Episode 80: Creativity Mini-Series with Manuel Canales — Data Viz Today

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TRANSCRIPT:
Alli Torban (00:00):
Hey, you're listening to episode 80 of Data Viz Today. I'm Alli Torban, and this show is here to help you become a more effective information designer. Thanks for joining me. All right, We're rolling. Along with our miniseries all about creativity and information design, we're exploring how data is designers define creativity, how they integrate it into their practice, and what they do when they're stuck, and so much more. Our guest today is Manuel Canales. He's the graphics assignment editor at the Washington Post, and he previously was the senior graphics editor at National Geographic where he played a major role in developing information, graphics and illustrations. So much beautiful work print and digitally. His information design work is simply stunning. So I invited him on the show to share more about his creative process. He shared a lot of great gems with me today, and I actually changed how I begin projects thanks to his advice. So let's get to it. Here's my chat with Manuel Canals. How would you define creativity?
Manuel Canales (01:04):
Well creativity is to create something new. Usually solving a problem, creating something new, and from we start an idea, we finish it. All that process, I think that creativity.
Alli Torban (01:20):
And do you think that that skill is something that people are naturally born with or something that they can hone over time?
Manuel Canales (01:31):
Well, I feel that creativity is, is in the human being. It is part of the human beings. Everybody is, is has creativity, is is everybody is creative in different areas. For if I have friends that are very creative in, in, in building something from a scratch to a house or another ones who are very good in music. And I think that you, you born with that, with that creativity, but in different areas, of course, when you are growing up your experience, you, eh, formal educations also some, the inspirations around you, your friends, your colleagues, everything give you more give you more, help you to grow in that creativity way. For ex if you are surrounding from with designers and artists and illustrators, you, you, you can absorb part of it. So you activity grow more in that part. If you are surrounded by musicians and teachers or something, you will capture that part too. So also surrounded it help you to, to grow in your creativity. Mm.
Alli Torban (02:49):
Yeah. I haven't thought about it. How you are naturally, people do tend to be more naturally creative in certain things. Do you that it stems from maybe their natural curiosities?
Manuel Canales (03:02):
Yes, yes. I think you, you define those areas in you, you are born with that and yeah, your curiosity allowed you to, to drive you through a specific areas sometimes. Mm. And other times is, is a matter of lock that you, you start to thinking, Oh I want to be a psychologist and then I, I I am a designer, something like that. Mm-Hmm.
, you, you change your, while you are a growing up for, as an experience or something that happened in your life. Yeah. Ity is, is is also, as you mentioned, give you some, some path. Mm-Hmm.
that path is not the final. You can start with something and then that curiosity give you another path, like a branch, and you start that branch and follow that. And at the end you, you find your, your area.
Alli Torban (03:56):
Yeah. And the people that you meet along the way in their inspiration on you as well.
Manuel Canales (04:01):
Yeah. I think it's important when, well, when you decide to, to, to add in, in, in the specific area, surrounded to people that you can grow to, to, to their experience, their, their knowledge. Basing my, my experience of course, eh, my to be the people with more experience than me. Help me to, to understand how, how the process, how to manage a, the challenge to, to, to be in front of the whiteboard and, and yeah. And, and be more, not, not be more curiosity is like a be won't be don't be afraid to, to explore new things.
Alli Torban (04:42):
Mm. When you are staring at the whiteboard, how do you approach it? How, how do you even get started on a project? You're like, Oh, I gotta be creative. What, how do I start
?
Manuel Canales (04:52):
We, we joke in, in with friends and, and this is not like a button to okay, playing creativity processes start, eh, I, my, I just start to make little sketch. For example. I always, I love Model King that, you know, that this sketching notebooks. So I just start to do some doodles, very tiny. I, I, I won't want use the whole page. I use just a little bit tiny, tiny ideas that I have in my mind. And then when after that just doodling, doodling, then I say, Oh, this is something that I can, I could explore. I can explore. So I go to another level, I publish a little bit more. Basically I just sketch the sketch for me, the best tool to, to find your way. Cause I need to see it sometimes, Well, every time you have it in your mind, but you need to translate in something tangible to see how the composition is, or if it is a graphic. So if the data is there, what is the storytelling? And you have to see it. So translate that idea you have in your mind and put it in paper. And, and I just start that process with the sketch.
