Kia Valdez Bettcher

Designer/Drawing Addict

Making Data Digestible: Tips to Improve Your Dashboard Designs

As the amount of data in the world increases, so does the need for designers to know how to visualize that data. Since at gskinner we have to work with quite a variety of data sets, I thought it was a good idea to brush up my data visualization skills.

Image of book covers of Information Dashboard Design and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

I read Information Dashboard Design by Stephen Few and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte to get a better understanding of the principles and theories behind data visualization. In this post, I’ll share some valuable take-aways from these books that you can apply to your designs.

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The Camp.site Design: How the Concept Came to Be

Back in May, the organizer of CAMP approached gskinner to create a site to promote their festival. For those who don’t know, CAMP is a festival held in Calgary every year that describes itself as: “…a non-profit organization celebrating the art and technology of creative storytelling. We bring together like-minded professionals, artists, educators and students to share and shape experiences that educate, challenge and inspire.” 

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Think More, Draw Less: Tips for Stronger Images

It’s funny how the more you learn, the more you realize that you don’t know as much as you thought you did. I feel that way a lot when it comes to digital painting and it’s why I enjoy reviewing fundamentals so much. There’s always some overlooked piece of knowledge that reveals itself in time if you go back to look for it. To find more nuggets of wisdom, I spent the past month focusing on digital painting techniques and process. Luckily, after my review, I have found some nuggets that can be applied to your creative process.

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Inspiration to Reality: Exploring Generative Art

You know that sense of awe when you see inspiring work? The kind of feeling that makes you say “wow, I wish I could do that.” Seeing Ash Thorp, GMUNK and Joey Camacho’s CG work makes me feel that all the time. There’s so much thought that goes into their compositions and I wanted to see if I could emulate some of that using Blender. The following is a summary of what I’ve learned through experimenting with CG. You can also see the final results of what I made here. I hope this encourages you to have fun making your own crazy creations after reading!

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Great Pumpkin Showdown 2017


Hallowe’en at gskinner means two traditions:

The first tradition is our annual pumpkin carving afternoon. Earlier in the week, we announced some teams, and on Friday we brought in food, drinks, snacks, and some classic Tim Burton Hallowe’en movies. The day was punctuated with visits from Dodo, our office dog for the day, on loan from Chris K.

The second tradition is the design and development of our Pumpkin Voting App. This privilege falls on our newest team member(s). They manage all the project stages, from initial sketches and ideation, right through deployment! It’s a great opportunity to provide some training and practice with real deadlines.
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Why I Practice Design After 25 Years

It’s been 25 years since I first double-clicked a desktop icon that changed my life. The year was 1992 and I had just opened up Photoshop 2.5. I had no idea what I was doing. Fascinated by computers and making digital art, I didn’t care if I could make something look great. I just clicked on a tool and tried making anything. With each attempt, I increased my abilities and the outcomes became more complex, meaningful, and intentional. Practicing became the foundation for my education, career, and part of my ethos as a Creative Director—here’s the impact it’s had, and how you might be feeling if you’re not practicing.

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