Welcome to the latest issue of the 'Visualising Data Newsletter', chronicling 50 of the most insightful and delightful data viz pieces of content I encountered during February 2026.

With April being an especially busy time for work and travel, there won't be an issue posted next month and so the next, compiled in May, will reflect the work I encountered during March AND April.

Happy Viz'ing!

Andy

Latest from me...

Firstly, some recent posts or announcements relating to my professional services and activities.

Visuals

The freshest data visualisation (or related) design pieces and collections.

7. Here's the Triple Axel That Gave Ami Nakai the Lead After the Short Program | New York Times​

A second mention for figure-skating! The Winter Olympics always brings out the very best in photo-viz opportunities and this is another such gem.

8. The Heavy Reality of Venezuela's Oil | Reuters​

Some lovely #littlevis flourishes in this oily piece, with special attention paid to different textures throughout - a rather underused design channel.

9. Sunlight and water requirements for edible plants | Aman Bhargava​

Maybe because I'm currently working out how to populate a new but barren garden, and I have little gardening know-how (or motivation to acquire the know-how), but this experiment resonated with me and made me realise how ripe (pun intended) the topic is for visualising.

10. Open Climate Risk | Carbon Plan​

"We’re launching Open Climate Risk, a fully open option for U.S. building-level climate risk data. It’s unique because it allows you to see not only risk scores, starting with wildfire, but also the complete underlying dataset, methods, and codebase."

11. The FT contest that challenged readers to redraw Europe’s borders | Financial Times​

Let me allow Alan Smith to set the scene for this piece: "8 years ago, at the British Library, I first saw this map: an FT reader competition to predict the boundaries of Europe after WW1. I made a note to find out more one day - which ultimately led me last month to this tomb in West Norwood cemetery...". You can't not go and read it after that?!

12. The medal table as an Olympic fan scarf | Der Spiegel​

Yep, things have been getting quite experimental at Der Spiegel with some real creativity from Nina, Rina and Anna who created this fun piece to generate tapestry style reports on the Winter Olympic medal's table. You can read more about how here.

13. Age profile map | Eurostat​

A super clear demonstration of how older age groups seem to migrate to the coast!

14. What Trump's Latest East Wing Designs Show | New York Times​

We don't see enough architecture-data viz crossover so this is a nice opportunity exploring the latest designs of Trump's east wing plans.

15. Four years of war in Ukraine | Karim Douieb​

A map Karim designed for Doctors Without Borders: "Each light is a hospital location. “Lights out” marks the moment teams must switch off, evacuate, and move on as the front advances. A tribute to resilience and care under fire."

16. Cuba Is Struggling to Keep Lights On Amid Trump's Oil Blockade | Bloomberg​

In a similar form, the analysis here switches to look at how much Cuba has dimmed since the oil blockade using night-time satellite imagery.

17. The Effects of Tariffs, One Year Into Trump's Trade Experiment | TheUpshot​

"Five charts show the impact on the economy after a year of sweeping trade changes by the Trump administration"

18. From a whiff of mystique to witty love... | New York Times​

February brings us Valentine's Day and this piece explore the trends over 200 years of Valentine's Day card designs and messaging

19. One year ago, Donald Trump took an oath to serve the American people. Instead, he has focused on using the presidency to enrich himself. | New York Times​

OK I now realise there's been a LOT of NYT stuff this month, but they have been very busy doing great visuals this month in particular, and so here's the last in the collection for which the title alone sets the scene.

20. Climate Visualised | Cartoguophy​

A beautifully executed (and award-winning) pair of visuals, in static poster and digital interactive form, by Atlas Guo, offering an exploratory web map of Köppen-Geiger climate classification.

21. Economic growth is still heating the planet. Is there any way out? | The Guardian​

Nice to see a connected scatter plot in the wild and this is a perfect use case animating the connection between GDP and global emissions over time.

22. From island to ice | Reuters​

Beautifully animated piece showing the origins of and the story of production of curling stones.

23. Inside the Kill Zone | Financial Times​

Latest big investigation from the FT, looking at how 'drones have redrawn the map of war in Ukraine'.

24. Made in the USA, sourced globally | Straits Times​

Analysis of how Trump’s tariffs are "having a widespread impact, and American companies are not spared" especially those products claiming to be 'made in the USA' but which contain components from elsewhere.

25. How rightwing rhetoric has risen sharply in the UK parliament | The Guardian​

"An unprecedented analysis of 100 years of parliamentary speeches has shown a sharp shift to the right on the issue – with the biggest swing from positive to negative attitudes coming in the past five years."

