Shirley Wu
@sxywu
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chinese-american artist, software engineer, dataviz designer, keynote speaker, published author && a work-in-progress learning to take up space ✨
Brooklyn, NY
Joined September 2010
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Pinned Tweet
hello I've been thinking a lot about tw (this is so belated lol) but the party vibes just aren't the same anymore so I'm giving these a try:
✨
✨
& been really enjoying ig stories:
if you're interested💖
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What I’ve been obsessing over for a week: a mini light show of five inspiring women Nobel Laureates 🥳
✨size → influence
✨color → category of award
✨speed → age at award
I designed the battery, arduino, and LEDs to all fit within the box so they’re portable I’m so proud 🥳
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HI I GOT MARRIED 🥳🎉
We’ve been together 7 years and he’s the reason I have the courage to do what I love today. At every major life&career decision he encouraged and believed in me, and I’m looking forward to being his support (and wife!) for decades to come ✨
📸
@mysterhee
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My mom just told me she likes my freelancing career. This is my immigrant Chinese mom who values stability above all, who I've accepted may never understand my choice of career. (Even though there was a "but" at the end) I'm unexpectedly, overwhelmingly happy for the approval 😭
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My very first 3d
#dataviz
is live on
@christmasxp
🥳
Explore the 51 women awarded Nobel Prizes since 1901 🏆 "walk" amongst them to read about their accomplishments, then "fly" up to get a holistic view across the decades 🚀
🔗
⌨️
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Sometimes I'm asked about color palettes for
#dataviz
. I use:
🎨 d3-scale-chromatic for quick jobs
🎨 chromajs to make my own, keeping this guide in mind:
What do you usually do?
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HI I JUST SIGNED MY FIRST CLIENT CONTRACT SINCE MARCH 🥳🎊
It's been a bit hard having zero cash flow for so many months but I'm grateful to have savings (and health & a roof) and I'm excited to keep contributing to important discussions the way I love most: data-driven stories.
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Hi I did something silly but also it made me really happy I put calligraphy pens on two servos and made them walk and draw on butcher paper 👍 I call it Randomly Bumbling Drawing Machine (rabudrama for short) or the really noobie woman’s
@sougwen
#drawingwithdoug
⚡️✨
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I've been working on a tswift
#dataviz
on/off for two years and I'm almost at the finish line! It's about all the emotions that appear in her lyrics and how they've changed across the years.
Would anyone know journals/publishers maybe interested in working together on the rest?
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Somedays I code and I'm like WOW I'M A GENIUS.
Today is not one of those days.
Today I was stupid.
😭
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Some days I feel really insecure, days when I feel unproductive and can’t help comparing myself w/ others and wondering if I can sustain freelancing for the years I want to. So I have to remind myself all I can do is try my best and what follows, follows.
It’s a constant cycle.
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This project has been hard; though I was excited about initial results (1st image), the shapes were randomly generated so I couldn't replicate it every time and each tweak made it worse.
Last week I decided to stop tweaking and add fog instead (2nd image).
I'm excited again 🥰
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Updated my portfolio because I'm applying to a few things and I finally put in the tagline I've been meaning to for the past year 🏆🥇
(Oh and also I finally put in highlight works from the past year ✨)
🔗
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My business cards came in! Seven different back designs to show my portfolio 😊 if you're at
@eyeofestival
I'll have them on hand~
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🎊OMG IT'S HAPPENING🥳
I'm having my first-ever-one-night-only solo show!! Imagine a
#dataviz
story but instead of a screen, it fills up a cute East Village gallery and flowers light up and water drip and I'm SO excited for this dream come true 😭💖
📆9/9 5–9PM
📍EV Gallery NYC
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Biggest
#storytelling
I’ve worked on all year, I’m personally proudest of the 9 videos, 2 static + 3 animated
#dataviz
we got working on 📱. It shows how technically far I’ve come in the past year✨
Incredible 🖋/📽 by
@guardian
, 📊 by
@NadiehBremer
& I:
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My new
@FrontendMasters
workshops are up!
