First, I’d like to thank our awesome judges, who went through 2 difficult rounds of judging and discussion to help select the winners!
“Judging this was so difficult. I was blown away by the creativity.“ – Karen Lopez“Every single entry was compelling.” – Natasha
As described in the original post, we had 3 categories to be won, which can be summarized as follows:
- Most Beautiful – depicted the original visualization’s data in a visually impressive way
- Most Informational – most effectively/readably communicates the data from the original visualization
- Most Fun! – made the judges smile
There was no category where there was a clear winning crafty data visualization. Everyone who entered put their heart into it and had some creative, beautiful, fun, and informative handmade art! Without further ado, here are the top selections:
Most Beautiful
In the Most Beautiful category, the 5 judges initially selected 5 different winners! Eventually, they came to agreement on Patti Shih’s submission, comparing normal brain connectivity to connectivity “while tripping on magic mushrooms”:
(original)
“Patti was able to almost perfectly recreate the original dataviz using something as cozy as string. The choice of colors manages to make it even more visually appealing than the original.” – Emil Hvitfeldt
“Circos diagrams, although hard to gain insight from, are pretty. By sculpturing layers with string, Patti enhanced both their beauty and their informational value.” – Helena Jambor
Honorable Mention
The runner up in the Most Beautiful category was a twisted-metal tree representing a dendrogram of the students that Alli Torban’s (Host of Data Viz Today Podcast) mother taught throughout her career.
“The tree is very very beautifully done and photographed – serves both as reminder that tree-diagrams can be shown in 3D and is in itself almost a sculpture! “ – Helena
Most Informational
In this category, Amy Cesal’s two entries dominated; both of her Play-Doh-based visualizations won the most votes in the original round. They were also strong contenders in the Most Beautiful category. In the end, the judges selected the “joy plot” (aka ridgeline plot) of the Perceptions of Probability for its effectiveness in conveying the meaning of the original data visualization.
“Joy plots were recently re-popularized by @ClausWilke and are both fun and informative. Amy captured its full essence while choosing visually stunning Play-doh colors. Absolutely beautiful!” – Sean Law
Honorable Mention
Amy Cesal’s 2nd entry on birth time patterns was the other top choice in the Most Informational category.
(original)
“A creative use of Play-doh on top of a 3-D object makes me a big fan of Amy Cesal. I never thought that Nadieh Bremer’s wonderfully informative work could be improved upon but this is one beautiful exception!” – Sean Law
“I loved that this crafty version made the original data viz more understandable due to adding another dimension. “ – Karen Lopez
Most Fun
This subjective category also had multiple top picks in the first round of judging. After much deliberation, the judges chose Jon Schwabish’s daughter’s entry depicting her Halloween candy haul! Definitely fun, especially the mysterious “MEGA” category!
And to add to the fun, Hadrien Lacroix reverse-engineered a digital version!
“The joy and childlike wonder displayed in this dataviz brightened my day, which makes this project my choice of “Most Fun”!” – Emil
“The author’s clear zest for each individual data point (ie piece of candy) really shone through!” -Natasha
Honorable Mentions
The judges also thought that Awais Athar and Alli Torban‘s entries were especially fun and interesting!
The 3 category winners will get their choice of item from the Becoming a Data Scientist store. Congratulations! And thank you to every person who entered the #CraftyDataViz contest – there were many more awesome entries than we could depict here. This was truly amazing, and I can’t wait to do it again next year! Check out all of the impressive entries in this Twitter Moment!
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Enjoying this bot account
https://t.co/uRTj3LWgDm
— Data Science Renee (@BecomingDataSci) April 24, 2018
Today, I saw this tweet:
you could replicate this by gluing various dried out legumes to poster board if you wanted to https://t.co/icHeUuy4Ob
— Rebecca Williams (@internetrebecca) May 5, 2018
and imagined a census tract visualization made out of dried noodles and beans. Being as spontaneous as usual, I asked if anyone would be interested in having a #CraftyDataViz contest, and several people responded yes! So, here we are. Time to get creative!
Basic Contest Rules:
Find a data visualization online, in a book, or create one yourself. We need a digital version of the viz you’re recreating, so save the link or take a photo of it. Now, gather up some goodies from around the house or yard and/or hit the craft store (or maybe the grocery store!) and recreate that data viz in craft form!