26. Why rivers in the far north are turning orange | Financial Times​

"We compiled locations of this strange phenomenon from scientific papers, on-the-ground reports and satellite imagery analysis"

27. An oral history of the Fed’s Covid-19 crisis | via Robin Wigglesworth on Bluesky​

I love this little chart analysing the Federal Reserve’s Covid-19 crisis from quotes captured in recently released full transcripts.

28. GB Renewables Map | Robin Hawkes​

A map of all Great Britain's power assets showing live and historic data for not just wind farms but now also "gas power plants, nuclear, grid batteries, biomass, pumped hydro and even a bit of solar"

29. Change in Day Length | Neil Kaye​

The long dark evenings are shrinking and now we head into the depths of Spring finally the light days are getting longer as Neil shows us.

30. The Rain in Spain (and Portugal) | The Met Office​

Staying with weather, it has been wet wet wet in Britain and Ireland during the early parts of 2026 but the Iberian Peninsula has also had it bad, if not worse. Here's a 3D viz to show that very clearly.

31. Happy Map | The Pudding​

This project makes me happy. It is only down here in the list because I wanted it next to number 32. "In 2017, more than 10,000 people tracked experiences that made them happy as part of a research project. The researchers gathered more than 100,000 happy moments.

Learning

Relevant articles, interviews, or videos to help further your development in data viz.

35. Museum Collections Explorer | Martina Zunica on Behance​

Process steps behind a new explorer tool devised and designed by Martina and Stefan Pullen.

36. Boundary Issues | Michal Migurski on Medium​

"Boundary disputes are a major but little-known challenge in mapping: how can you show disputed borders between neighboring countries that claim the same territory?"

37. History of Information Design Books | On Data and Design on Youtube​

Talk from Paul Kahn exploring the history of information design through "books that visualize the world"

38. ChatGPT and the Magnet of Mediocrity | The Edge on Medium​

I've seen a couple of talks recently making sense of the likely impact on the creative industries of AI and both referenced a diagram that emerged from this article by Prakhar Mehrotra and I found it an effective portrayal.

39. Give me 20 | The Plot​

Evelina offers "20 salient learnings from the field of data communication"

40. How Media Frame Climate Change | Storybench​

A nice summary of the different methods newsrooms use to visualise climate change, from "focusing on what warming looks like in a single city, to zooming out to show bigger shifts... to inviting readers to explore future scenarios themselves"

41. Media Habits Are Changing. Has That Made Dashboards Obsolete? | PolicyVIz​

Interesting observations from Jon about how "our media consumption habits have changed so dramatically in recent years that most users are unlikely to explore data"

42. Q&A with Emma Kumer, SND46 World’s Best Emerging Designer | SND​

Nice interview with Emma, a senior newsroom designer at The Washington Post.

43. Storytelling with 3D models | ArcGIS Blog​

"Much like giving your story a hero, incorporating [3D] models of your subject can help move beyond abstraction to create a more engaging, immersive experience that pulls readers in."

News & Sundries

Latest developments, announcements, or announcements affecting the data viz world, as well as additional references to pieces covering broader data, tech, or design matters.

45. Who Owns This Book? | It's Nice That​

"The guide for every designer’s worst nightmare: copyright"

46. Do you make drag-and-drop interfaces? | Josh Horowitz on Bluesky​

"We're working on a new way to drag & drop! Wanna try it out? Join our study – we'll ask you about your drag-and-drop experiences, and get your hands on the prototype."

47. When the Newsroom Goes Quiet, Community Speaks Louder | Newspaper Design​

After some brutal recent cuts to newsrooms, not least impacting on some of the best visual talent in the industry, Javier amplifies here a thoughtul initiative from the Society for News Design (SND): "If you’ve been laid off from an editorial or media role in the past year, SND is offering a complimentary one-year membership to help visual journalists and visual storytellers stay connected while navigating a transition"

48. Draw a Horse | Gradient.horse​

Feels like its from a bygone internet era when things were more fun. You can draw a horse here and then watch your horse and all the other drawn horses parade across the screen.

49. Design Details: Improving the UX on a Tape Dispenser | Core77​

I like tape dispensers. I love well designed ones.

50. Spotify - Spreadbeats (case study) | LLLLITL on Youtube​

A full music video made. In. Excel.

Thanks for reading!

Hi, I’m ANDY KIRK, an independent data visualisation expert. My vision is to deliver data viz excellence, everywhere. I offer data visualisation professional services to clients worldwide in my capacity as a design consultant, a prolific and experienced trainer, as a four-times published author, as a researcher and sought-after speaker. I'm editor of visualisingdata.com and host of the Explore Explain video and podcast series. If you have a desire to elevate your data viz capabilities, whether at the start of your journey or further along, get in touch.

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