Jellyfish Party
Data art portraits of Halloween party participants
This project is dedicated to the participants of the Halloween party that I attended in the fall of 2024. It was a costume party — participants could choose any look that fits into the "water world" theme.
After the party, I also prepared personalized digital data-jellyfish cards for each party attendee.
Creation process
1. Research and selection of references
To fuel my imagination, I collected beautiful pictures from Pinterest. I also studied a little about the anatomy of jellyfish. This helped to identify the most characteristic parts and not accidentally encode different parameters with fragments of the same organ.
On an interesting note, I learned that the thin strands (threads) that extend from the dome are called tentacles. And the more noticeable processes, which can have very different shapes, are the oral lobes.
On an interesting note, I learned that the thin strands (threads) that extend from the dome are called tentacles. And the more noticeable processes, which can have very different shapes, are the oral lobes.
2. Sketching and encoding
First, I drew jellyfish a little to better explore the different shapes and understand which ones would be easier to simplify in vector.
Second, based on the structure of jellyfish, I thought through the encoding. In this project, it turned out that some parameters were invented specifically for the organs of a jellyfish. I wanted to make them varied and use as many parts of the structure as possible.
Second, based on the structure of jellyfish, I thought through the encoding. In this project, it turned out that some parameters were invented specifically for the organs of a jellyfish. I wanted to make them varied and use as many parts of the structure as possible.
3. Data collection
To collect information about the party participants, I created a simple questionnaire and printed copies for the number of guests.
I really wanted to get the data in an analogue way, so that the process would be part of the activities at the party and require more involvement of the participants.
I really wanted to get the data in an analogue way, so that the process would be part of the activities at the party and require more involvement of the participants.
4. Data processing
After manually transferring the data from the questionnaires into the sheet, I asked the party organizers to help clarify the data about some participants. Then, using pivot tables, I counted the number of categories for each parameter.
5. Visualization
Based on the number of categories, I prepared a final set of elements and a test assembly of five jellyfish in Figma. After that, I moved on to creating visualizations based on real data.
The most difficult thing was adjusting the length of the mouth blades to suit the time spent at the party: in some places the shape had to be adjusted, in others individual elements had to be removed or changed.
The most difficult thing was adjusting the length of the mouth blades to suit the time spent at the party: in some places the shape had to be adjusted, in others individual elements had to be removed or changed.
In total, the work in figma from test jellyfish to the final poster took approximately 5-6 hours. I did it in several approaches, but stayed up until three in the morning at the finish line. I think the result was worth it.
