March 2026

Happy Emma's birthday month to one and all! It has been a broadly nice one for me. Moments where it was so nice I actually thought 'this is a bit much' and moments of kinda shit stuff to balance it out. Perfect!!

However after last month's fun data vis diaries, everything I did this month felt kinda shit in comparison. Or at least, the outcome felt poor, but the process was enjoyable as ever, so I guess that's what matters. I tried to lean into drawing things without reference images as much as possible, because the whole reason I originally started doing the visual diaries thing was to try and improve my ability to draw anything I could imagine... But since going digital back in 2023, I do have a tendency to 'cheat'. (While also sort of believing there's no such thing as cheating as long as I do some kind of drawing every day)...

With that in mind, here's a half-n-half drawing (I used a photo ref for the priest, but everything else is from inside my head). Every Sunday when I go to Quaker meeting I walk past a catholic church and the priest is outside greeting his parishioners with his tiny dog to help. I say hi to the dog and try to avoid saying hi to the priest.
 

There's this weird hallway/room/interstitial space at LCC that's sort of hidden on the top floor and no one really goes there, and there's nothing in it, and I feel like spaces like this definitely won't exist in the new building (which we move to in 2027). It's kind of grimy but the sunlight just floods in and there's a beautiful view out across London. If it was a studio flat you could rent it out for a couple of grand a month. Anyway I've started taking a photo of it from the same position every time I walk through, at different times of day and different weather conditions, and when we're about to move out of the building I'm gonna print them all off and pin them up in the space anonymously as a weird little exhibition. 

My partner was right, they never will look this sexy and cool again, because their strategy of gettign fit by wearing a hiking rucksack with a 10kg weight in it fucked up their back (but they were very excited about it here)

Saw my cousin Tom for the first time since he was an actual child. He was visiting London with a friend who's gonna study a masters at LCC, so I gave them a little tour and then took them for lunch at Borough Market. It was fun! (As someone who has not historically gone very much in on engaging with my wider family or having much to do with them, it's nice to actually like, proactively like someone I'm related to)

Went to the 'algo-rave' live coding clubnight (it was great, had been meaning to go for ages, so it was good to finally get around to it)... Then the next night went to the Private View of the Digital Folklore and Web Craft exhibition at the Photographers Gallery which V was part of. It was very small but very good, though I did not stay for long as private views are hectic! (I liked the vaguely shared aesthetic of the two events)

Whenever the door-phone goes at Samaritans I LEAP into action, ready to help... However sometimes it is just a toilet roll delivery (still, very important) (The visual reference)

It was Ellis's birthday party in the evening, and during the day folks had been playing Mother of Frankenstein. Part of that game involves having to assemble an elaborate jigsaw to solve a puzzle, and I've gotta say, as someone who is often slightly awkward and stressed at house parties, this was an extremely nice activity to participate in while gently mingling. 

I really like whatever this tree is, with its cute baubles

A classic of its genre: hand-drawn visual diary done while in class teaching a session about visual diaries. (Didn't exactly fill the page, but ho hum). 

Does your dog's belly smell a little bit like cheesy doritos? Or are we the only ones so blessed.

 Every single year I am somehow taken by surprise by how green everything gets suddenly in March

My train stopped for ages in the weird mess of lines between Croydon and Norwood Junction but it was fine because I had a nice view of another train stopped on a bridge just overhead. Cool angles. I like trains.

Beth and Angus came over and we played some games!

As discussed — I am not very good at house parties. But I went to TWO this month! (This one felt like a cheat though, as I went in the afternoon, helped clean the house, kissed the host, then left unceremoniously early)

 

Oh, I did also eat a load of falafels at the house party, which was clearly a mistake (I should put together a compilation zine of all the visual diaries I've made about eating falafels then regretting it) 

Went for a cute dinner with my partner at Mallow! We love fancy food! (We cannot afford to do this often)

TFW the fire alarm goes off 30 minutes before the session is due to end

 

Our current cohort of MA design for data vis students are going to do an exhibition at Chatham House soon (hopefully), which means I had to go there and seem like a competent adult who knows what she's talking about and is capable of wrangling them into shape. Then I went back to uni and tried to teach some other students how to use InDesign. Then dipped in at the end of our last years students' graduation ceremony (Keir put his fancy hat on me which I think means I have a PhD now). Then I went to the pub with my colleagues and for once in my life was not awkward and filled with self-loathing (which is what usually happens when I go to either house parties or the pub — I really am on a roll this month?!) (I really like my colleagues, which helps!)