It does need to be a physical end-product – no completely digital entries (though usage of printed elements is ok), but other than that there are no restrictions on materials or approach – get as creative as you want! At least part of it needs to be handmade or manually assembled (so no completely 3D-printed entries, for instance, but parts could be 3D printed) You can replicate the viz in detail, or do an abstract interpretation of it :)
I will find some judges that know something about data visualization, and they will pick winners in each of the following categories (we might do some sort of online vote to narrow down the entries, depending on how many there are):
- Most Beautiful/Visually Impressive – as long as the judges can tell it’s related to the original data viz in some way, it qualifies, and the judges will pick the overall most gorgeous or awe-inspiring outcome to win this category
- Most Informational – to win this category, your visualization needs to be especially readable/interpretable. Judges will pick the one that most effectively communicates the point of the original data viz
- Most Fun! – the definition of this is up to the judges, but if it makes the judges laugh, it probably has a good chance at winning
The winner of each category will be featured here and on my @becomingdatasci twitter account, and win their choice of item from the Becoming a Data Scientist store! By then, I’ll have the 2018 Summer of Data Science items up, since the end of this contest will also mark the launch of #SoDS18!
How to Enter:
Post a tweet (or a comment below if you don’t use twitter) that includes a link or image of the original dataviz, as well as a photo or video of your creation! On twitter, use hashtag #CraftyDataViz so I can find your entry!
The entry period starts today and ends on 11:59PM EDT on Sunday, May 27. I’ll plan to post the entries for viewing/judging on Monday, May 28 (Memorial Day in the United States).
HAVE FUN!! I’m excited to see what you create!!
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]]>(Readers told me that the link above doesn’t discount at all for International shipping, so if you are outside the US, use this link for $3.99 off – equivalent to US Shipping cost)
The design is a combination of those submitted to our contest by Amarendranath “Amar” Reddy and Ryne & Alexis. You can see their design submissions and read more about them on the finalists post! They are each receiving prizes for being selected. Thanks Amar, Ryne, and Alexis for the awesome design!
There are a variety of styles and colors available. The Premium Tee is 100% cotton. The Women’s Premium is a 50/50 cotton/poly blend, and is cut to fit more snugly. They are available in navy blue, gray, purple, and black. There’s even a long-sleeve version!
I make anywhere from $2-$7 on each order (it’s print-on-demand, so not cheap enough for me to make a significant profit yet, and my proceeds will be lower with the free shipping offer, but I want to reward those of you who are excited to flaunt your Becoming a Data Scientist status!) and every dollar earned from these will be going to the fund that helps support my new small team of assistants, who you’ll meet soon! Also, the more of them I sell, the lower the cost to print is per shirt, so please share with all of your friends!
Here are photos of me wearing the shirt, but this was before I made the front design slightly smaller (so it doesn’t wrap into armpit), and I moved the back design slightly higher and also made the gray dots (data points?) transparent so the color of the shirt will show through there now (see store images above for current design). You can see that the teal came out as a lighter blue in printing. This is the “Premium Tee” style in “New Navy”.
Here’s a model wearing a simulated version of the shirt.
Order yours here, with Free Shipping Until March 1!
]]>Without further ado, the top 3 vote-winners after 94 votes, in no particular order, are….
1) Ryne
Ryne is an analyst for an economic consulting firm in Salt Lake City looking to transition to a career in data science. Lucky for him, his wife Alexis is a graphic designer and entered the competition in his name so he could win a book! She had a baby a few months ago and is just doing freelance design as time permits.
Alexis’ website is alexisbrittany.com. (Feel free to reach out if you need a designer!)
2) Amarendra
Amarendra (Amar) has recently moved to Philadelphia to pursue an MS in Business Intelligence and Analytics at Saint Joseph’s University. He believes in continuous learning and aspires to contribute to the field of data exploration. Upon graduation, Amar would like to work in the field of data visualization. He loves working with tableau and one of his resolutions for 2017 is to get appreciated by one of the Tableau Zen Masters.
3) coming soon
I’ll update here as soon as I hear back from the 3rd finalist! If I don’t hear back, I may give the prizes to the 4th place winner.
Amar and Ryne both selected the same data science book, so I thought I’d share that here for others that may be interested. They will both be receiving The Python Data Science Handbook by Jake VanderPlas:
You will hear about the final design soon, as well as options for purchasing t-shirts! Thanks to everyone who entered and voted!
