“Confessions of a Blog-A-Holic” is a visual representation of data pulled from designer Natasha Nuttall’s blog Graphique Fantastique. The image was found at I WANT DATA – a Tumblr blog which collects and publishes ‘a new datavisualization every day’.

Data visualization is the process of taking data in the form of numbers and facts and transforming it into a visual, graphic representation. The process tends to create more a more palatable representation of the data – visual learners grasp information more easily from a series of shapes than a stream of numbers. It also just tends to be a really cool way to represent monotonous day-to-day actions that otherwise people would shrug off. In “Confessions of a Blog-A-Holic” graphic designer Natasha Nuttall used data from her blog Graphique Fantastique to create a simple poster detailing blog activity from January, 2009 through December 2011. The blog “features posts about [Nuttall’s] design influences, opinions and the journey of her career” and, as such, could easily be classified as a graphic designer’s self-portrait. This graphic itself is an alternate representation of said self-portrait, a visualization of the points of data tied up in opinion and personal growth. I chose this graphic because of my own interest in data visualization, and simply because I find it aesthetically pleasing as a designer.

Nuttall uses many basic design techniques in her creation of this piece – for starters there’s an easy to spot grid in the rows and columns of the triangles. The typography is present and informative without distracting or taking from the overall minimalist design. There is even, arguably, a hierarchy of information. Viewers will first look at the bigger triangles, then realize they mean something more and move in closer to examine the smaller triangles which make up the larger ones. There are pockets of information folded into shapes through simple use of color. Most importantly, to me, the use of color is analogous. Nuttall isn’t trying to distract the viewer from the larger triangle shapes by using bright, contrasting colors. Instead they use a muted series of blues paired with grey and white contrast. The darkest color is a midnight blue that sits heavy on the page, representing the highest numbers on the data scale.

Overall I find this piece well-balanced, and consider it a well-made look into the ‘self’ of a designer via their blog.