Alli Torban (06:07):
Are you starting the sketching process in your mind? Are you thinking, Okay, I'm starting the project? Or are you thinking, are you putting any expectations on these sketches yet? Or do you think that it starts so well because you're not putting expectations
Manuel Canales (06:20):
That, that, that that is the idea. Don't, don't have any expectations. Just put it in, in, in, in paper. And I always recommend paper a sketch or do tablet, something that easy to, to discard. You know, if you don't like it, okay, don't, you don't put too much effort. Mm. And that is, is like a, is is an exercise that you start with no expectation that I want to see how this data could work here, or how about this composition. And then is, is start to flow, obviously. Something that also increase the proposal is to have information. If there is a graphic, to have the information, you can have a first sketch and you see, oh, maybe the storytelling is not this, this could be the other way. And you grab more information, find more information, and then you find the story. But that for me the sketch tell me what path I can, I, I could explore.
Alli Torban (07:24):
What if you're sketching for like an hour and you're not getting any idea
Manuel Canales (07:30):
, something sometimes happens, sometimes I, I, I get frustrated say, Okay, going to stop to for today and move to another thing or see a movie watch a show or something like that, and suddenly playing something, Oh, that, that is case didn't work. Maybe if, if I had this could start to work and Yeah, don't, the best way is don't put too much pressure. Mm.
Alli Torban (08:00):
Yeah. You, you find that the having the pressure kind of like,
Manuel Canales (08:05):
Dis extinguishes the creativity.
Manuel Canales (08:08):
It's more like because of course if you have many, you have a deadline. So I try to, to start as soon as I canion process, Process, because I don't want, I don't, I don't want to be so pressured to finish in something. But the good thing is that there is the, in, in our, in our area, we have a deadlines. And that deadlines, eh, allow you to, to have your space for, for, eh, create a process, create a sketch after that looking for data and then pull the sketch, et cetera, et cetera. So these steps, eh, these deadlines allow you to, don't be so pressure at the end, but everything is start with the, with the sketch. As soon as you have the idea, everything flows very smooth. It's beautiful when that happens,
. But the first, the, the first part of the, of this process is very painful.
.
Alli Torban (09:05):
It is because you don't really know what you're doing. You know, you, you can't, because that's being creative is something new. So it kind of, navigating that uncertainty is kind of scary.
Manuel Canales (09:17):
I, I, in, in our areas as a storytellers, as a graphic, as storytellers, we, we, we know what we want to achieve. We want to present a story based on data. And the first part is to, to have the data. Mm-Hmm.
, but you have the data, also data help you to, to make that escaping process. Mm. Mm-Hmm.
, I just start with an idea. For example, in one of my projects, the the solar system, The solar system is huge. So what is the story about it? So let's, let's, let's, Okay, I cannot escape is a, a lot of space and, and we start to looking for, okay, what is the new thing about it? Okay, hey, how about this? The rings and the shape of the ring, eh, this asteroids and, and it has a, a donut shape and there is a another donut only.
Manuel Canales (10:10):
This is looking good. So I start to, to, let's look for more data about it. What is else? And that give you like another step and another step, you know when you have the data and that, that is good in on what we do because the data will give us the way, give, give us the path to follow. When I start a process more abstract, like an illustration, that is the, the one that you just give you a topic and, and you have to start to looking for some inspiration. What the style, it will be better for this etcetera. So mm-hmm.
. So there is like a two, two process of creativity. Ones for data storytelling, and the one who is like a, do an illustration or something completely with no more like a, like a, like a topic or, or we, we, we need to, I, I used to to to illustrate the, the cover of the newspaper where I used to work and, and about the elections and say how I can do an election. So you have to that process start to sketching and sketching once you have an idea and that it taking more time.
Alli Torban (11:24):
When you are sketching and you take a break, let's say, and come back and the ideas still aren't flowing, are you going through the process thinking, Well, maybe I just need more inputs. Kinda like you said with maybe I need to go back on the data and refine it a little bit more. Or maybe search around for more inspiration.
Manuel Canales (11:47):
Yes. as, as I mentioned that before, that is good to be surround, eh, people in, in, in your area. Mm-Hmm.
, DERs, eh, another graphic editors it help you to see to, to, to have their, their opinion, their feedback. And I, I, I have this, Okay, I have this, eh, graphic about the solar system, and I, I have this idea and we can have a very quick meeting. Hey Fernando, Fernando is, is is a colleague of mine in Naji or Monica, What do you think about it? I want to tell this. So, and we exchange comments. And that is good because when, when you have that, that feedback for your friends and colleagues, it help you to shape the better the storytelling. Because when you are so focused in that, you start to, to losing the whole in somehow a little, you know, too much of the topic mm-hmm.
that think that everybody have the same information as you. So it's good to, to share with another one. Even with I don't know a friend that is not related to that actually. Cause the first time that he's going to see that is sketch and, and try to, to understand what you want to tell
Alli Torban (13:03):
When you're presenting a sketch to someone just to get their feedback on it. How much information are you giving to them? Like hey, this is the topic and this is my idea. Cause you know, sometimes sketches are pretty rough and yeah sometimes it's hard for people to kind of see where you're going with it. So how, how are, how do you present the idea?
