# Where the wild bees are

_Making complex research visually accessible_

Published: 2013-09-01

Live project: [scientificamerican.com](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/where-the-wild-bees-are/)

How has the bee population changed over the last 120 years, and how has that affected bee-plant interactions? Scientific American commissioned me to design a custom visualization of a complex dataset.

## Key visuals

- Full Scientific American spread of Where the Wild Bees Are, a grid of circles for each bee species around Carlinville, Illinois
- Detail of the bee-species circles, each ringed with colored blocks marking plant interactions lost, persisted or newly formed

## Design process

Find a recap of my design rationale and process at [well-formed-data.net](http://well-formed-data.net/archives/972/where-the-wild-bees-are)

## Credits

In collaboration with [Jen Christiansen](http://jenchristiansen.com/) (Scientific American art direction), [Jillian Walters](http://jillianwalters.com/) (_Illustration_)

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[View on truth-and-beauty.net](https://truth-and-beauty.net/projects/wild-bees)