I’ll be in Taipei next week (Nov 27- Dec 2) teaching a couple of corporate workshops on infographics and data visualization organized by our friends at Methodology, the Singaporean company that organizes excellent public and corporate workshops on different aspects of design and the creative process. The first will be with Gamania Group, a Taiwanese online game and digital entertainment company that is a leader in online gaming in Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong and Korea and is expanding its reach to  news media, mobile payments, e-commerce, crowdfunding, social marketing and more. In addition to the two-day workshop, Gamania will host us for a public talk on infographics.

The second workshop will be with DBS Bank Taiwan. DBS, the largest bank in South East Asia, and Methodology have invited us for a series of workshops in the different DBS headquarters in Singapore, Shanghai, Mumbai, Hong Kong and Jakarta, and now it’s Taipei’s turn. As part of DBS’ continuous training, we are aiming at helping their staff understand the potential of infographics and data visualization to bring clarity and insight to their internal and external communications.

Getting started as a a freelancer in the creative field is as rewarding as it is difficult. For most people, it comes with a lot of surprises in terms of having to negotiate contracts, set up realistic pricing, marketing your work and finding clients, networking, tax and legal considerations, etc. It’s often hard to know how to get started. We have seen quite a few small companies and freelancers fail due to all those things that had nothing to do with their excellent work.

With that in mind, we are launching a new one-day workshop: Freelancing Bootcamp, in NYC on January 24th, 2018. Early bird discounts of $100 are available until November 30.

Our instructor is Anna Christian, an award-winning graphic designer with an impressive resume and more than 20 years of successful freelance experience. Read more about Anna in our workshop page.

This intensive workshop will provide you with the core fundamentals needed to start your own freelance business in the creative field. Whether you are a graphic designer, illustrator, digital designer, painter, or any variation of these, the workshop will provide you with the essential tools you need to start your own freelance business. By attending this workshop, you will have an understanding of business finances, how best to set up your business from a tax and legal standpoint, have the background and resources to effectively market your business, as well as have a file cabinet of useful contracts, agreements and forms needed to get on your way to building a successful freelance business.

The workshop will also cover methods of marketing and includes the vital pieces you will need to get your business running. We will cover how to best market your work, how to get set-up in social media marketing, and how to best promote your work via a promotional website. Getting work is the first step. Building a strong business of repeat clientele will make your business thrive. This workshop will offer strategies to retain and build your client-base so that you thrive as a creative freelancer.

Freelancing Bootcamp is one of three workshops we’ll have in January, with the other two focused in Infographics and data visualization: a two-day workshop in NYC on January 22-23, and a one-day worksop in Chicago on January 26.

Register soon to take advantage of the discount, and feel free to contact us with questions at academy@5w-consulting.com or contact@5wgraphics.

Last month I had a great long trip to Asia with some speaking engagements and workshops.

The first destination was Beijing. My friend Ying Wu, Visual Director at People’s Daily Media Innovation (PDMI) and an internationally recognized designer (formerly of the Boston Globe) invited me to speak about infographics and data visualization at People’s Daily headquarters. People’s Daily is the largest newspaper of China, and the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, providing direct information on government policies and viewpoints.

I was struck at how technologically advanced People’s Daily and PDMI are. The new headquarters of People’s Daily in Beijing’s Chaoyang District are one of the most modern newsrooms I’ve had the pleasure to visit. I had a video interview and then a nice talk and conversation with staffers discussing infographics, data, the challenges of their work and where they are headed.

The following day I visited the Communication University of China (CUC), the top journalism school in China. Students there had great interest in news infographics and data journalism, and they asked really good questions.

After Beijing, I traveled to Shanghai to conduct a two-day workshop for DBS Bank staff. We had been working with DBS with similar workshops in Singapore, Hong Kong, Jakarta, and Mumbai before. The idea is to show the value of infographics and data visualization as a tool to bring insight, clarity and communicate complex information and data in a visually engaging and revealing way, both to internal stakeholders and to the general public.

The last stop was in Singapore. We were there once again (9th time, I think) teaching a public workshop on infographics hosted by our friends of Methodology (they also organize the DBS workshops). Methodology develops great education programs, workshops, conference and media about creative ideas and design processes.

The final two days in Singapore I had the opportunity to conduct a workshop on interactive  /mobile infographics for staff working at the different media publications of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH). SPH is the publisher of The Straits Times, Singapore’s largest newspaper (founded in 1845) and clearly one of the best in South East Asia. They do excellent infographics and dataviz both in print and online. It was great to spend time with them as well as with members of Lianhe Zaobao (the flagship Chinese newspaper in Singapore), The Business Times, AsiaOne and other SPH media organizations. The workshop was organized by WAN-IFRA, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers

5W Academy is heading to Washington, D.C. soon for our next Infographics and Data visualization workshop in the US. It will be on December 1-2.

We received great feedback from our D.C. workshop back in October 2015. A combination of local and out-of-state participants from government agencies, design studios, NGOs and other organizations got together for two days.

Our previous workshop in Washington, D.C.

The two-day workshop is a comprehensive introduction to the creation of infographics and data visualization. With a mix of theory and practice, the workshop is aimed at professionals and students interested in developing the skills to produce engaging, insightful visual storytelling with their content. No previous experience with infographics or specialized software is required.

We will learn how to gather and prepare data, the Do’s and Dont’s of working with numerical information and charts, and the principles of visual hierarchy, color, typography, illustration, and narrative to create impactful infographics.

Attendees will sketch out infographics, storyboard motion graphics and create / publish their interactive data visualizations and web maps with the help of Tableau Public. The class will discuss award-winning projects and offer an overview of tools and strategies for creating infographics and data visualization.

Infographics are a universal language. Our most recent workshops in NYC (March), Amsterdam (June, hosted by Graphic Hunters) and Singapore (July, hosted by our friends at Methodology) were great experiences and it seems the demand keeps increasing.

Workshop n Amsterdam, June 2016

Workshop in Singapore, July 2016

Learn more about the instructors and schedule in our page or register directly here. We hope we’ll see you soon in DC!