This content originally appeared as part of The ‘Gale newsletter.
For the inaugural “Three Questions With …” we caught up with Elijah Meeks. Elijah is the Chief Visualization Officer at Noteable.io and the former Executive Director of the Data Visualization Society. He’s spent over a decade building and writing about data visualization. Thanks, Elijah!
1. If you could be any type of chart, what would you be?
I would be a network diagram because they’re inscrutable and intimidating and people love them without understanding them and they show up in the poshest places like movies and CEO slide decks and terrifying dreams.
2. If you were stuck on a desert island, what viz would you want to create and what would you use to make it?
I would make a 3D pie chart because, while it’s horrible as information visualization, it’s the only edible kind.
3. What is one visualization that has inspired you?
I love Ben Fry’s visualization of Darwin’s Origin of Species which I think was amazing in how it revealed that “static” or “finished” things like Darwin’s books are actually dynamic and evolving in a way that’s normally invisible.
Claire Santoro is an information designer with a passion for energy and sustainability. For 10 years, Claire has worked with governmental agencies, non-profit organizations, and higher education to accelerate climate action by communicating complex information in an engaging, approachable way. Claire holds an M.S. in environmental science from the University of Michigan.
