About the service
A number inside a table is read by the few people who already know what to look for. Everyone else needs a picture, and that is exactly where the responsibility starts. Every job begins the same way: I look at the data you send and work out the single question this drawing has to answer. Until that question fits into one sentence, there is nothing to draw — a chart without a question turns into decoration that fills space on the page and tells the reader nothing.
After that the form follows the task. A comparison of a few values asks for bars, movement over time asks for a line, a share of a whole asks for a stacked bar far more often than for a circle, a sequence of actions asks for a process scheme, and a set of dependencies asks for a map of links. When a report needs eight or twelve pictures, I build them as one series: the same grid, the same type sizes, the same meaning behind every colour. The reader learns the language of the series once and spends the rest of the document reading facts instead of decoding the styling. Each picture is delivered in two versions — a screen one, sized for the width it will actually be shown at, and a print one, with line weights and type that survive paper.
Three rules hold in every project, because this is precisely where graphics start to lie. Axes are not cut to add drama; a pie chart is not used for twenty slices, where nothing can be compared anyway; and a difference that sits inside the margin of error is never drawn as a victory. Such tricks deceive the reader, and they cost more than any handsome frame is worth. The data stays yours: I take it as you give it and do not recalculate it at my own discretion — if a figure looks odd, I come back with a question rather than a correction. The source and the date of the data are signed on the drawing itself, so it stays honest after somebody copies it out of your report.
What you get:
— an agreed question and chart type for every picture, fixed before drawing starts;
— finished graphics in a screen version and a print version;
— a step-by-step process scheme or a map of links where the story is not numeric;
— one visual style for the whole series, adapted to your corporate colours;
— editable source files, so you can refresh the figures yourself next quarter;
— a short note on how to read each picture, ready to be used as a caption.
After that the form follows the task. A comparison of a few values asks for bars, movement over time asks for a line, a share of a whole asks for a stacked bar far more often than for a circle, a sequence of actions asks for a process scheme, and a set of dependencies asks for a map of links. When a report needs eight or twelve pictures, I build them as one series: the same grid, the same type sizes, the same meaning behind every colour. The reader learns the language of the series once and spends the rest of the document reading facts instead of decoding the styling. Each picture is delivered in two versions — a screen one, sized for the width it will actually be shown at, and a print one, with line weights and type that survive paper.
Three rules hold in every project, because this is precisely where graphics start to lie. Axes are not cut to add drama; a pie chart is not used for twenty slices, where nothing can be compared anyway; and a difference that sits inside the margin of error is never drawn as a victory. Such tricks deceive the reader, and they cost more than any handsome frame is worth. The data stays yours: I take it as you give it and do not recalculate it at my own discretion — if a figure looks odd, I come back with a question rather than a correction. The source and the date of the data are signed on the drawing itself, so it stays honest after somebody copies it out of your report.
What you get:
— an agreed question and chart type for every picture, fixed before drawing starts;
— finished graphics in a screen version and a print version;
— a step-by-step process scheme or a map of links where the story is not numeric;
— one visual style for the whole series, adapted to your corporate colours;
— editable source files, so you can refresh the figures yourself next quarter;
— a short note on how to read each picture, ready to be used as a caption.
