#  From sketch to graphic 

 





May 13, 2012

 

 

I just ran across [chartsnthings](http://chartsnthings.tumblr.com/) (h/t to [Gelman](http://andrewgelman.com/2012/05/chartsnthings/)). Kevin Quealy at the New York Times graphics department shows the progression from initial sketch to final graphic.

Thoughts:

1\) I love seeing other people's first sketches. I sketch first too, and I find that the quality of any graphic can mostly be determined by how good the idea was when I first sketched it.

2\) This reminded me that rather than using R to make my final figures, I really need run them through Illustrator. Nathan Yau's book *[Visualize This](http://book.flowingdata.com/)* gives some awesome worked examples of how to clean up R graphics in Illustrator. (And for Harvard folks, the book is [available online](http://lms01.harvard.edu/F/B482E5H4NKA5EAM2M9RI4UX8AYI3J3MTHULMK4GJVKCNQJXGL3-21578?func=full-set-set&set_number=593624&set_entry=000003&format=999) through Widener library!).

Posted by [Richard Nielsen](http://www.iq.harvard.edu/blog/sss/archives/author/richard-nielsen-1/) at May 12, 2012 10:58 PM



 

 

 



 

 

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