Manuel Canales (13:24):
Well, it, it, for me, it works to make these very rough sketches for, for me, for, to try to find that the, that that storytelling and the composition on that part, when I present it to another, another person, I try to publish more. Because you're right, if there is very very rough that people maybe won't understand, don't understand what you want to tell there are, if, if, if I going to present a, that that is case to, to, to another person, I mean my colleagues or, or my, my directors and is a digital storytelling, I, I mock up the whole story and I drive them through the whole storytelling make. Okay, this is an animation. Sometimes I do a, a when it's necessary, I do a storyboard. So the, we're going to, to re to present the creation of the, of, of the solar system start from here. And then the movements that what animations, what is started going to use and tell the whole thing without text, of course, because I don't put any text, I just, Okay. Here we can present any text information number or something. While I am describing the whole storytelling, when it is a print I, I try to, again, I try to polish, talk about the main thing that I want to tell, and another side graphics that to get more information for the user to understand the whole picture. Mm,
Alli Torban (15:05):
Mm-Hmm.
. And what about when you are, maybe you pitch it, you, you tell someone your idea, everybody likes it, but then as you're polishing, it seemed like a good idea, but now that I'm polishing it more, it doesn't seem all that creative. Do you ever feel that way?
Manuel Canales (15:24):
It happened sometimes, but before I get to the certain point, the idea of this deadlines, like let's talk about maybe three steps. The first one is like the rough sketch, the first draft you have that I going to put in this stage. Like when you have a good sketch that you already have the data and you think this is the story, the story that you want to tell, the data tell you that this is how you have to, to tell the story, and you present it and you have the feedback. And the feedback comes from my, my directors or my colleagues mm-hmm.
. And that helped me to, okay, everybody is okay. So it seemed that I'm in the right track. The second one is to pull, polish that sketch with the data, do graphic, do the visualization. And everybody, I put it, I present it again.
Manuel Canales (16:18):
And in this case, what it comes usually are comments about styles like a polish, this image more. So at that point, I already have the main, the main thing that is the concept of story. I can change the style. Maybe 3D illustration doesn't work in this maybe is better to present it in 2d in traditional illustration. Or maybe it's not a illustration, it's not like a, a graphic graphic. Maybe it's more like a data visualization. At this point. That would be a big change because I already present the, the story, but sometimes the people that, no, maybe it is not what we want to present. Maybe let's focus in that part. And that part is the visualization that could happen too. But again, this, but isn't, the idea is not to have those big changes in the, in the second step. Right. And when you get to the third one, Yeah, in the third one, the boat is
sells.
Manuel Canales (17:25):
It's like a polish how you, I don't know, something about the, the codes or some polish that that visualization or, or the illustration or something like that. But I feel that these three steps allow, help you to, to prove the concept before you are in the third step. And everything is done. I mean, that, that deadline, the big deadline to publish is, is almost a week from now. Mm-Hmm.
and any big change, it will impact that, that eh, publish date. But yeah, and you, you can divide it each of these steps in little more just to, to be more to, to try to, to catch those, those changes in the storytelling before you get to the main part with is very hard.
Alli Torban (18:19):
Yeah, that makes sense. So having, having a lot of different phases and then also getting feedback every single time so that you can catch catch like, hey, this isn't really working, or this wasn't really as creative as we thought
Manuel Canales (18:33):
. Yeah. I prefer to, to, to get to the second step that I mentioned with the concept already, already a approved, everybody's happy, but everybody's happy. But something can happen in the news that changed, that that could, could, could happen. But, but usually when I, in the second part, I just publish the style, eh, the colors, that kinda things. Mm-Hmm.
Alli Torban (18:58):
, do you go about collecting inspiration in any particular way?
