Say Hi to Gustav!

With many plans for improving the Datawrapper app and adding features and visualization types that will be helpful to our users, our design team is busier than ever. And now they’re stronger than ever: We’re very happy to announce that Gustav Neustadt joined David Wendler‘s team as an interface designer this spring.

That name sounds familiar? Read on to find out why Gustav is no newcomer to the Datawrapper team:

Hi Gustav! Can you please introduce yourself?

Hi there! I’m Gustav, an interface designer from Potsdam, Germany, where I live with my partner and our three kids. From politics to typography to tinkering with code or electronics, I’m easily inspired by a wide range of topics.

Last year I worked as an intern here at Datawrapper as part of my studies. Since I really enjoyed working on Datawrapper’s product, I was happy that the team wanted me to come back right after I finished my bachelor’s degree – which I did in March this year.

What did you do before working at Datawrapper?

I started programming own silly small websites at an early age, which introduced me to the field of design. I was fascinated by the combination of design and technology, and it eventually led me to study interface design at the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam (FHP). While doing so, I worked part time as a designer and developer on a communications and cooperation software for universities.

How did you get interested in data visualization?

During the pandemic I was very interested in the news from virologists, immunologists, and other scientists, and the resulting visualizations. It was during this time that I shifted the focus of my studies a bit towards data visualization, worked on a few data visualization projects myself – and did my internship here at Datawrapper.

That said, I would describe myself only as “interested”, not as an expert in the field of data visualization. After all, I enjoy building software interaction concepts – which touches the topic of data visualizations a lot here at Datawrapper.

Why did you want to join Datawrapper?

When I was searching for an internship as a part of my studies, I was looking for small software companies that owned their product and put a lot of love and effort into delivering a great experience to their users. In particular, I was interested in software products that put a high priority on design and user interface. Since I knew Datawrapper from exploring datasets in some university projects, I was really happy to hear that they were interested in an internship.

After the internship, it was great to know that my colleagues looked forward to my graduation so I could continue to work at Datawrapper. Knowing what it was like to work as a designer in David Wendler’s incredible team and what to expect in general, I was really happy to get the offer to come back.

What’s an area you’d still like to explore?

I already know a bit about software development and would like to get myself more into app development in my free time.

I also started doing some electronics tinkering so I would really like to get myself more into non-digital, analog stuff.

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Welcome Gustav! It’s great to have you with us. To learn more about Gustav, visit his website or follow him on Mastodon.