what a CRM is and how it helps a business function more effectively. The Squirrel brand is one that is very approachable and friendly. Much like the mascot at the heart of the brand, there is an element of fun and cute in the way that “Squirrelies” portray themselves to the world. As a result, we knew that it would be important that the video reinforce the fact that, while technology can be intimidating and scary, your technology partner need not be.  Our Solution We opted for a first-person view of the customer, so that the target audience would see themselves in the story, and the pain relayed by the narrator would resonate. The client was so happy with the video script that the final line: “for all the things you didn’t get into business to do” would go on to become the marketing tagline adopted by the business. To present the solutions that the Squirrel team offers its clients as non-scary, we peppered the technical explanations with squirrels and fluffy, friendly “cloud” creatures throughout the video.  A hand-drawn explainer video is an effective tool for educating without being patronising. While it was necessary for us to introduce some terminology, we:
Client Testimonials
“We have that video on the home page of our website for a reason—it beautifully communicates everything that we want potential customers to know about what we do before we start a conversation with them. It’s perfect!” —Kylie Harker, Founder More Information For more details on this project, or to learn how Sketch Group can help you make an impact by sketching your story, contact our friendly team:
CATEGORIES: NOT-FOR-PROFIT, VISUAL FACILITATION, ILLUSTRATION The Client Victorian Department of Health & Human Services The Challenge We feel extraordinarily lucky on a regular basis that we get to partner with clients doing work that matters, so we were humbled when the Department of Health & Human Services approached us to map the journey of foster carers from initial interest to multiple children and beyond.. One of the biggest challenges in this space is there is a higher demand for foster carers than are available, so there is a real need for efforts in educating and inspiring others to take this journey. Getting people together with a lived experience, and enabling them to feel safe enough to share their story was a huge part of this exercise. Once we elicited their stories, we were able to illustrate the journey in a way that made sense as a poster to raise awareness and validate the important role that existing carers play. Our Approach We worked with folks from DHHS and the Foster Carer's Association of Victoria to:
 Our Solution Because of the sensitive nature of the subject matter, we decided collectively that there was value in creating two versions of the poster—one that would be useful for recruiting, retaining, and raising awareness of foster carers, and another version that was more suitable for internal use. This internal version was more focussed on helping members of DHHS and agencies to identify opportunities where the overall system could be improved. We were faced with the challenge of walking a fine line between wanting to shout from the rooftops about what amazing work foster carers do for our community, with painting a realistic picture that accurately portrays the fact that being a foster carer is hard. Some of the stories that came out on the day were heartbreaking, and the weight of responsibility to capture and visualise those emotions was enormous. 
The Outcome  We were extremely proud of the final result, which was a truly collaborative effort from the department, agencies, carers, advocates, and several members of the Sketch Group team. With this journey map, the Victorian Government and the Foster Carer’s Association are better equipped to explain what is involved, manage people’s expectations, and encourage more Victorians to volunteer to foster a child. Client Testimonials “I love it. I think it is perfect.” — Katie Hooper Chief Executive Officer, Foster Care Association of Victoria More Information For more details on this project, or to learn how Sketch Group can help you make an impact by sketching your story, contact our friendly team:
 CATEGORIES: EDUCATION, LIVE SKETCHING, LOCAL GOVERNMENT The Client Mount Alexander Shire The Problem Educating children about how to stay safe outdoors—for example, when cycling, camping, interacting with animals, or during a natural disasters like bushfire or flood—can be a tough sell. For it to be received effectively, educational content needs to be experiential, delivered using variety, interactivity, and novelty. Our Approach The team from Mount Alexander Shire did a great job of creating a range of outdoor stalls for school groups to visit on the day. We complemented these efforts by providing a graphic recorder to visualise the content on a large canvas.   The Outcome
The canvas was attached to a portable GraphicWall, which meant it could be easily moved between stalls and was therefore visible when it added the most value. The final canvas captured some of the highlights, and served as a record of “safety tips” for teaching staff, to remind students how to stay safe in a colourful and fun way. Photographs of the canvas served as useful marketing assets to celebrate the success of the event via official communication channels, such as the local council’s email newsletters and social media accounts. Client Testimonials “[The graphic recorder provided] Another dimension to the day by providing excitement and fun to participants (kids) and facilitators while sketching the main points of each presentation. Matthew communicated extremely well with participants and organisers and showed a genuine interest in the project and objectives we were delivering to assist with keeping children and their families safe and prepared for emergency. Credit to Matthew.” -- Luke Ryan, SAFE organiser More Information For more details on this project, or to learn how Sketch Group can help you make an impact by sketching your story, contact our friendly team:
CATEGORIES: FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, TRAINING Our Solution Sketch video is a powerful medium when the subject matter relates to topics that are either sensitive or cross-cultural boundaries. Illustrating scenarios, rather than filming them, is a cost-effective way to capture the nuances of interactions that have the potential to be emotionally charged. Using illustration also allows for sophisticated concepts to be effectively presented—and received—by an audience who may or may not understand every word in the voiced script. Watch the video on YouTube.  The Outcome The video has been viewed nearly 5,000 times. We also assisted in translating the video into other languages, including Mandarin, Hindi, Vietnamese, Malay, Indonesian, and Korean.  Client Testimonials