✨
Gentle intro into
#d3js
targeted towards
#reactjs
developers
✨
Deep-dive into how to explore data, and design + code custom
#dataviz
🚨 And there's a SALE →
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Hi
#ReactRally
thank you so much for having me again and creating a whole custom
#dataviz
with me 💕
✨ slides
✨ live-code example:
✨ live-code code:
📽 for deep-dive start here:
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🥳EXCITING NEW PROJECT🥳
You may have noticed me publishing some bite-size charts over on IG—I've just launched the companion website w/ bite-size interactives! I'll be updating it regularly so make sure to subscribe 📩
🔗
💖made w/
@webflow
+
@observablehq
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🎊NEW
#DATAVIZ
ALERT🎊
I worked w/
@mplusmuseum
to feature HK women artists and highlight their underrepresentation on
@Wikipedia
. Read about each woman—represented as strong & resilient mountains—and flaws w/ user-generated content.
👉
#WomensHistoryMonth
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MOAR HAPPY NEWS 🎊
My goal this year was to create physical installations so I’m excited to share I’ll be a resident/fellow at
@ITP_NYU
this fall!! I’ll be holding OH, auditing a physical computing class, and creating a hopefully physical *something* for their 40th bday 🥳
👩🎨✨
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Alright not trying to fangirl too hard but I made this in 40min with
@observablehq
. If I had to code that reactivity from scratch I would have NOPE'd out so fast but now my workshop students can play with them sliders to see how them svg transforms work~
✨ SO MUCH VALUE ADD ✨
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Web technologies I'm super grateful to have learned, that have fundamentally changed the way I think about code &
#dataviz
:
✨ GreenSock via
@webanimworkshop
✨ CSS Grid via
@chrishouse83
✨ Vue.js via
@sarah_edo
#HappyThanksgiving
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Got some new books for inspiration & learning✨
I usually get a lot of my inspo from wandering and exploring outside, visiting museums, going to meetups—all the impossible things in 2020. But I’ve heard so many good things about these books I’m excited to dig into them 💖
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Yes, new talks take me weeks. Yes, I get so nervous I wonder for my health.
But I also know that every time I stand up there, it *means* something to the women in the audience. Please don’t discourage speaking esp to women and POC, bc we need to see ourselves reflected up there.
Unpopular career advice: speaking at conferences is a massive waste of time
Seems cool when you’re young
But creating a new deck takes time
Talks have low recall & rarely lead to followers, subscribers, etc.
Better to focus on compounding activities: write, build something
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So I suffer from this once in a while where I’m so excited to do something that it’s all I can think about but then I feel obligated to finish a bunch of other things first and then I end up just doing absolutely....nothing....
Please tell me I’m not alone 😭
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A few months into freelancing I realized it's ok to say no to projects that don't feel like a fit. This year I finally realized it's ok to say no to cold emails I'm not interested in and I don't have to justify all the reasons why.
It feels great to protect my time like that.
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🎶 WELCOME TO NEW YORK ITS BEEN WAITING FOR YOU 🎶
Hello there NYC please treat us kindly for the next two years 💖
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I've been combating (decades of internalized "humility" as an Asian-American woman) that I have nothing to offer in a global fight against a pandemic.
I have to keep reminding myself that I have a powerful skill to offer: I tell stories with data.
That I can and NEED to help.
