Hi, I am Tatiana and I am a data visualization nerd.
Ever since that fateful afternoon in a university library, where i poured over the pages of the timeless pages of Edward Tufte’s seminal book, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, I was in love. I was already a graphic designer, but this was like a whole new world. The world of learning, curiosity, and making a true difference in this world. With each page, I felt smarter and smarter.
And then, one fateful December morning in 2004 in San Francisco, i listened to ET himself tell the story of the terrible fate of Shuttle Columbia. A disaster that could have totally been prevented through better communication of the available data. I was shocked, and also convinced: THIS. This is what I want to do with my life. Data and design. Design and data. I could eat both for lunch and dinner.
Over the next decade, with a few different employers, from a small marketing department to a Big Four accounting firm, I sought each data viz project I could find. They did not disappoint! From predicting the future of Earth’s largest cities to analyzing technical trends to helping present evidence to a judge — I have been a part of many fascinating projects.
As I left corporate world and became a full-time freelancer, the focus on data visualization has become even easier. I could pick and choose the projects and the clients that I liked. But I felt lonely. There were so many amazing discoveries, solutions, thousands of pages of pencil sketches and sudden “ahas” in the shower, but not that many people to share it with. When a client would write to me that my work helped him gain tremendous success with his readers — it was just him and me, and all the lessons I learned along the way were just sitting collecting dust on my hard drive. “If only I could have an apprentice,” I thought to myself.
Well, the time has come. No more hiding in my home office behind my pink iMac. This September, I am opening up a mentorship program. It will include a course teaching the foundational principles, and a community where we will practice what we learned. You will be able to learn and bring your own projects for critique and redesign. If you want to take your data visualization to the next level, if you want to move into data visualization space, join the waitlist and become the founding member of the Designer Dataviz community.
Let’s make history together. Let’s do something cool with your career. Let’s make a difference in this world. I’m here to guide and support you along the way.