Went to see Danny Brown at Koko. I'd never been to Koko before and it is such a nice venue. I say this as someone who is mostly now too old to want to stand all night and definitely too old to want to stand in a mosh-pit, but also still really wants to be able to see. You can just climb up and up and up the stairs and there are more and more levels, and at the very top level there's not many people, comfortable chairs, and you can still see the stage really well?! I was complaining here about not being able to see though, because I feel like there's been a trend in recent years towards backlighting performers... Which looks really badass for like... one song... but then at a certain point you're kind of like... Can I please actually see the person I paid to see!? (And Danny Brown has been working out, damn, why would you hide that from me). As you can see from this person's compilation of footage, for most of the actual songs, he's kind of just a shadow? Anyway there's my grumbling over — it was a great show, he's great, and Koko was lovely, so on balance I had fun (and I enjoyed trying to depict the backlighting issue in these drawings)

Breakfast rituals

 
Me and Mum went to see the Chiharu Shiota and Yin Xiuzhen exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. It was good, recommend.

Me and Beth went litter picking! Extremely wholesome Sunday activity! (This is an artful depiction of when you use your picker to pull a fragile old decaying empty plastic bag out from under the soil)

A day SO NICE that I found myself thinking 'Do I really deserve this much loveliness?!'

(Waking up at V's and having leisurely breakfast and slow working / taking a meeting with a nice colleague who basically showered me in praise and told me all the illustration students loved me / meeting with my other colleague who I work with on MA Design for Data Vis and having a fun session planning the next term / eating a delicious dinner my partner made)

 
Such a nice day that the next day I was uncharacteristically sleepy (like, took myself out for a nice walk and got halfway and felt like I needed a lie down)

Bad/sad stuff happens too though. After 9 (!) years doing design for the wonderful Happy Valley Pride, we have amicably parted ways because they have new trustees and have decided that they should work with a more local designer. Sad for both of us I think (as I said to them at the time — sad for me both practically, as they're one of my most consistent clients and I like 2 make moneyyyyyyy but also sad more creatively because we have always had a lot of fun together, and made some cool weird stuff over the years!) I will be very sorry to lose this one, but hopefully we will still collaborate on bits and bobs.

Then: BIRTHDAY!!! Another utterly lovely day — coincidentally it was the LCC staff development day (aka LCC staff fun activities day). I hovered over the 'book' button when they released the free tickets for the activities and managed to get ALL the good stuff — a massage, flower arranging workshop, kintsugi workshop, and free lunch! Then after all that I went out for dinner with EIGHT of my friends (perpetually a little bit surprised when people actually show out in numbers to hang out, extremely wholesome, very good)

And then on Friday, me and my friend Alex went to the V&A late event, where V and lots of other cool people were demoing games, the algo-rave people were playing, and there was a bunch of other vaguely game/tech/art related on show. It was pretty good though very busy, and we didn't get to play nearly as many of the games as we would have liked to as the queues were too long.

However, as mentioned, this was definitely all just way too much fun, way too nice, so obviously it was time to get sick. (A cold, not COVID, and not the worst — I am fine, just annoyed)

Kelly-Jessie got bitten on the nose by a rat! I laughed. (It was not serious and didn't leave a mark, but she put her nose into a hedge very enthusiastically then rapidly recoiled, a rat ran off, and she spent the next few minutes rubbing her nose and looking annoyed about it)

Taught for a day on one of UAL's spring school programmes in which 16/17 year old kids from around London come and get a taster of uni life. They're always SO good and SO cool and often do better work than first or second year undergrads. I ran a new session I'd just written about data gathering and visualization and illustration and I think it went well?!

I am still sick though. Didn't have to go to work today so I stayed in bed for ages. My partner has been sleeping on the sofa because I am gross (to be totally clear, this is not a major hardship, our sofa is actually quite comfy and we both kind of like sleeping on it occasionally as it feels a bit like a cute camping trip but without all the suffering of actual camping). Anyway I also like having the bed all to myself and committing bed sins like leaving tissues everywhere and eating food and working.

(I would like to add that I did eventually get up, mow the lawn, hoover, make a big dinner, take a serious meeting and walk the dog! I am powerful!)

My partner is probably doomed to get sick too anyway, but we're hoping they've maybe managed to avoid it... Because in a couple of days we are going on HOLIDAAAAAYYYY! (More on that in next blog). 

Hope you're all enjoying lovely green springtime! 

February 2026 (aka DATA VIS FEB!)

