T. from Data Rocks

@datarocksnz

Dataviz | Information Design The person behind The Dataviz Bookshelf, The Data Design Manifesto & The Design Matters newsletter series. I don't use autocorrect. I own all of my typos.

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T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· May 23

Tom Scott from classic Youtube era, raising his hand somewhere and saying
"I am at my fucking limit"

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· May 14

I have two cats.

Comic composed of 4 panels.
Panel 1, black cat, looking cute, big eyes, with the words "it's time.for cuddles".
Panel 2, woman character, short hair, striped shirt, says "I'm sorry sweetie, I'm very busy".
Panel 3, black cat proceeds to walk all over her desk, stomping on her laptop's keyboard, as is it's natural divine given right. The woman just stares in the distance, knowing this was not the first and it won't be the last time.
Panel 4, black cat is lying down, lounging comfortably over her entire laptop keyboard, stretching out the entire desk, posing as the muse that has and will inspire a million comic strips. It is ensuring it is cuddle time, where the woman agrees with it or not. The woman has her hands raised in a pose best described as "can you believe this?".

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Apr 14

Mood.

An owl, resigned to the fact that it needs volunteer care, looking a bit confused, laying on its back, semi-wrapped in a towel, paws up, being held by a human hand.

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Apr 14

Cat tax

Shy Calico cat called Spot. In the picture she is in her clamshell shaped bed, with just the head out, with inquisitive bright green eyes wondering if it's reading time. She has a white face, and brown and black spots on her head.

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Apr 3

And the comment about user personas made me remember of this classic.

An image of two UX user personas, both with the exact same text in bullet points: male, born in 1948, raised in the UK, married twice, lives in a castle, wealthy and famous. The top picture is of Prince Charles and the bottom picture is of Ozzy Osbourne.

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Mar 18

A photo of an e-reader screen displaying a passage of text from the book Cyberselfish, by Paulina Borsook.

The text reads: "But I don't think all change is good, or without cost. I am a Luddite—in the true sense of the word. The followers of Ned Ludd were rightfully concerned that rapid industrialization was ruining their traditional artisanal workways and villages, creating nineteenth-century local environmental disasters and horror-show factory working (and living) conditions for family members of all ages. For decades, the displacements of the Industrial Revolution sent hundreds of thousands of people to lives of penury, starvation, disease, and despair in the slums of big cities. The Luddites were early labor and ecology activists, upset not so much with technology per se but with technology's destructive effects to their bodies, to their children, to the places where they lived, to their ability to make a sane living. And, in a sense, they were early protesters of de-skilling."

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Mar 3

Meme using a scene from the movie Jaws, where the original dialogue would be "We're gonna need a bigger boat". The meme text reads "We're gonna need a smaller violin".

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Feb 20

Early 40th birthday gift. I'm a very happy kid ☺️

Cover of a book named Feathers of Aotearoa: an illustrated journal by author Niels Meyer-Westfield. The cover shows several hand drawn illustrations of feather from New Zealand birds.

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Feb 17

Fun little game! Also, one of the colours was an unfair advantage as it was very similar to my logo's background colour, which I stared at for hours tweaking before. dialed.gg

Image from the game https://dialed.gg/
Score at the top is 48.90 out of 50.

Underneath there are 5 colour swatches, the ones guessed in-game.

Under the swatches there's the sentence: "Perfect Score. Congratulations. You've peaked. It's all downhill from here."

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Feb 16

Drop an album that was important to you when you were 19.

A close-up of a woman in a car's passanger seat, while a man drives. The woman has a defiant frowny expression.

Cover of the album Uh-huh-her by artist PJ Harvey.

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Feb 7

If Data Rocks NZ was a band, this would be the album cover.

Two cats by an open window. First cat is black and fluffy, in the foreground, on the inside of the window, with his tongue out, second cat is a calico, also with her tongue out, but climbing the window glass, from the outside, in the background.

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Jan 8

Scene from the TV Series Bob's Burgers where Bob looks tired and defeated while climbing up some stairs saying to his daughter "It's been a rough year", to which she replies "It's the first week of January".

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Jan 4

"What do you mean you're 'back to work' today??" Inquires the Chief Purring Officer.

A pouty, fluffy black cat defiantly sitting on top of keyboard, mouse, pen and notebook of his human, who is just trying to get on with the 2026 work. His face seems to say "what is this work shenanigans about? No work, just pets!"

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Dec 23

And quirky Xmas sploosh

Picture of Spot, a calico cat, with her belly up and showing lots of calico toe beans. Spot is Data Rocks Director of Toy Chasing Operations and has lots of fun in her role.

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Dec 23

Majestic Xmas floof

Picture of Ozymandias, a very fluffy black cat, against a yellow wall, sitting on top of his cat tower, from which a toy spider dangles. Ozzy is Data Rocks Chief Purring Officer and takes his duty very seriously.

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Nov 20

Painfully accurate

A modified version of the classic xkcd diagram about the the modern digital infrastructure. It shows a tower of scrappy random blocks balanced in ever more flimsy blocks. From top to bottom: lots of little random blocks poorly balanced with the note "something happening in the web", then a tiny block at one leg of the tower called Cloudfare. Another one a little below it called AWS. A tiny itsy little load-bearing block called Unpaid Opensource Developers. The Linux foundation is a thin base of the Tower. A tiny balancing block with a picture of the shark that ate the underwater internet cables is holding the entire tower together. For extra comic effect, there is a hinge forcefully streching half the tower upwards called AI. And an angry bird is being thrown at the entire thing with the note "whatever Microsoft is doing.

