Projects that inspire us at the Information is Beautiful Awards 2022

Noémie Fortin-Brunet
December 15, 2022

After a two-year hiatus, the Information is Beautiful Awards were held in November in Washington DC. It was a rare opportunity to meet and connect with dataviz practitioners from all over the world at the ceremony. Winning a gold award was icing on the cake.

Moreover, the entry showcase surfaced a plethora of projects we wouldn’t have seen otherwise. It is a goldmine and will stay high on our inspiration list. Here are a few favorites selected by our team.

Gender & Language

Minami Funakoshi | Graphics and development
Sam Granados | Illustrations
Jon McClure and Sara Ledwith | Editing

✨ Estelle says: “How do we talk about ourselves when the words don’t exist to name the gender we ascribe to ourselves? This poetic and beautiful scrollytelling shows how language can be problematic for people whose gender does not fit into the rigid binarity of masculine/feminine.”

La phrase “Elle est ma bonne amie” est traduite dans trois langues : anglais, espagnol et allemand. Dans chacune des traductions, les marques du genre féminin sont mises en couleur pour montrer qu’en allemand, par exemple, chaque mot de la phrase porte la marque du genre féminin.

Western Monarch Butterfly Population Decline

Dipika Kadaba

✨ Celia says: “No need to run the animation twice to get the gist and the sense of solitude of the two remaining butterflies in 2020. They are not dots but monarchs flying in the vastness of the California coastline. It’s beautiful and it goes straight to the heart.”

Data Beyond Vision

Rebecca Sutton Koeser | Project Lead, 3D Modeling and Printing Lead
Gissoo Doroudian | Researcher and Prototyper, Weaving Lead
Nick Budak | Researcher and Prototyper, Origami Lead
Xinyi Li | Researcher and Prototyper, Kirigami Lead

✨ Timour says: “As someone who struggles with certain senses, I am thrilled to see the field of information design continuously experiment with new mediums that can bring clarity and insight in clever and elegant ways.”

Une image animée montrant une large feuille de papier élégamment coupée et pliée de manière à faire émerger des colonnes empilées dont la taille et la largeur encode les activités des membres de la bibliothèque de prêt de Princeton de 1919 à 1941. A moving image showing a large sheet of paper elegantly cut and folded to reveal stacked columns whose size and width encode the activities of members of the Princeton Lending Library from 1919 to 1941.

Ilumeo Projetos

Flávia Marinho | Lead infovis designer
Otávio Burin | Lead infovis designer
Ariel Tonglet | Web developer
Victor Tourais | Assistant Designer 

✨ Marie-Blanche says: “In this beautiful visualization, Datadot Estudio has compiled all the projects carried out by the Iluméo company since its inception in 2012. This achievement represents a tour de force on the part of the studio for several reasons. The amount of information and its complexity are simplified through the use of a clear graphic which takes the form of a hyperbolic tree. As for the interactivity, it allows us to enter in depth in the information. Finally, the aesthetics developed are engaging for an enriching user experience.”

Une image montre la découverte des projets de la compagnie Iluméo sous la forme d’un graphique. Il prend la forme de cercles concentriques dont celui le plus au centre présente les années, et celui le plus à l’extérieur montre l'ensemble des projets sous forme de cercles transparents. La quantité de projets qui se télescopent développent une esthétique intéressante. Sur le côté droit, un menu permet de rentrer dans le détail des projets par catégories. An image shows the discovery of Iluméo company projects in the form of a graph. It takes the form of concentric circles, of which the central one presents the years, and the outermost one shows all the projects in the form of transparent circles. The number of projects that collide develop an interesting aesthetic. On the right side, a menu allows you to enter the details of the projects by category.

New normal: How far is safe enough?