In my entire 13 years of visual diarying I have never done this before, but: this month is a special edition themed set. When I first started trying to do visual diaries as a regular thing way back in 2010/2011, the trap I repeatedly fell into was trying to make all the diaries be a very specific thing. First I tried doing purely typographic journals. Then only working with a particular medium. But every time I failed and dropped the habit, because I am too flighty and distractable to concentrate on doing just one thing every single day. 

Some might argue that persisting with this incarnation of the diaries for the last 13 years proves that I am not in fact, flighty and distractable, but I maintain that the only reason it has persisted is sheer stubbornness, and allowing myself to almost entirely do whatever I want, including phone it in on days when I really can't be bothered.

But this month I did decide to push myself to do a particular type of visual diary every day (on the basis that one month of slight creative discomfort/pressure is probably not going to force me to quit this huge project now). (I am glad it's over though, and I can go back to messing about next month)

I've been thinking a lot recently about my practice (imagine me saying that in a pretentious artist voice) and for better or for worse, the diaries have become a part of that. Individually they're (usually) nothing much, but collectively, heading towards 5,000 drawings, they're... well, definitely something. 

I've taught occasional workshops around the practice of visual diarying in a variety of contexts, but I've always treated them kind of in isolation to everything else I do for work — intentionally! I originally started drawing them as a way of getting away from my day job, and didn't necessarily want them to become too entangled with my 'real' work.

But for better or for worse, things are more complicated now I teach. I've recently started doing a bit of guesting on MA Illustration and Visual Media (they think I'm a real illustrator?!?! I guess I ammmmm?!?!) and in my main job teaching on MA Design for Data Visualisation, part of what I bring to that context is a more analogue, qualitative, personal approach to data and design that most of the other people who teach.

But I'd been starting to get a bit of imposter syndrome about how little data vis I actually do in my work. I mean, it's not NONE (especially with some of my freelance clients), but for some of our alumni and other lecturers it's like... they live and breath data vis. It's all they do. That's probably never going to be me, but I set myself a challenge at the start of this year to spend one month of visual diaries doing JUST data vis — Emma style. (And obviously I picked February because it's the shortest month, and I wanted to make sure I'd actually get through it!)

Before the start of the month, I made a list of types of personal data that I already have reasonably to hand, if I was stuck for ideas on any day. (Here is some of it...)

But in the event, my ongoing desire to tell the story of each day's events (as usual) won out over my desire to have some pre-prepared content to work with (though you'll see I did use some of these in one way or another).

So... are all of these upcoming journals ACTUALLY data vis?! What even is data? (These are the types of questions I throw at my students even though I don't really have the answers)

Onwards...

At the end of January, my partner was away for nearly two weeks looking after their mum who had to go to hospital. They are the chores standard-bearer in this house, but I kept on top of things, while they were gone... (Or at least, I think I did. They may disagree...)

I had an extraordinarily productive Monday, and felt the need to show off about it somehow. (A frankly alarming number of emails sent)

I've been getting into SOUP (or at least, I was in Jan and early Feb, but a particularly dismal tomato and basil in the canteen later in the month has now formally ended my soup era, at least for this winter)

It's time to go away for over a week!! Is this too many items to pack?! (I did use everything I took, so hopefully not...)

One of my favs from this month — sound day! Sadly technically unscientific as I did not walk around with a decibel-meter all day, but still, it's a representstion... from KJ squeaking at the vet in the morning, to noisy tube trains into work... nearly-napping quietly at V's, to karaoke, and then a very noisy gig at Corsica studios... A fun one, and a noisy one, all in all :)

From there, onwards! Trains across the country, all the way up to good old Hebden Bridge.

I hadn't been back to Hebden Bridge Quaker meeting since I moved away in 2019. It was nice to see some familar faces! I decided to visualise the various different churches/meetings I've been to throughout my life.

I planned to take advantage of my week in Yorkshire by catching up with various old friends. However, my wonderful host James tested positive for COVID on Monday evening, so the rest of the week's plans were sadly changed or cancelled in case I also succumbed (I didn't know when I drew this but Kim and Sylvia wisely decided to cancel too. Better to be safe than sorry, sucks for me though!)

The data vis shows how long I have known each person.

Luckily James has a big house, so the possibility of actually isolating sufficiently that I would not get sick was there. I felt pretty bad about being so anti-social with someone who was so kindly putting me up for the week, but I also simply did not want to get COVID. And so... I hid. (And furiously Vicks-first-defence'd).

