A Year Full Of Data

Saumya Mittal
Graphic Media Design


I started my DPS year with a very clear outlook on where I needed to be by the end of it. I was sure I needed to learn information design and data visualisation. But I had nowhere to start, and couldn’t possibly figure out where this might lead me to.

So I started with a series of personal projects and made sure I was always working on something of my own beside my internships. My first experiment was a very personal and abstract one. For over two years, I collected data with my boyfriend. I created a system of positive and negative points for every time he made me happy or sad.

After my initial data set was made, I charted these points in excel. I was sure the visual depiction of this data had to be more than graphs and bar charts. It had to visualise my relationship over every year.  I started by choosing a colour palette and setting it for the good and the bad. I then developed some complex shapes to reflect the nature of human relationships.

​The second project I did was more documentation based. This was during my first internship in Mumbai. The Mumbai local trains have a notorious reputation of being crowded at all times during the day. If you travel during peak hours, you almost never get a chance to sit. The data was recorded over a period of four months, while I travelled to and from work. The peaks show standing and the lower points depict sitting.


The projects caught a lot of attention and I was successfully able to meet with some information designers and studios to get more feedback! The highpoint was when I got an internship offer from Accurat! the very studio that got me into information design. The logistics didn’t work out, but I am happy I got that far.