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storytelling with data podcast: #89 putting the art in chart with Nadieh Bremer

·47 min·3 clips

Nadieh Bremer describes data visualization and data art as “a sliding scale.”

Alex begins with a spectrum: one end is background music that disappears, and the other is a live performance that stays with you. That framing becomes the lens for the whole conversation about charts. Standard bars and lines are treated as useful, familiar, and easy to forget. At the other end are custom visual pieces that draw you in, spark curiosity, and leave a stronger impression. Nadi Bremer introduces her book Chart as the source of that idea. The conversation treats the book as a guide for moving step by step from ordinary charting into more expressive territory. Its structure is described as four sections. The first stays close to traditional chart forms. The second starts adding creativity. The third pushes toward visual variety. The final section moves into a more artistic space. That progression matters because it gives listeners a ladder rather than a leap. A lot of the discussion stays rooted in business communication. The question is how much personality a chart can carry while still doing its job. Nadi argues that business audiences often need something straightforward. They should not have to work through the whole legend before the point becomes clear. At the same time, familiar charts can feel so common that they barely register. Her answer is restraint. A chart may need a little more than the standard treatment if it is going to stick. She points to a client example from Swiss energy as a slightly silly case that worked because it still stayed tied to the data. That example shows that memorable does not have to mean disconnected from purpose. The host keeps testing that balance with plain, practical follow-up questions. The guest answers in terms of process, audience, and craft. The conversation never wanders far from usefulness. It keeps returning to the idea that design choices should be deliberate. The data still has to lead. The visual treatment should support it, not bury it. By the end, the episode feels less like a lecture on chart aesthetics and more like a workshop on judgment. Even the closing note stays practical, with a suggestion to rethink something as basic as a bullet chart. The larger point is that creativity in data work is not an escape from structure. It is a way of making structure easier to notice, remember, and use.

As heard by us

A clear case for charts that hold attention without losing the point.

The episode treats data visualization like a choice between elevator music and a live concert, using a new book to ask where plain charts stop doing the job.

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Why you'd press play

You want charts that still read cleanly, but leave a stronger impression than the usual bar-and-line routine.

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