“Wow, it looks great! Thanks so much Kerstin. And thank you for getting it done so quickly. We’re very happy with it.” “Just wanted to let you know the video was very well received at the student conference last week, so we were really happy [with] the response.” —Melita Hoskin More Information For more details on this project, or to learn how Sketch Group can help you make an impact by sketching your story, contact our friendly team: Telephone: 1300 SKETCH Email: hello@sketchgroup.com Web: www.sketchgroup.com CATEGORIES: NOT-FOR-PROFIT, ILLUSTRATION The Client The Big Issue The Problem The Big Issue is a not-for-profit social enterprise dedicated to supporting and creating work opportunities for homeless, marginalised and disadvantaged people. They are best known for their fortnightly, independent magazine, which is sold on the streets by vendors. These vendors are not asking for charity. By selling the magazines, they are running a microbusiness, and The Big Issue is helping them to help themselves. Unfortunately, this concept is not well understood by the general public. Our Approach We met with the client and workshopped ways that the concept could be communicated. Our empathy forecast activity helped to elicit some of the assumptions made by members of the public, and the internal conversations that vendors have. This helped to extract multiple layers to the message, including:
  We explored the possibility of communicating this message, and the unique business model, as a comic strip. After several iterations, we hit upon the concept of a single diagram depicting what is a virtuous cycle: make -> buy -> sell  Our Solution The final image combined scenes from the original comic strip with the diagram depicting the cycle, with the vendor pictured at the centre of the process. We delivered portrait and landscape versions of the diagram, so that the magazine publishing team could fill half- or full-page slots when there were advertising slots that had not been sold.  The Outcome The image was an absolute stand-out success, and led to additional work with The Big Issue for us to evolve the concept into an animated video. What began as a simple diagram to fill pages in the magazine in lieu of advertising slots evolved into a multi-media campaign that was screened nationally on free-to-air television, cinemas, and large outdoor displays in Melbourne’s CBD, as well as continued reach via The Big Issue’s various social media channels. But the real impact was a growth in confidence in vendors, which came from them having a tool to clearly explain that they were not seeking charity, but were in fact running a microbusiness.
Client Testimonials “The sketch clearly articulated The Big Issue model. It was really helpful to distil the transaction simply as ‘Buy, Make, Sell’—it showed that the ‘Make’ component was central to the enterprise. Without the creation of a magazine, there is nothing for vendors to sell! The central element of the sketch clearly conveyed the sustainability of the model and the central role that the vendor plays. It packed a lot of information into one infographic.” —Louise Gray More Information For more details on this project, or to learn how Sketch Group can help you make an impact by sketching your story, contact our friendly team:
CATEGORIES: INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS, MOTION GRAPHICS The Client AustralianSuper The Problem Making superannuation fun is a tough ask. And communicating the principles of measured risk within the superannuation world is even more difficult. But that was the challenge that AustralianSuper set us. How to educate the investment team on when to take risks, what parameters to adhere to, and how and when to report incidents are all important—but boring—messages to get across to the entire team. Our Approach We worked with AustralianSuper to create a series of animated videos that illustrated these concepts in a way that was light-hearted, but still accurate and carried the gravitas required for these big topics. Our first step was to establish a character that could be used across multiple stories. Having a recognisable face would provide for continuity and create anticipation with each new story released. The character we created was “Wriskers”, a mouse. This choice of animal came from the popular “cheese model” that is prevalent throughout the world of risk. The concept stems from the holes that occur in Swiss cheese, and when we proposed the idea during the proposal stage, the client fell in love with it immediately.  Given the client had well established brand guidelines, it was important that Wriskers—and every other element created for the video series—fit in with the rest of the existing brand colour palette, style, tone, and choice of language. Our Solution  The videos that we created for the Risk team at AustralianSuper are those of which we are most proud. The combination of challenges made for an extremely rewarding project, namely:
The Outcome The “Risk Matters” internal campaign was a huge success. After the first video in the series was published to the staff intranet, inquiries began about when the next in the series would be released. Pageviews of each video reflected a high degree of engagement, and the team capitalised on “Wriskers” becoming the local office mascot by extending his presence to other marketing collateral. Client Testimonials “The Risk Matters animated videos from Sketch Group were such a hit, and the team were wonderful to work with. We had too many cooks in the kitchen, but they were incredibly patient and delivered something that we are really proud of. I can’t wait to partner with them on another project soon!” —Julianne Dowse, Change Manager More Information For more details on this project, or to learn how Sketch Group can help you make an impact by sketching your story, contact our friendly team:
CATEGORIES: BRANDING, TRAINING The Client VELCRO® Australia The Problem VELCRO® is a known and respected brand around the world. But the trademark is often misused, and the language used by suppliers and customers when describing the range of products can be inconsistent and wrong. The VELCRO® team wanted to educate people in the correct way to use the brand, and do so in an engaging and understandable way. Our Approach We opted to use a carrot rather than a stick when it came to educating users on how to refer to the VELCRO® Brand trademark. We knew that creating a fun, light-hearted and engaging video would illuminate problems and solutions with a smile. We facilitated an empathy forecast session to gain clarity on the VELCRO® brand and the message. The exercise also shed some light on how distributors and partners feel about the brand, and some assumptions that they make. We used the outcomes of this activity to distil the language and key points that needed to be in the video, to ensure the desired message would be heard, supported and remembered. Our Solution Because we shoot our sketch videos in a studio, rather than utilising a software tool to mimic a hand bouncing around on screen, we are able to bring additional items onto the canvas other than just a pen and paper. In this case, it made perfect sense for us to use some of the much loved and instantly recognisable VELCRO® brand products, and combine them with sketching to bring the messages to life in a unique, memorable, and colourful way.  The Outcome The video was well received by the client, and anecdotally was a success with distribution partners as well—anecdotally, the client has seen a decrease in the number of partners that discuss, promote, or request VELCRO® brand products incorrectly after watching the video. And the client now has a video resource that will be used for many years to come to protect their brand, image, and trust in their products. Client Testimonial
“The problem that faced Velcro Australia was trying to educate our distributors that we are a brand and that we should not be referred to as a noun or adjective. We wanted to ensure that our trademark was protected and displayed in the correct manner at all times, when referring to our genuine hook and loop fasteners. The sketch video created was ideal for conveying our message. It put across the message of trademark hygiene in a fun and engaging way which we thought may not be possible. The video is used regularly to help protect and train our stakeholders of the importance of our beloved trademark.” —Xavier Poynton, Marketing Manager More Information For more details on this project, or to learn how Sketch Group can help you make an impact by sketching your story, contact our friendly team:
 If you’ve been tasked with developing a series of training videos for your company, you may be wondering what pitfalls to expect on such a large project (so that you can avoid them). Perhaps you’ve created video content for learning and development in the past, and hit a few snags that you wish you could have planned around? Creating a library of quality educational video content and delivering it on time and within budget not only requires a creative, competent team, but it also requires a mature production process. Our guiding principles have evolved from creating hundreds of videos over the years; while every project has its own unique challenges, we believe that by following these principles, we put ourselves in the best possible position for the project to succeed. Typical Challenges In our experience, the major challenges that learning and development teams run into when developing training video content are the following: 1. Stakeholder buy-in Investing in a repository of content that is to be used company-wide runs the risk of being derailed by executives who hold influence and are not part of the core project. We have seen many projects get developed and then hit a wall right before launch, because a senior person decided to get involved at the last minute and decide that the outcome needs to change, based on them not having been involved. 2. Stakeholder sign-off In the same vein, often there can be too many “cooks in the kitchen”, which results in:
3. Employee Engagement Internal videos can be notoriously boring for employees to watch. No matter how flashy or colourful the animations, if the story behind the message falls flat, the video campaign will fail. The story behind the visuals needs to be carefully crafted to hook people in, tell a story, invoke humour when appropriate, and demonstrate that the messaging is clear, authentic, and in the viewer’s best interest, while also piquing one’s curiosity for future messages. 4. Update-ability Circumstances change, and it’s important to have the ability to update content should the next pandemic or economic upheaval dictate that the company’s strategy has changed. If video content is not created in a way that allows for easy updates, then these changes can be costly and time-consuming. 5. Long-term ROI Content that is supported by management, delivered on time, engages employees, and is updapte-able will last for a long time, and is able to be used over and over again. Creating quality content that ticks all of these boxes is paramount to a successful campaign. Guiding Principles Some of the guiding principles that we follow to remedy to these challenges (and what we refer to lovingly as our sketchosophy™) are as follows: 1. Early involvement In our experience, involving key stakeholders and decision makers early in the project is crucial in order to garner the support from senior management that is critical for long-term success. At Sketch Group, we have developed an activity that we call the Empathy Forecast, which we facilitate at the beginning of every video project. This two-hour workshop is incredibly effective at:
The Empathy Forecast activity has become so successful, it received an entire chapter devoted to it in The World of Visual Facilitation, a best-selling book that Sketch Group founder, Matthew Magain, co-authored in 2019. And while these benefits are all valuable insights for shaping the end product, there is often one more (unintended) upside to running this activity:
 Coming up: Free Empathy Forecast Workshop
