Data Sketches & Artistic Dataviz

In 2016, two freelance data visualization designers — Nadieh Bremer in the Netherlands and Shirley Wu in San Francisco — launched Data Sketches, a monthly collaborative project that would help redefine what data visualization could look like. Each month they would pick a topic (from presidents to myths to travel), independently create a data visualization about it using D3.js and other web technologies, then write up their creative and technical process in detail on their shared website. The results were stunning: Bremer and Wu pushed D3.js far beyond conventional bar charts and scatterplots into swirling, luminous visual compositions that looked more like fine art than traditional infographics. Bremer's piece on royal constellations mapped the family trees of European royalty into an intricate circular network, while Wu's visualization of Hamilton lyrics created a shimmering galaxy of connected words. The project ran for 12 months producing 24 pieces, won multiple Kantar Information is Beautiful awards, and culminated in a 2021 book published by CRC Press. Data Sketches proved that data visualization wasn't just a communication tool — it could be a genuine art form. Bremer went on to become one of the most celebrated data artists in the world, creating commissioned pieces for Google, UNESCO, and Scientific American, while Wu pioneered the use of D3 for interactive film and storytelling.