Telling A Story With Visual Data
A conversation with designer and data visualization specialist, Eric Rodenbeck.
Eric Rodenbeck is Founder, CEO and Creative Director at Stamen, a data visualization firm whose thought-provoking projects have been recognized by Cooper Hewitt. He talks about his inspirations, and what it’s like to create work for the Dalai Lama.
Which of your data visualization projects has had the biggest impact in real life?
I don’t know how we’d measure that. I can talk about a few that have had some impact that I know about.
maps.stamen.com by Stamen
I know that the maps.stamen.com project has been (and continues to be) used in thousands of sites around the web. We intentionally set it up to not require passwords or signups or API keys or any other kind of authentication, so it’s not possible for me to understand its reach with any kind of accuracy, but it’s pretty big.
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“The idea that you won’t see the same winter song birds in 20 or 40 years had a big impact, and we were able to show those ranges moving quite dramatically in a way that I think sent the right kind of message to lots of people.”
The Atlas of Emotions for the Dalai Lama got a lot of press attention in places like Scientific American, and introduced a lot of people to the idea that science had a lot to say about emotions. The Dalai Lama asked his friend Paul Ekman to help him talk to Western audiences about emotions and calmness and compassion, and we were able to turn those ideas into data visualizations.
We visualized changing bird ranges due to climate change for the Audubon Society, and have continued to do so over time, including for a new project we’ll be able to talk about very soon. The idea that you won’t see the same winter song birds in 20 or 40 years had a big impact, and we were able to show those ranges moving quite dramatically in a way that I think sent the right kind of message to lots of people.
Audubon Society Climate Maps by Stamen
Do you ever approach organizations with ideas on how to further their mission through data visualization? Or do they always come to you with a challenge?
People typically bring us their challenges. Sometimes they’re extremely proscriptive with what that challenge is, other times the challenges are wide open and we collaboratively figure out what we’re going to build, and other times there’s a bit of both. Each has its own merits and opportunities.
“I’ll typically say ‘we design maps,’ at which point people say something like ‘I love maps,’ and I usually say “I know!””
What's the biggest hurdle you face when communicating the importance of your work to potential clients?
It used to be I’d say “we do data visualization” and people would say “data what”? We get less of that these days. I’ve really simplified how I talk about our work to people we don’t know yet; I’ll typically say “we design maps,” at which point people say something like “I love maps,” and I usually say “I know!”
Atlas of Emotions by Stamen
What's it like to create work for the Dalai Lama?
When we launched the work someone said that getting design feedback from the Dalai Lama was like getting spiritual advice from Jony Ive at Apple.
I got to meet him midway through the project and show him the work and get his input. One amazing thing about being around him is that when he’s looking at you, you know that he’s entirely and only concentrating on you. He just doesn’t look away at all. It’s a little unsettling to realize how distracted and unfocused the rest of your life is when you’re around someone with that level of commitment and focus to every moment.
I also tried to get him to interact with the laptop that we had the project loaded on. How cool would it have been to get a picture of him clicking on our work!? After a couple minutes of futilely trying to get him to use the mouse and trackpad he looked at me with a gleam in his eye and said “Technology—that’s for my next body.” The whole room cracked up. I had no idea he was such a joker.
How much of Stamen's studio time is devoted to pure experimentation?
Most projects involve some kind of experimentation in the beginning. We’re getting better at helping our clients understand that a discovery phase is an important part of every project at the onset. It just takes time to learn and figure out all the things that will go into a project, and a big part of that is trying new things.
We also really like to make visualizations of our clients’ data before they even hire us, as part of the business development process and to verify that we understand what the task is or is going to be. There’s a lot of experimentation there as well. And very often we’re experimenting all along the development of a project. One of my favorite things about our work is that we’re often asked to learn new things as part of project work, and that often means trying things that you don’t know how to do.
Detail from microbiome visualization - part of a collaboration between The Banfield Lab and Stamen
How do you stay on top of new technologies in design and visualization?
I hire people who are younger and smarter than me!
Who are your heroes? Who do you look to for inspiration in your work?
E J Marey is a big influence on me. He was an early dataviz pioneer, using and developing photography in the 1880s as a scientific instrumentation technique. His stuff was technically innovative and super weird looking and useful, which are qualities I aspire to in our work.
Clifford Ashley wrote a fantastic book called The Ashley Book of Knots. It has 7000 drawings of almost 4000 knots. It’s an astonishing work of creativity and a testament to his dedication.
I’m really excited by the work that Andrea Lipps is doing at the Cooper Hewitt in New York. Her recent work on Design Beyond Vision cataloged all this amazing work on scent, sound, smell. Did you know that the reason we think there are seven colors in the rainbow is that Isaac Newton was an alchemist, and believed in the Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Precious Metals, Seven Heavenly Bodies? He basically invented indigo because he needed seven colors.
Christiane Paul is doing a grand job at the Whitney and has been consistently at the forefront of digital curatorial practice. Her Data Dynamics — Exhibition of Net Art in 2001 shaped me and a whole generation of digital makers, and she hasn’t let up since.
To learn more about Eric Rodenbeck and Stamen, visit stamen.com.
Hear Eric speak at The New Context Conference in San Francisco in November.