Are you interested in learning how to build a successful foundation for your next communication project? Why not register for our next free workshop? We’ll explain what the Empathy Forecast activity is, and step you through how to run it with your own groups. You'll even get the chance to practice applying it in a small group, with each group having a different communication challenge to solve. Get in quick! These workshops fill up quickly—numbers are limited to 25 participants. 2. Single point of contact Having one person as the primary point of contact is crucial for managing rounds of feedback and achieving deadlines. This point of contact should be responsible for collating all of the feedback from individuals who will help shape each video. 3. Visual consistency We believe that campaigns with visual consistency will be longer lasting. In our experience, multi-video projects should be viewed as internal campaigns, and communicated as such—with each component complementing the other to support a broader message. A great way to ensure this is by using the same illustrator throughout the life of the project for example to achieve this consistency. 4. Visual/verbal balance The content should strike the balance between visual and verbal forms of communication. Science shows that optimising both channels leads to higher retention and recall of information as well as improved focus. What this means for your trainees is that they will have an experience that is both memorable and engaging. 5. Character-driven It’s no great secret that the key to successfully communicating your message is to do it through the telling of stories. However, it is important, as with the visuals that drive the stories, that the characters within them make regular appearances. This consistency of a cast of characters allows the viewer to learn more about the personality of each character, and relate to each of them as they interact. They can identify with and form empathy for them, and anticipate their reactions in the various situations in which they are depicted. In short, character-driven stories are more relatable, because the characters allow the audience to form a personal bond with the message. 6. Modular Construction There’s no telling what’s around the corner, so it’s conceivable that in one, two, or five years’ time, one or more of your videos may need updating to reflect the latest change in direction, acknowledge a new global pandemic, or communicate a different strategy that the board has decided upon. Building a video in a modular fashion will minimise the cost of making such changes. It’s helpful to begin a project with the expectation that there may need to be changes made down the track, to reduce costly rework. Conclusion Overseeing the creation of a large number of videos can become a time suck if not planned for or managed properly. As we’ve highlighted, by being aware of the common challenges that come up in projects like this and planning around them, you can ensure that your training video project becomes famous (and not infamous) for all the right reasons. We’d love to hear your experiences, or any challenges or solutions that we may have missed, in the comments. And of course if you’d like to chat with someone about how to ensure your next training video project is a success, contact our friendly team: hello@sketchgroup.com sketchgroup.com 1300 SKETCH @sketchgrp
We've just published the latest episode of The Sketchcast, the show showcasing people who are using sketching to change the world! In this episode I had the good fortune of chatting to Shirley Wu, whose data visualisations achieve that enviable balance of providing insight into large data sets, while at the same time still managing to be stunningly beautiful to look at.
We cover a range of topics, including:
As always, I've peppered the interview with visual notes that I took of our chat, and I've also included a bunch of examples of Shirley's work that really are amazing to explore. Who knew that data could look so beautiful? That said, for those of you who like their podcasts while they're driving or exercising, there's an audio version version up on Soundcloud without all of the visual treats.
Tools and websites mentioned in the show:
Visual notes of the interview:
There's also a full transcript below. Leave me a comment—I'd love to hear who you think I should interview next!
Full transcript: Matthew: Hello, again, subscribers, viewers, listeners, sketchers. Welcome to the Sketchcast, the show that teaches you how to be amazing with sketching and where I get to interview people who are using sketching to change the world. Matthew: First up, thank you so much for everyone who listened or viewed the first episode and liked or shared or commented on it. It was so great to hear that so many of you thought this was a worthy exercise. I do apologize that I can't commit to a tight schedule at this stage, but I do love doing these and I kind of figure, quality over quantity. So thank you for your patience and thank you for your support. Matthew: In today's episode, I talk to Shirley Wu, the incredibly talented data visualizer from San Francisco. That's right. Today's guest does not use pens or markers to sketch, although that's not really true, as you'll hear later. She uses code and data. Her creations look stunning. They bring clarity and insight to large datasets. It's such a great chat. I can't wait for you to hear it. Shirley talks about her process, about the principles she uses to create her stunning data visualizations, about how she chooses her aesthetic, and we also get a bit sidetracked talking about hip-hop musicals, but that's okay because everyone loves a bit of hip-hop musical theatre, right? As always, I've also created visual notes for this chat and included them throughout the interview. So hopefully, you find them amusing. Matthew: Today's episode is brought to you by Sketch Group. At Sketch Group, we sketch your story. We believe sketching can be transformational and that the right images are the best way for your message to be heard, by the people who need to hear it. Our team of illustrators and graphic recorders have years of experience creating imagery for your brand, your conference or your remote workshop. Bring your story to life at sketchgroup.com. Matthew: Shirley Wu, welcome. It's so great to have you on the show for a number of reasons, which we'll get into in a minute. But before we start, tell me, how are you? How is life in San Francisco, as we navigate this weird thing that is 2020? Shirley: Yeah. It's weird. I think you mentioned a little bit earlier about trying to figure out what to do in this time. Similarly, I'm a freelancer, and at the beginning of the pandemic, everything kind of... All of my clients kind of went away. So it's been a very interesting time trying to figure out how to pick up the pieces and regroup. Shirley: But other than that, there's a heatwave going on right now. So it's really hot. Matthew: Wow. Yeah. So, well, I'm so glad to hear that you're managing to survive and that you're being distracted by the heat. Why don't you start with you telling us your story, telling us how you came to be doing what you do and a little bit about yourself. Shirley: Yeah. So my name is Shirley, and the title I've given myself as a freelancer is an independent creator of data visualizations. And it's just like a title that just means that I work with a bunch of different clients