I’d say designing a swag for a visualization lab is a non-trivial design problem that blends data extraction, novel data visualization, graphics design, and manufacturing in an affordable way.
If you are looking for inspirations, hope this article helps :D
This project was more than just a task for me. One dream of mine is to open a little shop that designs personalized visualizations for clients, embedding data meaningful to them into something tangible and fun. In my leisure time, I enrich this YouTube playlist (Creative Crafting) with relevant works I admire. However, I have hidden this dream due to the need to focus on building the muscle of my research.
Then I met a nice chance for the VisLab’s 20th anniversary, where a customized swags would be welcome, and data is a must-to-have feature for a visualization lab! I took the designer role and start thinking: what unique aspects of VisLab can we make into a vivid swag? This was my chance to live out a small piece of that dream for a place I cherish.
My inspiration came from the place we all share and love: the iconic, breathtaking view from the HKUST campus overlooking Clear Water Bay.
I spent time working with a designer capturing it at all hours—the crisp blue sky of midday, the dreamy pink and purple sunset, and the serene moon reflecting on the water at night.
These images feel like our collective memory.
The challenge was to weave our lab’s story into this scenery. What data truly represents 20 years of VisLab? The answer had to be our publications and the students we’ve nurtured. I decided to create a chart of our publication output and graduation number from 2004 to 2024. The layered, undulating form of the chart immediately reminded me of the trees on the mountains. That was the key.
I finally decided to blend our lab’s achievements into the natural scenery of HKUST. The mountains in the foreground is a rounded-corner barchart (Credits to the Plot Parade) of our 20-year publication and graduation history. The campus buildings rise up behind it, and the sea lies in the distance. It’s our work, grounded in our home. However, I had trouble choosing on a day view or night view, so I decided to have them both! Daylight for T-shirts and moonlight for the bags. For the T-shirt’s back, I also added a motto every lab member knows and smiles at: “Rule #1: It Doesn’t Matter,” a cherished piece of advice from our professor.
Voilà!
From scraping the data from the DBLP library, to designing the visualization, to finally holding the finished t-shirts and tote bags, every step was a joy. But the proudest moment was seeing everyone together, wearing a piece of our shared history for the 20th-anniversary group photo. It felt like our journey was made visible and tangible.
This swag project was a little piece of my dream come to life, and a reminder that data can be warm, personal, and something you can hold and cherish. By the way, my later project DataWink was largely inspired by this experience.