The Fifth Elephant
The Fifth Elephant

The Fifth Elephant 2026 Winter Edition

Call for Data Problems and Proposals

All submissions

Radhika

Creative DataViz: Thinking Beyond Basic Charts

Submitted Oct 15, 2026

🎤 I am submitting: To speak I have a submission for: A talk - 30-40 mins

Talk/session proposal - 30-40 mins

In this session, I’ll walk through selected dataviz projects I have created based on personal & public data; from the questions that started them to the decisions that shaped their visual language and narrative. I’ll show how I move between collecting information, identifying patterns, experimenting with representation and editing a story into a series of visual frames.
The aim is not to propose a new charting technique, but to share a creative approach to working with data: one that makes room for curiosity, visual experimentation and the everyday experiences that are often overlooked as subjects for data visualisation.
These projects have pushed me to approach data as creative material rather than simply something to analyse and present. What happens when you begin with a feeling, a mundane experience or a curiosity instead of a predefined dataset and chart type? How do you find a narrative in the data, decide what deserves attention, and choose a visual form that makes the result meaningful?

TAKEAWAYS:

  • Ways to find worthwhile data questions in personal experiences and everyday observations.
  • A creative process for moving from raw information to a visual narrative, without defaulting to familiar chart types.
  • How illustration, visual systems and sequencing can help communicate patterns that a standalone chart might not capture.

WHO IT’S FOR
Data analysts, data scientists, designers, journalists and anyone interested in making data more meaningful, accessible and memorable through visual storytelling.

BIO
I’m a brand designer, artist and illustrator who has been exploring data visualisation through two kinds of projects: personal data, such as tracking my own hours and emotions, and public-facing investigations, such as documenting the process of finding a flat in Bangalore, usage of AI in Internship application forms, etc.

Links to my illustrative DataViz projects below:
https://www.radzsubbu.biz/data-visualizations

I’d love to exchange ideas with people who work with different kinds of datasets and investigate how they identify the right questions to ask.

Match Making Tags:

  • I can help with: ideas, technique, facilitation
  • I’d like to meet: researchers / practitioners / domain experts / tool builders / dataset owners / facilitators

Tags:
Personal Data, Creative Data Design, Creative Data, Narrative Visualization

All submissions

Comments

{{ gettext('Login to leave a comment') }}

{{ gettext('Post a comment…') }}
{{ gettext('New comment') }}
{{ formTitle }}

{{ errorMsg }}

{{ gettext('No comments posted yet') }}

Hosted by

The Fifth Elephant
The Fifth Elephant
Jumpstart better data engineering and AI futures