and I help them tell visual stories with their data. And so, oftentimes, they'll have a dataset that they want to do something with and I'll work with them, try and figure out if there's anything interesting in there, I'll design and prototype with them, and that's where kind of the sketching part comes in. And then, I will code and implement the visualizations in the web. Shirley: And I guess how I came to it is kind of this, it felt roundabout but I guess it's not at all, in that I studied business in a university and I thought I was going to go into finance. I really did not like it. I ended up picking up some computer science classes. And when I graduated, I started as a software engineer at a big data company. This was when people were still trying to figure out what big data was. And because of that, I got introduced to this JavaScript library called D3. And that is kind of now probably the defacto JavaScript library for creating data visualizations on the web. And that's how I found out about this whole practice of turning data into visuals. And yeah, so it felt roundabout, but actually it was quite straightforward. Matthew: So often we think of people as having an affinity for one thing, like we might say, "She's really into the arts," or, "He's really good at maths and programming," but the work that you do, without fanboying too much, it is both beautiful and technically accomplished. I've also worked as a software developer in the past, so I can appreciate, I mean, you're really kind of pushing the boundaries technically on some of... for what technology can do in the browser. So how does one go about becoming a polymath and deep-diving on more than one area? How do you learn? Shirley: Yeah, thank you so much. Yeah, like you said, even as a child, I really loved both sides. I loved art. And I think a relative gifted me a paint set when I was four, a watercolour paint set when I was four, and I kind of doodled all my life. I don't know where those doodles are. I'm kind of scared to find them. So that's why they're not being shared. And I took art all four years of high school, but then when I went to university, somehow I convinced myself that I wasn't going to do art because that's not a way to make a living. So that's how I started taking computer science classes. Shirley: But even growing up, at the same time as all of those doodling and art classes, I also always really enjoyed math. I really enjoyed how logical it was, that there is an answer that we're trying to get to. I really loved that. And that's the same thing with computer science. I really loved the, for most things, it's there is a answer that we can get to. It's either going to work or not work and it might have some bugs, but it will work or not work. And so, that's kind of the driving factor of, I just have always loved both. Shirley: As for how to go about doing that, I'm not sure if I have a vice or anything. I think it's just that I do feel that, as a society, we tend to just get so bogged down to like, "Oh, you need to specialize in this one thing." Or you need to be either like, "If you're an artist, you can't be logical," or all of those things that you just mentioned before. Shirley: And I guess the only thing I'll say is, just reject that. I get frustrated with these kind of boxes that we put each other into and just, if you enjoy something, go for it. And for me, it's like, I get a special amount of joy when I push the boundaries of the web. Some of the projects that you might have seen, I get a particular joy when I'm pushing it to the limit. Or one time I found a bug in Chrome, because of I was working in Canvas and it was just like, I just used it in a way they didn't expect. And so, yeah, I just kind of enjoy that. Matthew: Amazing. So can you talk to me a bit about your process? How do you go about finding a dataset and then through to it looking beautiful and telling the story that evolves from the data? Shirley: Yeah, yeah, definitely. So one of the things that I firmly believe in is that, for me, it's really important that I start with kind of a curiosity or an interest about something in the world. And what I mean by that is I think the way that you found me was through my visualization on Hamilton, the musical, and that one was, I was obsessed back in 2016. So I created the visualization in 2016. And I first learned about the musical in maybe mid-2016. And I was so obsessed. I loved it. I loved. You've also said this, you said that you and your whole family watched it. Yeah. Matthew: We can geek out about Hamilton later but yeah, go on. Shirley: At one point and I loved kind of the lyrics and I love how empowering it was. And this was just listening to the cast recording on Spotify. And even then, I just had it on repeat for months. And I was so obsessed that I started feeling like, "Oh, there's all these repeated phrases. And there's probably some really interesting analysis, like literary analysis we can do because it's so intense. It's so beautifully constructed and intentionally done." And my husband was like, "Okay, why don't you just make a visualization?" And I'm, "No, that's too obsessive." And then a few days later, I was like, "Okay, I'm that obsessive." And so then I went out and I essentially made my own dataset because while the lyrics are online, the information about where the repeated phrases were... first of all, what is kind of this set of repeated phrases? Can we group them? Who sang them? Where did they sing them? And then additionally, who conversed with each other? Who kind of had the most co-occurrences? All of that wasn't anything readily available online. Shirley: So I spent three days manually going through the lyrics twice, the first time around to kind of jot down all of that information and the second time to manually enter it. And that's what I mean though, about having that curiosity, because I think that curiosity really drives me through some of the toughest points of creating something. Because I feel like, especially with self-motivated projects, there's always that kind of slump where I don't know how to get out of it. And I think when it's something that's motivated by my own curiosity, I tend to be able to come out on the other side of this. Shirley: So always start with curiosity, and then it's analyze the data, try and sketch out some ideas, and then see if it works with the data and kind of rinse, repeat with a sketch and a code until I get something. Matthew: Very cool. So we'll share some of your sketches for some of the projects that you've worked on, but tell me how, apart from being obsessed with