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hello it’s a beautiful Sunday and I have some pent up thoughts and feels about burn-out and passion/excitement (in the context of work) and not knowing wtf I wanna do next or even just right now
~a meandering thread~
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If you got this far thank you for reading all of these thoughts and feels, I really appreciate you taking the time 💖
I guess this is all just to say: this twitter will be a very confused twitter for the next 2 years but hopefully it’ll be a fun journey 😆
~fin~
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Me turning 20: IM ALMOST 21 LEZPARTAAAAY🎉
Me turning 30: I love coming home to my well organized closet it gives me great joy 👌
Hi I’m 30! It’s been a great 20s soul searching and figuring out what I want to do, and I’m so excited to chase those dreams in this next decade😍💕
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I’m realizing that with all this time inside I gravitate towards my computer (or switch) when I have nothing to do...so I decided to pick up a hobby that doesn’t involve screens!
These are my first attempts, I’m especially proud of that flower I made without a mold 🌸✨
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I’m still in the middle of decorating but this is the adorable office space I’ve been renting 💕 we have another open spot so if you’re a creative in SF who wants to work around some awesomely fun people let me know 😘
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OMG WE WROTE A BOOK
p.s. every time I see our landing page I weep it’s so beautiful thank you
@byalicelee
for gracing our cover with your lush illustrations 💖
p.p.s. please join our competition and help us come up with the perfect subtitle for our book cover ✌️
🎊The BIG NEWS IS HERE🎊
Data Sketches is turning into A BOOK!!🥳
Pre-orders available now @ ✨
We're also running a subtitle competition until 12/3 11:59PM PST→ Winner gets their subtitle on the cover & a signed copy of our book!
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If you're just starting out in this industry, don't let anyone feel like you're less than enough. If you love what you do, if you're willing to learn and experiment and grow, you're more than enough.
Don't let anyone - especially yourself - tell you otherwise.
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🎊OMG IT'S LIVE🎊
two months ago a long-time dream came true & I had my first-ever in-person solo art show 😍 it's the culmination of months of work and I'm so grateful to everyone who came to celebrate w/ me.
and now, to celebrate on the internet → ✨
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here’s our first (physical computing) project! it’s a lil pattern matching game and we made the whole thing—wiring, coding, enclosure—in 3 days ✨
(I think there’s a bug when we input too fast but hey it’s MVP 😂)
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I've been wanting to do physical installations for the last few years, but never really talked about it bc I didn't feel ready. But this year I decided to just do it, so I'm putting it out in the universe so I have to:
✨ I'm gonna make a physical data installation this year ✨
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Hi, I'll be joining
@shiffman
tomorrow on his channel to live-code/recreate my
#filmflowers
project with him 🌸
(I'm pretty excited) join us 🥳!
📅 11/15 4PM PST
🔗
🌻
Tune in to tomorrow's
@thecodingtrain
live (Friday, 11/15 4pm ET) to watch me attempt my first d3.js sketch with data artist superstar
@sxywu
🚂🔢💫 Choo choo!
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When I was a child, I lived in Japan for 6 years. I still vividly remember a street lined with 🌸, pink as far as I can see. Its been almost 2 decades, but this past week I got to relive those memories and it’s been more beautiful and emotional than I could have ever imagined.
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Also I drew a graph of Settlers of Catan resources for no reason. And I put way more effort into it than I needed to yup please enjoy ✨
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🎊My updated Intro
#svg
+
#d3js
course is out
@FrontendMasters
🥳
Please check it out—I put so much 💖💭⏰ into it & am esp proud of all the small exercises that build up to one big
#dataviz
by the end🌸✨
🔗
📚 made w/
@observablehq
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Hi
#ConcatenateConf
thank you so much for having me!
Slides:
Live-code:
I was also asked about
#dataviz
courses I've created:
💖
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It's one heavy trophy 🏆
Shirley Wu with the Gold award in Politics & Global for Bussed Out: How America Moves Its Homeless.
@sxywu
@NadiehBremer
@GuardianUS
@alastairgee
@juliacarriew
@PaulLewis
#IIBAwards
#Homelessness
#datajournalism
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Hi
#reactamsterdam
thank you for letting me give my
#reactjs
+
#d3js
talk! Here is the link to the slides:
And to the demo:
And the code to the demo:
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I agree w/
@Elijah_Meeks
() &
@enjalot
() that
#d3js
is a collection of tools to help with different aspects of
#dataviz
. Building on that, I tried to place APIs based on when I might use them and how they might feed into each other.
