You're creative
You're creative
Lessons on creativity and dataviz from the one and only Alli Torban
When I discovered her podcast during the first Covid lockdown, I binge-listened to all the episodes within a few weeks. I then reached out to her with questions for my (tiny and unknown) blog. Since then, we’ve stayed in touch as both of our careers took twists and turns for the better. Her kindness and positivity strike me in each interaction with her until this day.
Who am I talking about? The one and only, Alli Torban, of course. It’s my absolute pleasure to share a fresh and fascinating interview with her in this edition of The Plot. A dose of inspiration for your summer is guaranteed!
Without further adieu, let’s give the floor to Alli.
Hi! Thank you so much for agreeing to talk to the readers of The Plot. Could you please briefly introduce yourself?
Hi there! I'm Alli Torban, an information designer and data literacy advocate based in Washington, DC. I’m most excited about helping people communicate data in new ways. You might know me from my podcast Data Viz Today, and I just published the book Chart Spark: Harness Your Creativity in Data Communication to Stand Out and Innovate!
How did you end up where you are today, professionally?
I have a background in mathematics and started my career as a data analyst as a contractor for the government, running lots of SQL queries, but it didn’t feel particularly fulfilling to me. During my maternity leave, I discovered data visualization and loved how it combined data and creativity. I began binging on all the dataviz podcasts (like Data Stories and Storytelling with Data). Then I had the wild idea to start my own podcast to learn from the very best in the field! Nine months later, I was able to learn enough and build up a portfolio to land a part-time data visualization designer job. After a few years, I jumped into full-time freelancing where I expanded into broader information design, creating everything from infographics to data art to comics! Today, I still create infographics for clients and also deliver data literacy training for the Seattle-based company Data Literacy. This all traces back to the seemingly small step of starting a podcast, which felt like a giant leap at the time. Take a small step toward your dreams!
Many people, including myself, have a hard time saying they’re creative (hello, imposter syndrome). What is your definition of creativity? And is it accessible to all of us?
To be creative, you must have artistic ability, right? And you have to blow everyone away with your big, original idea, right? And those big ideas will strike you when you least expect them, so just wait and hope, right? Yikes! No wonder we feel like creativity is out of reach. Well, I believe that creativity is within reach for everyone.
Creativity is the ability to generate new ideas or remix existing ones that are new and useful, even if it’s only new and useful to you! That means that you can think and execute an idea that seems “small” but it is actually creative. It also means that you can take an active role in your creativity.
However, it does feel daunting to navigate the ambiguity of generating new and useful ideas. Here’s a simple workflow to follow:
Ideate: Be positive and open. Write down your ideas, gather inspiration, have novel experiences, and reduce negativity.
Rest: Take a break, compare an idea against your needs, and get feedback.
Execute: Put your head down and start implementing your idea.
Repeat: When you hit a snag, circle back around to rest and ideate.
You wrote an entire book on the topic. First of all, congrats! That must have been quite a feat. How did the idea come about?
Thank you! The idea for Chart Spark grew from my desire for a resource that clearly explains how to be creative. What do I do, step-by-step, to come up with creative ideas? Most advice you’ll hear is like, “Go get inspired by nature,” or “Just scroll through this website for inspiration.” That’s great, but then what? I had to discover those answers on my own through interviews on my podcast and creating tons of visualizations for clients and personal projects. So, I decided to pull everything into a concise, actionable book that anyone can pick up and immediately start doing things to bring out their creative ideas!
What are your biggest learnings from the book writing process?
One of my biggest learnings was the power of structure. I ran in circles about what I’d write about in each chapter, but one day I realized that my content could be grouped into three sections: caring for your creativity, coaxing it out, and communicating it. Once I created this structure, the chapters were 100 times easier to write! For my next book, I’ll make sure to spend a lot of time on a logical structure before I begin writing.
I was also amazed by the significant impact my beta readers had on the final manuscript. When I was done with the manuscript, I took a week off and uploaded it to a site called Help This Book which allows you to send the manuscript to your beta readers. They can easily highlight sentences and note whether it’s confusing, slow, useful, etc. I was surprised by how many parts seemed clear to me and were woefully unclear to my readers. 😅 It proves that rest and feedback are an essential part of the creative process! I came back to the manuscript with fresh eyes and hundreds of helpful comments that made the book so much better.
For our readers who love concrete tips: can you share one short exercise from your book that they could implement right away?
Yes! My favorite exercise is my “Idea Isosceles.” I often procrastinate on dataviz projects because I'm afraid I won't have any ideas.
To overcome this, I wanted a fool-proof exercise to help me just start. During my podcast interviews, I noticed that many dataviz designers begin with fun, meaningless doodles. Also, I found research in Do Hard Things by Steve Magness that athletes who warm up with enjoyable activities positively alter their hormonal states.
Combining these insights, I created the Idea Isosceles exercise to help me gain momentum on a project. When you start a new project, don’t procrastinate! Start by drawing a triangle that fills the page with the base on the bottom and point on top. Break it into three sections:
The top point is for you to draw anything that you like. Have fun!
The middle is where you write out important parts of your brief, like the goal and constraints.
The base is where you start sketching concepts that might work for your project, like different chart types or compositions. Sketch the obvious solutions on one side, and the "what-if" ideas on the other side.
This exercise will help you gain momentum on your project and get you playing an active role in your creativity, rather than worrying if you’ll come up with an idea or not… Let me know if you try it!
A few broader questions before we close. What’s your favourite dataviz or data story example and why?
My absolute favorite dataviz of all time is Simulated Dendrochronology of U.S. immigration by Pedro Cruz, John Wihbey, Avni Ghael, and Felipe Shibuya. They used tree rings as a metaphor for the U.S. population growth — showing where people immigrated from throughout time. It’s so beautifully executed. I love visualizations that give you an insight at a glance and then give you even more if you spend time exploring.
Is there any advice you’d have loved to get when you first started in the field—on the creative side of things or not?
I wish someone had told me earlier that dataviz is not a race. In the beginning, I was in such a rush to improve my skills, learn the tools that you’re “supposed” to learn (like D3), and win IIB awards! Why?!? I came to realize that I needed to focus on MY unique needs, hopes, and situation. What would be fulfilling to ME?
I wrote this blog post about the questions I had asked myself to uncover the answer. I discovered that a fulfilling dataviz career looked like a flexible schedule, inspiring those new to the field, and using my information design skills to help people learn new things. Focus on the parts of a dataviz career that are going to serve YOU.
And finally, where could people connect with you if they wanted to follow your work?
I share a new podcast episode of Data Viz Today every month, and I’m most active on LinkedIn. Let’s connect — send me a DM about what you’re doing to be more creative in your data communication work. I’d love to hear. Here’s to all your chart sparks!
Hope you enjoyed Alli’s nuggets of wisdom!
As always, many thanks for reading.
See you in two weeks,
—Evelina