something because of music and the story, how else do you go about choosing projects? Shirley: Oh, yeah. So for quite a long time, so I have a project called Data Sketches with my friend, Nadieh Bremer, and that project was... the idea behind it was we would choose 12 different topics and we would go out and we would create a whole data visualization and we would document the whole process. And so for the longest time, it was kind of dictated by the topics that we chose together, and all of those topics were things that we thought would be really fun. So we started out with movies and then it was always kind of topics that were broad enough so that we can both have our own spin on it. Shirley: So for example, for movies, my personal curiosity was I'm really bad at pop culture references. And I've always thought that that's because I just have never watched enough movies. So the visualization I did was I went and gathered all the top summer blockbuster movies, data on them, since I've been alive. And then I visualized their information. And then I also took a look at which ones I've actually watched. And it turns out I've only watched 17 of them. I was like, "Oh, this makes sense." Shirley: But I guess it's kind of things that I notice in my life and then get curious about. So there was another one in Data Sketches, we called it Myths and Legends. And for that particular one, I was trying to figure out what's a legend or a myth that I'm really curious about. And it turned out that I realized that I couldn't list as many notable women figures in history. And even thinking about my history textbooks, I just couldn't think of that many women's names. And that's when I went and found a list of the women Nobel Laureates and that's how I ended up visualizing that one. Shirley: So it really is just whatever I come across in life, in daily life. And I'm like, "Oh, I wonder." And that's how it happens. And other than that, it's clients coming to me with a specific dataset. Matthew: And is the data that you're after generally available for free online, or do you have to get creative in sourcing it? Shirley: It depends, again, because it's just whatever I'm curious about. It depends. So for some of the most kind of serious and sensitive topics, those are ones that I usually have worked with a client, I've partnered with a client with, because either they have that dataset already. Shirley: So there's an example where Nadieh and I worked with the Guardian, the US Guardian team on a story about homelessness in the United States. There's a program in quite a few American cities where it's called the Homeless Relocation Program and they buy bus tickets for homeless people to travel to a different city. In that particular dataset, the Guardian team, their reporters has spent 18 months gathering that data because they would kind of... I can't remember what the name of it was, but then they would contact the city and ask for those records. And then they would, oftentimes because it was in PDF or even sometimes handwritten, they would manually enter it into Excel. Shirley: So in that case, I was lucky because as a non-journalist, I would probably not have access to that, but for some of the most kind of sensitive, it's usually I try to work with experts, mostly because I wouldn't have access to it. But for some of the kind of funner pop culture sort of things, it's usually quite available online. It's usually I'll do some Google searches. And the tip I've found in terms of finding a dataset that is well-cleaned and well-formatted is to Google for the dataset, whatever the topic, and write GitHub. And if I include in the search term, GitHub, and it'll usually turn up a GitHub repo of where someone has already gone and cleaned the dataset. So that is a little tip that I've learned over the years. But other than that, I'm... Sorry, what? Matthew: I just said, that's a great tip. Shirley: Thank you. And then, APIs, many APIs, I tend to do a lot of, I get curious about the social media, I get curious about Instagram or YouTube videos. And so, they have really well-documented APIs. So any combination of those, usually, it's some combination of automated scripts and manual entry, and it's like a gradient. Matthew: Very good. So it's okay. Excuse me. It's one thing to be able to code the data and present it in the way that you want it. It's another thing to make it look beautiful. What are your influences on the aesthetic that you choose? How have you landed upon the style for your visualizations? Shirley: Yeah, that's a tough one. I feel like it's kind of all over the place for me. I think I just experiment and then I'm like, "Oh, this looks pleasing." A top-level answer is I just kind of try, I throw things and then see what sticks, but I guess to kind of try to be more specific about it, I feel like there's, at least within kind of data visualization and information design, I feel like it's a little bit different in practice from graphic design or visual design, in that, personally, I think to make it aesthetically pleasing, there's two, maybe three main things that I'm trying to get a good balance of. Shirley: The first is typography, because information, and I do the lazy non-design student, like non-trained design, self-taught designer thing where I'm just like, "Oh, this one book about typefaces mentioned this typeface. So it must be a good one." And I just choose that, I choose a serif font, and sometimes I'll choose my default sans-serif and I just use those for every single project. And that's been nice because then people are like, "Oh, this is Shirley's work. Because it's like a..." Shirley: Then the second thing is colour. So then, I usually with visualizations, colour is such a big, important visual channel for kind of communicating the information. So oftentimes, I'll end up with either a very white background or a very dark background. And then, I can use colour to communicate something. So then I kind of have a colour palette that I, when I first started freelancing, I just made a colour palette for myself. And then that's the colour palette that I choose from every time I do a project, which again, gives it a very similar feel between my projects. Shirley: Then the last one is kind of the layout and that one is really kind of dependent on the project, but yeah, so that's from kind of like a visual side of how I go about things. Shirley: Then from kind of like a conceptual side, I really like this concept of a visual metaphor, which in data visualization is whatever visuals that you choose. So actually, let me back up a little bit and say that in