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Emotions of
#tswift
lyrics, according to
@IBMWatson
✨
💛 joy
💙 sadness
❤️ anger
💜 fear
💚 disgust
So basically, she's mostly happy, quite often sad, sometimes angry, and sometimes REALLY scared 👍
#dataviz
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I got to
#IIBAwards
tonight thinking it’d be really cool to win one award, thank you so so much for honoring me w/ Exemplary Book and Most Beautiful on top of it. I’m still in disbelief bc Most Beautiful is a big deal and I’d never expected to win it 😭🎊
📸
@thesarahkaym
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My portfolio site is almost 5 years old and I've been struggling w/ redesign—so I'd love to hire an amazing designer to help me w/ visual identity + UX (I'll do all the coding)✨ Bonus if they have
#dataviz
experience!
Super appreciate all recs 🙏
(current portfolio for ref ↓)
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1/
I’ve been worried for a while I don’t get many interviews bc maybe ppl feel I’m “established” & don’t need exposure.
As a freelancer and esp WOC I always need exposure. If you like my work, please share them & if you run a podcast I’d be honored to come share my knowledge.
If you are an underrepresented person in tech and are able to do so, talk about your work so loudly and so consistently that people say you’re arrogant or full of yourself or bragging. And then keep going. Because anything less than that, you will not get the credit you deserve.
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Hi
#reactrally
I live-coded my
#reactjs
+
#d3js
expenses app & put it in a playlist for your 2x speed binging pleasure
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got OLED and LCD mini screens hooked up to my Arduino Nano displaying my force-sensing resistor readings ✨
you bet there’s gonna be some line charts and flowers coming soon 😆📈🌸
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🌸⚡️“flower power” is a physical installation of 29 women Nobel Laureates of last 30 years. It’s my 1st collab w/
@byalicelee
and my 1st step towards more physical experiences ✨
Ty Alice for instigating and being brilliant*inspiring - I’m looking forward to our v2, v3, vN...🥳
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Last December my fiancé and I bought a modest (ugly) condo and we renovated it for FOUR MONTHS and now it’s super cute and (even though we’re not fully unpacked) I finally have my full setup so I can wine&code like I used to 🥳
So yah I’ve been kinda MIA but hi I’m still here 👋
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A recent small victory I'm very proud of: I convinced a (really great long-term) client out of using a donut chart!
It took three rounds of exploration to land on a design that showed the data more clearly AND fit the aesthetic he was looking for—I'm so happy I persisted 💖
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I worked w/
@stinadacanay
+
@tomyumnoodz
@ITP_NYU
on a physical
#dataviz
of 16 incredible but often unknown women in computing, represented as orbs that glow brighter as they're read✨
It's our love letter to all the women & we hope you enjoy reading it 🥳
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YAYYY I just finished my slides for
#ReactRally
(don't judge me...) and now to practicing it like four times before sleep 😭 the whole conference is live-streamed if you want to check it out, and I'll be on at ⏰ 9AM MDT!
Here's a bit of a sneak peak 👀↓
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Hi I’ve been road tripping through southern Germany and it’s been so gorgeous. My fav so far is Neuschwanstein, the inspiration for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle. I loved it so much I went back twice, and bought a book on the interiors and furnitures for pattern+color inspo 🥰
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it took me six years of freelance to realize that when I have a skill weakness my question shouldn’t always be “how can I get better at it” but rather “how do I hire someone who’s amazing at it”.
I’m simultaneously so excited about the idea of building a team & terrified by it.