Luckily, on Wednesday another housemate arrived who I did not need to isolate from — Rosie the dog. (James's sister's dog). As James was sick, I took over some of the dog-walking reins, and Rosie was an absolute joy. (She does shit a lot though)

 
Crucially, this week away wasn't actually a holiday. (I mean, it kind of was, but say it quietly). I went away because my partner's dad came to stay in our flat in London so they could do MEGA DIY together, and it was just easier all round if I made myself scarce while that happened. (And Hebden Bridge with James was the best place I could think of to do that).

But I still had work to do — a couple of online tutorial sessions, a bunch of freelance stuff, and various other teaching related commitments and writing. It was interesting to see how just being in Hebden Bridge saw my schedule drifting back to how it was when I lived there — typically hiking for hours every day during either the morning or the afternoon, and working late into the evenings. When I think back to my time in Hebden Bridge, I know my ex was sad because she felt like I was working all the time. And I can see why it felt that way, to her... But the fact of the matter is a) I love hiking, and b) I do often find I hit flow state with work between like, 19.00 and 22.00ish. (Which sucks because I don't WANT to work in the evenings, but when I am on my own it does just sort of come naturally)

Anyway, as mentioned, HIKING HIKING HIKING!!! Here were my whole week's hikes (along with weather and some funny place names. Unsurprisingly, it rained a fair bit, though not as bad as I feared.

I had SUCH a nice time clambering around the Calder valley again with Rosie, even if I was sad not to see my friends as much as hoped for. 

I headed home on the Saturday, and was amused by the difference in the altitude tracker on my phone for the one week in Yorkshire. No wonder I was so fit when I lived there...

Had a bit of a wardrobe clearout on Sunday (and wardrobe audit, for the data vis, while I was at it.) Yes, most of my clothes are black. But not all!

Part of the reason I was so keen not to get COVID (which I did ultimately manage to avoid, yesssss immune system) was so I could get home to the Lunar New Year shared lunch I ran for my MA Design for Data Vis students on the next Monday. I asked them all to bring in a local dish to share, and they did amazingly — though I had planned to visualise all the different regions we had represented in their food, when I asked most of them where their dish was a speciality of, they were just like 'uhhhh we eat this everywhere in China', haha

Here it is, the data vis you've all been waiting for: rating all the different toilets at LCC. (Apart from two I've literally never had any cause to visit, though I am now curious, maybe they're the best)

Having another classic 'I seem to be earning a reasonable amount of money so why am I so broke every month' moment, and then realising the answer (it's dog) (each note represents £10 per month)

 

The fun challenge of cooking in an unfamiliar kitchen (V's kitchen is quite nice actually — it has little lights that go on when you open the drawers) (Don't think I've tried to do an isometric drawing since A-level Design Technology)

 
It's FREE BREAD TIME at Samaritans!!! (Free bread and terrible sticky pastries, but apparently some people like those too)

 
A particularly good bird day on me and KJ's walk prompted this one (the Merlin birdsong app is very helpful for an amateur like me)

Perhaps it is not appropriate to think about DATA during Quaker meeting, and yet

(Quite a talkative one) 

Tutorials with our MA Design for Data Vis students about their proposed final project topics, and splitting them into supervision groups (i.e. which students I specifically will be working with, based on how well equipped I am to support them with their themes). Some very fun topics, and I enjoyed trying to do this messy diagram visualising the connections between all of them.

 
One of my new year's resolutions was to leave Spotify — it has somehow been both easier and harder than expected. Actually exiting the ecosystem, transferring playlists etc was A-okay. But tidal absolutely sucks ass (shitty offline capability, loads of buffering, lag). I gave up on it midway through the month and moved over to Qobuz instead, which is marginally better, but still a far cry from Spotify's seamless experience. Ugh. I suspect I will not stay here either. I am considering other options! (Like just... not streaming at all?!)

Thinking about... chips. (After some debate between V and I over whether matchstick or shoestring is the skinnier one). A good date is a date where you get to eat two different kinds of chips AND have ice cream. (We also went and saw some quite good art but apparently I decided chips was the more worthy subject matter here)

 
Very nice spa time with Heidi at the fancy hotel near the O2, would definitely return (£33 for 4 hours evening access is a pretty sweet deal)

How much do I love Pochi? Let me count the... Days (20, in the last year) (Thanks to Monzo data for this one!)

My most ambitious vis for the final day of Feb — a month long dream diary! (The only one I proactively gathered data for an entire month). Take a closer look. Dreams are wild. I like food. 

Well, that was a fun month, and I hope you enjoyed it as well :)

Regular non-data service will resume next month...