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Nov 4

Silly thing, but I'm very happy with my new socks.

Picture of feet wearing a pair of socks with artwork inspired by Wassily Kandinsky.

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Oct 11

Weekend

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Oct 4

6 years ago, I decided that I could probably make a living out of this #dataviz design thing. And it worked! Thanks to everyone who's been part of this journey so far! 💜

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Sep 21

I did a thing! Today is Data Rocks Chief Purring Officer's first adoption anniversary, so I made a silly little poster to celebrate, because why not! www.behance.net/gallery/2350...

Poster celebrating the 1 year adoption anniversary of a black cat named Ozymandias (Ozzy). The poster has a textured background with multiple polaroid-style photos. Header: "OZYMANDIAS" is written in large handwritten letters on the left, with "Adoption Anniversary 1 year" in smaller text on the right.
Top left photo: "First Pic!": Shows a small black kitten in a carrier. Text: "Ozzy was adopted on 21st September 2024, with 9 months. He weighted 3.2kg"
Second photo labeled "First Vet Visit": Shows hands holding the small black kitten at the vet table. Text: "He went to the vet four times. Two of those were poop related"
Top right photo: Shows him investigating a fluffy yellow duck toy. Caption: "If this poor duck could talk..." Text: "His favourite toy is a yellow fluffy duck that moves and quacks."
Right photo labeled "Catio!": Shows the cat in an outdoor enclosed area. Text: "Ozzy's favourite place is his catio, no matter the weather."
Middle left photo: Caption: "A very scary vet trip". Shows Ozzy lying on his bed. Text: "Ozzy is afraid of heavy rains and strong winds, but when he hugs his ESPie (Emotional Support Plushie), everything seems less scary."
Middle right photo labeled "First backyard walk": Shows him outdoors climbing a tree. Text reads: "He's a very smart boy. He knows how to walk on a leash, high-five, sit, spin and lay down on command. He also knows 'out' means getting out of the counter, but he often chooses to ignore it."
Bottom left photo labeled "Baaah!": Shows two sheep in a field. Text: "He was once visited by two sheep"
Center large photo: The main image shows Ozzy as a fully grown black cat with bright green eyes sitting in a red and white striped box looking up and to the left.
Bottom right photos: Two close-up shots of Ozzy's funny faces with captions "What?!" and "weeee!!!" Text nearby reads: "Ozzy is very chatty and expressive"

Bottom text: "He has grown up to be a big fluffy boy, at 5.2kg!"
Footer: Created with love by @datarocksnz

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Jul 21

Mr. CPO hasn't met his new team member just yet, but he is wondering why it seems like there are more treats in the cupboard, but he's only getting his usual share.

A black cat named Ozymandias, or Ozzy for the friends. He is also known as Mr. Coffee Beans, and occasionally referred to as the Pharaoh of Darkness, because it is a damn cool badass nickname. He is sitting in a 12/10 cat loaf form, perched on his favourite cat scratcher spot. He is very fluffy.

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Jul 21

Mr. Ozzy, The Chief Purring Officer at Data Rocks and I, would like to welcome the newest team member, Ms. Spot, to the role of Executive Director of Toy Chasing Operations.

A female calico cat, named Spot, sitting in her new home after a delicious welcome meal, cheek scratches, and lots of treats.

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Jul 11

If you see this, quote post with a robot that isn’t from Star Wars, Star Trek, Dr Who and Transformers

The robot Bender, from Futurama, connecting a purple cable into his head.

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Jun 24

By @designthinking.lol

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Feb 2

#dataviz

A poorly designed pie chart by an unknown author, likely created as a joke, which says: Will I finish my portfolio this year? One slice is blue, at about 95% of the pie, coded in blue in the legend, saying "No". The other slice, representing 5% of the pie is yellow and the legend is coded as "No, but in yellow".

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Jan 31

If you see this post, quote with a bridge from your gallery.

Manganui Gorge suspension bridge, Taranaki Maunga, NZ.

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Jan 25

Speak for yourself!! Me and Mr. Chief Purring Officer are all about the viz and design books!

Ozzy, Data Rocks' Chief Purring Officer (a black cat) ready to jump head first into some dataviz books.

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Jan 23

I looked into all I could find and traced back the hatred for round shapes to a Stephen Few quote. It's in his "Show me the Numbers" book. Chapter 12 is called "Silly Graphs that are best Foresaken" and he goes on a tirade against round shapes, with very cherry-picked examples. This is page 271.

Page 271 of Stephen Few's Show me the Numbers book. It starts the chapter named 12. Silly Charts that are best foresaken".

Quote about Donut Charts: "a donut chart is a pie chart with a hole in the middle. Both pie and donut charts attempt to display parts of a whole. If pie charts are graphical pastries filled with empty calories, donut charts are the same and more."

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Jan 16

One of my favourite Tableau #dataviz of all time. By Judit Bekker. public.tableau.com/views/64hour...

Data Visualization in Tableau Public about the work of multi-artist David Lynch. It depicts Lynch's face in a Mondrian-inspired montage, with colourful squares overlapping his image. Squares are blue and red with white and black accents, colours often prominent in his movies and art.

T. from Data Rocks@datarocksnz· Dec 10

I'm a visual person.