]]>For the ones that aren’t t-shirt-print-ready, I’ll get a graphic designer to tidy them up, so don’t worry about whether they’re printable when you vote. We can also vary colors and things like that later. Just pick the design you like!
click the images for larger views
dsnmizan
Venkat
Gordon
Kumar
Nigel
Ridhima
Ryne
Amarendra
––> VOTE HERE <––
Here are the rules/guidelines for entry:
1. Create a design that prominently says “Becoming a Data Scientist” and can be easily scaled to fit in on the front or back of a t-shirt. If you create a design for the back, also create a small “pocket sized” text or design for the front of the shirt. But I don’t have a preference – front or back of shirt designs are both fine!
If it can be incorporated into the design without looking too cluttered, you can also add “Podcast and Learning Club” and/or “@becomingdatasci”, but that is not a requirement.
The design can be just text, text with an image, more abstract, use your imagination! As long as “Becoming a Data Scientist” is clearly readable, your design will be considered. Obviously, vulgar designs will not be considered, and I’ll also remove them (or anything spammy) from the comments on this post.
Please don’t use more than 2 colors in your design itself, as more can be cost-prohibitive. The background color can be a different 3rd color.
Here is a site with some guidance for preparing a design for t-shirts: https://gomedia.com/zine/tutorials/pro-tips-preparing-artwork-t-shirt-printing/
(Note – I don’t expect the design to be complex or super-artistic, and a text-only design could be created in a simple text or image editor!)
You can even use an online shirt design program like CustomInk, as long as the design can be extracted for use at another printing site (I’m not sure what the rules or capabilities of most of those t-shirt design websites are).
2. Please submit 2 files: your design itself (in a format that can be read on multiple platforms, like a PDF), large enough that it can be zoomed in to “life size”, and then also a smaller image of your design as you imagine it on a shirt – choose a shirt color and location for your design and create a little “shirt preview” image I can share with readers for the vote (this one doesn’t have to be zoomable to full size – the largest size I’d post it at is about 500×500). Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions about this!
You can submit the files by posting a comment below. Don’t put your email in the text of the comment, I’ll be able to see it behind the scenes from the form. Make sure to include your name (it can be just your first name if you want) as you want it shared along with your design if you get selected for the voting round, along with the links to the 2 files and any link you want to point people to – your blog, your portfolio, your twitter account, etc.
UPDATE 12/5/2016: It looks like I made the turnaround time short (I’d like to have at least 10 designs before the voting), and I know some people may have great ideas but not great graphic design skills, so I’m making 2 changes:
- It doesn’t need to be a “print-ready” design. If you sketch it out and your design wins, I’ll get a graphic designer to help turn it into a file to send to the t-shirt printer
- The deadline is now extended to the end of the calendar year (see below)
Thank you to those of you who have entered already!!
Here’s how the contest will go:
I’ll accept entries until 11:59pm Saturday, December 31, 2016. Over the next week, depending on how many entries there are, I’ll narrow down the selection to maybe 5-10 choices. I’ll create a blog post with the t-shirt images and names of the designers, with a way to vote on your favorite, and advertise it on @becomingdatasci to get as many votes as possible.
The top 3 vote-winners will win:
- A t-shirt
- A data science related book of their choice up to $60
- Will be featured in a “finalists” blog post with their design, a little blurb about them, and a link to their website
- A tweet with their design and a link to their site on my @becomingdatasci twitter account.
From the finalists, I’ll choose my favorite to be printed. The final winner will also get:
- 2-3 extra t-shirts with their design to give out to friends
- Name credited as designer wherever the t-shirt is sold
- Additional tweets with their design announced as the winner, with a link to their site, on @becomingdatasci.
- A shout-out on the Becoming a Data Scientist podcast
Please let me know if there’s anything I forgot to detail here or if you have any questions! I look forward to seeing the submitted designs!!
Update: I should probably mention that any proceeds from sales of the shirts will go to support the maintenance and creation of more content at this site BecomingADataScientist.com, the podcast, the Data Science Learning Club, DataSciGuide, and my other data science sites and social media accounts. I’ll be posting a Patreon campaign soon to raise money to hire help to keep these sites updated, and money I earn from selling t-shirts will go toward that as well.
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