visualization, there's a concept called marks and channels. And so, what marks mean is these geometric shapes, so circles like dots or the rectangles or bars that you might map your data to, and visual channels are kind of the modifiers for that. So maybe the X, Y position in which you placed those marks or maybe the colour of it or the dimension, the width, height of it. And so, when I think about a visualization project, I sometimes try to think about what kind of marks or how can I choose some my marks or channels such that it actually ties back into the dataset itself. Shirley: So for the Hamilton one, because it was a musical, the way that I tried to represent the themes was kind of with these like kind of arts and characters that I was inspired from musical sheets. And so, that's the kind of conceptually, I tried to think about visual metaphors that might help tie the dataset, the visualization back to the dataset. Matthew: It seems your business model is to make cool stuff and put it on the internet and then people see it and come and ask to work with you, which is not that dissimilar to how I started Sketch Group, making videos and doing graphic recording. Is that a viable business model? Is that your approach? Shirley: Yeah. So I've been freelancing for the last four years. Wait. Okay. So short answer is, I'm not sure. The longer answer is I've been doing this for four years and it's worked out pretty well for me. Shirley: So the Hamilton project was in 2016, right after I went freelance. So that definitely helped put my name out there more. And all of the kind of subsequent projects that I've published have really helped. And so, there's clients coming in, client requests coming in. I'm very grateful for it. Shirley: At the very beginning, the reason why I went this way of putting things out and then waiting for inbound client requests instead of cold-contacting any specific client was because I realized that data visualization was so niche, that most people that I thought I might want to work for or work with, either didn't quite know what it was or didn't quite know why they needed it, or even if they did, they didn't have a budget available for it. So when I first started, I really kind of relied on people finding me and that way they already had a project in mind. They already had a budget in mind. Shirley: It's been four years. And the way I think about it has changed a little bit in that I think I've gotten, for better or for worse, I've gotten a little bit pickier about the projects I take and the topics that I'm interested in. And so, I'm kind of at that weird limbo stage where I think that I'm too picky for the requests that are coming in and not reputable enough for all of the projects that I want to take on, if that makes sense. So I am trying my best to kind of start reaching out to organizations that I really respect and start trying to kind of pitch ideas or stories, but certainly, I feel very nervous doing that. Matthew: So these projects that you take on as your kind of personal portfolio, how do you manage your time between spending hours and hours, it must be, on them and paying the bills and doing the projects that people want to pay you money for? That must be a difficult tension to, a difficult balance, to maintain. Shirley: Yeah, definitely. It's been quite difficult. I think the projects that I've felt have been, I guess, the most successful in terms of time management, have been those that I would have wanted to do on my own anyways, but just because personal projects I like to use as kind of experimentation for figuring out new technologies or new personal style or... So trying to find something that I want to do and then pitching clients to let me do it. And so, that way, the client project is the personal project. So those are the most successful ones, but obviously, that doesn't happen all the time. Shirley: So there are definitely months, I go mostly just doing client projects and then once those are done, I try to do a little bit of my personal projects or it's that I'm doing multiple at a time. And those are very confusing times because I'm just constantly context switching. And most of my projects take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. And so, it gets to be a lot. I have some projects that I've just never been able to finish. Shirley: But sometimes, it's also quite nice to have the personal project and client project to kind of bounce back and forth from, when I'm stuck on one or the other. So I don't have a hard and fast rule of this is how I schedule myself. It's kind of whenever the clients come in and whenever I schedule them. And then, other times, I like either... Well, so I guess currently for when COVID first started, it was that there were no clients I could schedule, but I also tried to take some time off between clients so that I could do kind of these personal projects. Matthew: And how important do you think it is having, I guess it's like an accountability partner in Nadieh, in terms of moving those personal projects forward? Shirley: Oh yeah, definitely. I have this joke that I spend, or it's not a joke, but it's something I've accepted about myself that I like thinking and planning for the future more than I like... what's the word? I dream more about the future than I do about the present. So I'm definitely between... And Nadieh's very much, very focused on the present. So it works really well to work with her because I tend to be the one that's like, "Oh. Here's all the ideas, let's do this with a project or let's do." So I'm always looking a few months ahead of what I want to do. And then she's the one that's like, "Shirley, you need to finish this project that you're working on currently." So I really appreciate it. And I definitely need that kind of accountability to be like, "Finish thing that's present." Shirley: So my newest thing is trying to do that via Twitch streams. So Twitch, I livestream my database projects; I'm going through the whole process of creating a data visualization on there right now, just because I realized that back in June and July, that I really lacked motivation. And so the Twitch stream was a way for me to hold myself accountable, to work on this project, no matter what. Matthew: Great. Can you give us any insight into what is coming next? What you're working on? What's in the pipeline? Shirley: Yeah. Yeah. So, like I mentioned earlier, I'm still trying to figure out how to regroup. I think I'm still little bit in the mourning phase of, there was a few clients I was talking to back in March that I was really excited about, and I'm