Maskar Design: making visual sense of a ‘zillion bits of data’

Maskar Design data visualization of City of Philadelphia budget as the January portion of their Curious 2011 calendar.

The City has a ‘zillion bits of data,’ says Kate Maskar, but until it’s all pulled together and put into context, most of it doesn’t have a lot of meaning.

One of the best examples of Maskar Design, of which Kate is president and founder, doing just that isn’t even a core part of the Rittenhouse design shop’s portfolio.

Last year, Maskar, 52, and her team of six created a data visualization calendar [Beware: 9MB PDF], it was so well received, that the firm launched a second version, Curious 2011. Featuring a different visualization for each month, from the City of Philadelphia budget to the process of making bagels, Maskar is selling the calendars for $10 and $5 for each additional copy. It’s early enough in the year for the calendars to still be worth it.

Read more

Philly’s creative sector employed 17,699 people in 2008, says report

The creative economies of Philadelphia are still small but jobs in those sectors held relatively stable during the build up to the Great Recession, according to a William Penn Foundation-funded report released last week. The creative economy included jobs like graphic designers and animators and spanned from 2006 to 2008.

Commissioned by the Mayor’s Office of the Arts, Culture and Creative Economy and its chief Gary Steuer, the Nutter administration quickly trumpeted the research as showing a vibrant creative community.

Read more

Village of Arts and Humanities uses digital production to highlight youth issues

In partnership with Temple University’s Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab, the university’s capstone journalism class, students Chelsea Leposa and Jared Pass will cover neighborhood technology issues for Technically Philly and Philadelphia Neighborhoods through May.

The colorfully painted walls at the Village of Arts and Humanities in North Philadelphia allow the students to forget their day�s troubles and concentrate on their creativity.

Before class begins, students sit around sharing the latest gossip and brag about their day. The smiles on their faces and the energy of the room prove that the kids are enjoying themselves. At the neighborhood center, just north of Temple University, there are many classes and activities for the students to get involved in, ranging from fashion design to gardening.

�I�ve been coming here for five years,� Leon Sanford, 18, says. �It keeps me sane and out of trouble.�

The Village also has a Digital Media Program that includes video production, photography, writing, and graphic and web design. The program began in 2003 with four students and two computers. At the beginning students strictly learned video editing using existing footage. Since then, the program has expanded to over 20 students and now includes many aspects of digital media production.

Read more