Writing is a requirement for just about every job, and being a good writer will take you far, regardless of your career. I started my dataviz career through blogging, and I've always been a big advocate for contributing learning resources to the community. So you may find it odd that on my blog, I haven't published a single article in 2021. It does make me a little sad to see the blog languishing, but the reality is I've written more in 2021 than any other time in my life.
A quick tally:
I wrote six of these newsletters, many of which could be full blog posts on their own
I wrote four articles for Axios and contributed to a couple more (yes visual journalists write too!)
I wrote six blog posts for the dataviz membership program I help run, and contributed to eight more
About that membership program...
The most exciting thing I've done this year is launching the Elevate Dataviz Membership with Alli Torban, Duncan Geere, and Gabrielle Merite. One of the best things about the membership is that it gives me more time and incentive to write useful tutorials, essays, and guides on all things design and data. We've been running a beta test with about 40 members for the last few months, and now I'm so excited to share that we've launched publicly 🎉 🎉 🎉
We've got a fancy new website that contains all the info you need about what you'll get if you join, but here's a quick summary.
The price is $50/month, and there's also a $25/month option for anyone with economic hardship. If that seems like a lot to you, here's why we think it's actually a bargain:
You get access to not one, but four mentors, who are each experts in different segments of the dataviz world
Each of us have made the pivot from a different career to now having thriving freelance businesses or top jobs in dataviz, and we have the unique expertise to help you do the same
There's already dozens of articles waiting for you inside where we guide you through everything from the ins and outs of freelancing, to finding your own unique visual style
But it's not just articles! We have livestreams, weekly office hours, talks from top dataviz designers, mini-courses, and challenges to help you level-up your skills
Access to our Slack community where you can get feedback on your projects, ask questions you don't want to share in public, find job opportunities, and interact with the rest of our amazing members!
For me, the most rewarding aspect of having a learning community like this is just getting to chat and make friends with so many wonderful interesting people in my field. I love working from home, but by far the worst part is that it can be isolating—in the past I often felt like I didn't have anyone to reach out to when I wanted to talk shop, or even just chat about my day with likeminded folks. The membership really solves that! It's such a welcoming community and every day it sparks interesting discussions and productive interactions with fellow dataviz folks from all over the world.
If you're interested, you can use this link to get 20% off for your first three months (that offer expires on Jan 17th, so now is the time!) I hope to see you inside 🙂
The rest of 2021 and beyond!
Besides all that writing, I did a ton of other stuff in 2021... but instead of a big list, I'll just give a few highlights.
Got married!
Started my career in journalism when I joined Axios
Got to work with one of my dream clients on a freelance project
Looking back on the year, the goals I set for 2021 were to get a full time job in journalism (check!) and improve my skills with traditional art and design tools. That latter goal was kind of vague, but I've definitely matured a lot as a designer this year, and upped my game with Photoshop and Illustrator, so I'll count that as a win.
Looking forward to 2022, I'm setting some simple goals:
Wrap up a couple personal projects that have been lingering for far too long
Up our game on the visual storytelling side at Axios
Rediscover the fun of coding and build a web project on my own
2021 has obviously been a tough year for all of us, but I hope you were able to find moments of joy, and I hope you find even more in 2022. Thank you so much for reading, cheers 🥂