now, months later, finally coming to the terms with the fact that it's probably not going to happen anymore because of the budget freezes. But certainly at the beginning, in March, I went and did a personal project and that took up maybe two months in my time of... and it was a personal project about how a pandemic might spread through a community. And once I did that, I went into kind of this, "I don't know what to do anymore now. I don't know how to spend my time." I've, I think, finally started to come out of that. Shirley: As of right now, I think I'm trying to keep it simple. I've been fortunate in that client requests are coming in again, they're not at the level of the scale or the excitingness of the scope as it was before, but thankfully, they're coming back in. So I'm just trying to kind of take... I'm trying really hard to just take the advantage of the fact that I don't have that many client projects right now and kind of redo my portfolio, try and get better at more new skills. Shirley: And one of the biggest things that I've been trying to learn is how to bring the work I do out into a physical space. So kind of physical computing, and it's been a dream of mine for a few years to do some sort of an installation. And so, kind of trying to take this time to explore more of different materials and different electronics and how I can incorporate the data and the projects that, the kind of projects I've always been doing in the screen and try and take it out to the three-dimensional world. So that is what I'm trying to get back to. Matthew: I can't wait to see what that looks like. Shirley, do you have any tips or suggestions for folks listening who might be curious about pursuing a career in the data visualization world? What would you say to them? Shirley: Yeah, first of all, welcome. I feel like it's a very welcome or it's a very exciting time right now, just because there's just so much data out there and we're all trying to make sense of it now. And so, I would say that because of the amount of interest, there's been organizations that have started, and the one that I refer to a lot is called Data Visualization Society. And I would say that they're a quite a good place to get started with because they have been putting a lot of effort into gathering resources for people that are early career or people that are trying to get into data visualization. So they have fireside chats about different visualization topics and they have a whole section dedicated to just career advice for getting into data visualization. So it's quite a good resource. So I think that would be a really great place to start. Matthew: Cool. And lastly, if people would like to follow along with your work online, how can they contact you? And are there any projects that you want to give a plug? Now's your chance, this is your platform. Shirley: Oh yeah. Yeah. So my portfolio website is sxywu.com. And I'm that same as a handle on Twitter, Twitch, where I'm streaming, Instagram, YouTube, all of those things. So that's my handle. Shirley: And I, actually, there's a project that I've been enjoying recently in the last few weeks, and enjoying it is a weird word, but I've been extremely appreciating, which is called One Anti-Racist Action A Day. I think maybe you can Google just that, but it is a newsletter, a daily newsletter. It's very short and it just says, "Today, this is the topic. Here's what's happening. Here's the action you can take, and this is why it matters." And it's been really, really, really helpful to stay informed with everything that's been going on in the US and in a very manageable... it doesn't take over my life, but it's something that I can do in the time that I'm checking my email every day. Matthew: Amazing. Shirley, thank you so much for your time, for all of your tips and your nuggets and advice. Keep doing beautiful work and we really appreciate it. Shirley: Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me on, Matt. Thank you for finding me and for bringing me on. Matthew: Awesome. And that is it for this episode of the Sketchcast. Be sure to subscribe so that you can stay updated when the next episode goes live. And if you have any suggestions for guests that you would like me to interview on this show, please get in touch. You can find out our contact details in the show notes. Until next time, stay sketchy. Shirley: And then, we managed to get in. So we managed to not only get in, but we paid $40 for standing room only. So it's like all the way at the back of the theatre. So during the intermission, one of the ushers comes up to us. He's like, "Hey," so pointing to, it's orchestra, it's middle of orchestra, like all the way to the side. He's like, "Whoever is in those two seats have not shown up all of the first act. If, by the end of intermission, nobody has claimed those seats, you should just go sit down." So for the second half, we sat down in orchestra and it was amazing. Matthew: Wow. Shirley: Yeah. I cried so hard throughout most of the second act. Matthew: My partner and I went, my daughters stayed at home, and while we were there, there were tickets that were available. And so we definitely paid a lot more than $40, but we were sitting fourth row from the front. So we had amazing seats for the whole show as well. And I guess I knew that I would be able to go and see it. It was just a question of whether I was prepared to spend half of my life savings to buy a ticket to justify it. And then- Shirley: I wasn't going to say this in the middle, but your daughter didn't get to see it. Matthew: I thought she would be excited when I called her from the lineup, saying, "Guess what I'm going to see?" Apparently, she was really pissed off at me. Shirley: If I was the one that introduced you and then you were like, "Guess what I'm going to go do what you can't do?" I'd be like, "What?" Matthew: I promised her I'd take her to see it in Sydney next year. So she's got that to look forward to. Shirley: Just from an artistic standpoint of how everything, every one of those work together, but kind of like, you must have felt it, when you were in the room, in the theatre, the pure energy of not only the cast on stage, but the audience that's just so excited to be there. I feel like there was clapping after every song, standing ovation after, the energy in the room is amazing. Matthew: Absolutely. Absolutely. We got sidetracked there ... |
AuthorMatt is Chief Doodler at Sketch Group. He has contributed to several books on visual thinking, most recently The World of Visual Facilitation. 
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