Manuel Canales (19:02):
Oh, yeah. I, I, I, I, I buy a lot of books about, not only about graphics, also about comics, about arts, about everything visually. I love the concept arts. For example, when a movie is released and they have this calculation about the concept out of the movie, the Star Wars or, or even a, the last one that I, I get it was I feel it was a Star Wars, an old picture, but I love the book about the concept arts, how they present ideas and everything. Mm-Hmm. That gave me a lot of tools to maybe in the future I can present something like that. Another thing is digitally behaves interest. All these websites that collect images and, and designs. I love design too. Sometimes I, I take a look of these big design firms that I follow just to see what they're doing. They solve that, that ideas even that I don't, I am not in advertising anymore, but because I like it, because I, I, because I want to see how they solve a problem visually. Yeah. I try to grab inspiration for every, and obviously my colleagues, I to be by talking about design or a show or something, they help me a lot. Mm-Hmm.
Alli Torban (20:32):
. Okay. Last question. Is there one particular, I know this is hard, but one particular person that you can choose that inspires you with their creativity?
Manuel Canales (20:42):
Well, one particular Fernando Batista, I had a, I've been follow his work since I was in Costa Rica, and I think he is one of the, the best graphic editors and graphic artists nowadays. He has changed the storytelling, Hey, he has changed the way that we can present the storytelling when he start to doing some sketch, like a pencil drawing in, in El Cor and then now Matt painting. And no, he's the grace. And working with him has, has been a blessing. And I have seen his work and always inspire me. He's very, he's the, the, he spent too much hour working. He, he works a lot to, to, to, to give the user that good product. And that inspire me to not only his technique and how he solve progress, also his, how he works and how he passionate it is.
Alli Torban (21:48):
Yeah, his work is really amazing and yours is too. Thank you so much, Manuel, for coming on the show today.
Manuel Canales (21:54):
Thank you very much.
Alli Torban (21:57):
Thank you so much, Manuel, for sharing your creative process with us. Here are my key takeaways to keep yourself from having to redo too much work throughout a project. Think about the creative and execution process as three main steps. First, you have the rough sketch phase with your data, your story outlining the composition of the graphic possible ideas. Then present it to your colleagues for feedback on the story, the composition, any extra data you need. Then in the second phase, you're polishing the sketch, adding more contextual data if needed, or illustrations, and then present it again for more feedback. This time it's more feedback on the styling and the concept should kind of already be solid at this point. So the feedback is more focusing on any of the styles, the colors. Third, that's when you're doing your final polishing, tweaking, getting it ready to publish.
Alli Torban (22:48):
And these main steps help you get feedback early and often, so you're not wasting your effort and you, you have that nicely defined first step that gives your creativity a chance to flourish without too much risk to the project. Next, I really love how Manuel approaches new projects. I found that the weight of expectations at the beginning of a project really deflates my creativity. So to combat this, Manuel begins each new project with tiny little sketches and doodles. They're small, they're on paper that can easily be thrown away. There's just no pressure. It's just time to explore some ideas that are kind of floating around in his head. See what has potential. And I think the magic is in the fact that he's giving himself time to just start drawing. He's not analyzing yet. He's not stopping himself before he even starts. He's not obsessing over the brief, just sets aside expectations and starts doodling.
Alli Torban (23:47):
And I actually started incorporating this into my practice after speaking with Manuel. And around the same time I read in this book by Steve Madness called Do Hard Things. He app aligned research that shows that when athletes warm up by doing what they like, they actually alter their hormonal states in a positive manner. And he says that we can apply the same thing to artists or executives. The closer you are to a performance, the more you want to prime with what you're good at to get yourself into a positive mindset. So I thought combining this idea with Manuel's idea to begin small doodles with no expectations at the beginning of a project, to give your creativity time to flourish, this is what I do beginning of a project. I just start sketching a small doodle of something that I feel like I'm good at or makes me smile like one of those 3D cubes, you know, that you would used to draw on school.
Alli Torban (24:42):
I just love those. And I also like to draw these cute little emoji faces with big eyes that my kids think I'm just a genius for drawing. And that just gets me moving with my sketching. It's just a couple little silly things that I feel like I'm good at, and it gets me in a positive mindset. And from there, I just start stringing along little doodles starting to be related to the actual project. I'm not looking at my notes or I'm not throwing out ideas before I even get them out. I'm just kind of chaining together these little doodles with no expectations. It's actually been surprisingly effective for me. It's kind of funny how approaching something as simple as sketching with kind of just a little bit of structure and guidelines can make it so much more creative in your practice. So give it a shot and let me know how it works out for you. Draw a little something that you're good at or makes you smile. And then just start chaining together. Little doodles, kinda like a daisy chain, a creative daisy chain
biggest again to Manuel. Thanks for joining me today. Thanks to Heidi Horchler for my amazing cover art. Remember, you are what you constantly think about. So join me in thinking a lot about awesome data viz and creativity and subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode. Bye now.
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