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✨hello here's an unsolicited
@observablehq
life hack✨
(mostly so I can remember for next time)
upload your data to google sheets, then load it in via this url pattern:
now you can update your data in google sheets & it'll auto-update in observable 👍
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There comes a point in every project where (without realizing) my decisions become motivated by what might impress other people. Eventually I feel so suffocated that I realize what I’m doing, and I have to remind myself to just make/create however I like.
I’m there again 🤷♀️
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Consistently the coolest conference badges year after year, I don’t think I’ve ever seen another conference top these badges 😆
#visfestunconf
cc
@vastur
@MChinkin
✌️
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I legit spent 2.5hrs making arrows with SVG markers and styling them—thus proving once again that the final 20% always takes 80% of the time 😱
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Today I used an SVG mask for the first time (idk how I've avoided it for so long) to get this hover effect and I'm unreasonably proud of myself/the outcome ✨
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Hi I've had this quietly simmering inner rage for a few days and needed to get it out of my system but it was too long for a tweet so I've attached images and I call it:
😡Just A Small Example of the Emotional Labor We Do As "Diverse" People, A Timeline😡
Do better,
@odsc
.
Earlier today ODSC reached out to me w/ canned email inviting me to speak. Usually I’d respond privately but with everything going on it felt VERY poor taste. Usually I’d accept* bc I know how important representation is, to be a visible woman in tech.
But today I just can’t.
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Hi
@kennethormandy
and other type designers what do you think this font would look like I'd be so curious 😂
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I still don't 100% understand how this is happening, but I'll be giving an internal talk at
@NASAJPL
this Friday if you happen to work there!
My mind is still blown.
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Really exciting:
@NadiehBremer
and I’s work for
@GuardianUS
on Bussed Out () won Best Data Visualization at the WORLD Digital Media Awards 😮🥳🎊
The judges apparently praised it as ‘stunning’ and ‘both informative and visually appealing’ 🥰!
🏆🏆🏆 Guardian wins three awards at WAN-IFRA European Digital Media Awards
#DME19
@NewspaperWorld
- Best Data Visualization
- Best Paid Content Strategy
- Best Digital Project to Engage Younger and/or Millennial Audiences
Full list 👉
#awards
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ok I still can’t get over the fact my name is on a window??? also it’s so beautiful today in the east village today 💖
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Hi sf & bay friends ☀️
My magnificent studiomates
@byalicelee
@sailorhg
@catmule
@clizzin
and I are putting on a show! Five artsy projects per person, goodies for sale, donation jar for a local charity → much to check out!
📅 5/4 & 5/5, 1 - 6PM
🏠
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our homework this week is serial communication so I had grand aspirations of recreating Etch-a-Sketch. it was a humbling reminder of how noisy the physical world is (and also that I need to wire my components better).
oh the hubris 😂
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🌸 assembling in progress 🌸
(I’ve underestimated how many petals I’d need for a good looking hydrangea...)
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🌸 ARE 🌸 YOU 🌸 TIRED 🌸 OF 🌸 ALL 🌸 MY 🌸 SAKURA 🌸 PHOTOS 🌸 YET 🌸
I hope not bc I have some more 📸 coming (hopefully) when I go to Kyoto! In the meanwhile, these are from Shinjuku Gyoen and Meguro River 👌 it’s been so amazing being in this city as the Sakura bloom 😍
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Thank you so much to everyone who joined our book launch yesterday 💖 and thank you
@AlbertoCairo
+
@tamaramunzner
for joining our celebration and
@jlengstorf
for managing our stream 🙏
ICYMI →
P.S. I made flower earrings specially for the launch 😆🌸
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I just finally watched Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and wow those visuals just wow so stunning so much inspiration 😍 Pinterest board with color inspo from the movie coming in next few days I’m sure 👌
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#dataviz
design resources for
#ejs18
:
✨ list of books by
@NadiehBremer
✨
@datawrapper
blog by
@lisacrost
✨ little of viz design by
@visualisingdata
✨ newsletter by
@flowingdata
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