Samuel Granados
Jon McClure, Tiffany Wu, and Simon Scarr | Editing
Maryanne Murray | Additional work

✨ Patricia says: “As someone who has trouble imagining things in 3-D, I really appreciated how this piece used visualization and illustration to explain COVID-19 in physical spaces in a clear and tangible way. It covers complex topics like risk, cultural contexts, and public health knowledge, all while keeping it approachable, relatable– and beautiful, of course! It’s still very relevant today.”

A bird's eye view illustration of people on a green background, with circles around each person. Each person is encircled by concentric circles showing average preferences for intimate, personal and social space, compared against COVID-19 distancing guidelines for a particular country.

Shifting smoke

Marco Hernandez
Manas Sharma
Simon Scarr
Katy Daigle

✨ Noémie says: “Shifting smoke describes the impact of forest fires on the atmosphere in a concise but detailed manner. Despite the wide variety of visual elements – static and animated visualizations, illustration, satellite images, photos and videos – the article is visually coherent thanks to an ultra-minimalist palette. I was blown away by this cross-sectional visualization of the atmosphere, where you instantly understand the extreme nature of the 2020 wildfires.”

Cette image montre un graphique à colonnes qui démontre la topographie du continent nord-américain, de l’océan Pacifique jusqu’au nord du Canada. On y voit aussi la hauteur de la fumée qui émanait d’un feu de forêt le 7 septembre 2020, qui a atteint la stratosphère à 15 km au-dessus du sol. This image shows a column graph that demonstrates the topography of the North American continent from the Pacific Ocean to northern Canada. It also shows the height of smoke emanating from a forest fire on September 7, 2020, which reached the stratosphere 15 km above the ground.

Life under curfew

Stephen Kinuthia Mwangi
Antony Adoyo
Happi Olal 
Richie Uchenna | Data analyst
Frenny Jowi | Journalist
Surasti Puri | Designer
Evelina Judeikyte 

✨ Francis says: “This project has it all. There is a social cause, there is wide community engagement and impact, the parallel coordinates visual is both expert level and accessible, it has an interactive website, pictures and videos, and it’s in Kenya.”

Un mur de ciment de 1,80 m de haut devant des bâtiments en briques dans un quartier informel du Kenya. Le mur est peint en blanc, est séparé par quatre colonnes vertes et jaunes, et porte une visualisation de données sous la forme de coordonnées parallèles avec des câbles traversant le mur tout en étant attachés à l'une des options de chaque catégorie. Le sujet est peint sur la gauche : «Voici ce que nous pensons de nos quartiers». Les catégories sont les suivantes : 1) Où habitez-vous, 2) Quel âge avez-vous, 3) Je fais confiance à la police de ma communauté, 4) Je me sens en sécurité dans ma communauté, 5) Je veux rendre ma communauté plus sûre. A six feet high cement wall in front of brick buildings in an informal settlement in Kenya. The wall is painted white, is separated by four green and yellow columns, and has a data visualization on it in the form of parallel coordinates with cables going across the wall while being attached to one of the options in each category. The topic is painted on the left: This is how we feel about our neighborhoods”. The categories are 1) Where do you live, 2) How old are you, 3) I trust the police in my community, 4) I feel safe in my community, 5) I want to make my community safer.

Cut short

Alyssa Fowers and Leslie Shapiro | Reporting
Kate Rabinowitz and Ann Gerhart | Editing
Frances Moody | Copyediting

✨ Julian says: “This project communicates effectively the human cost of Covid-19, driving home the loss and sadness caused by each death.Visualizing the human cost of disasters is difficult. This project showcases that cost and highlights the loss while remaining respectful.“

Une image avec le texte "One Million Lives cut short by Covid-19" (Un million de vies abrégées par Covid-19) entouré de petites phrases qui soulignent comment les vies des gens ont été abrégées avant leur temps. An image with the text “One Million Lives cut short by Covid-19” surrounded by small sentences that highlight how the lives of people were cut short before their time.
Noémie Fortin-Brunet

Noémie Fortin-Brunet

Noémie Fortin-Brunet is a coordinator for Voilà:, an information design studio specialized in sustainable development.
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