Why 2024 was a dead year for indie dataviz — and how we’ll do much better in 2025

2025-03-05, Moritz Stefaner.

in response to https://www.shirleywu.studio/notebook/2025-02-innovation-killer **

and sort of a follow-up to https://medium.com/visualizing-the-field/there-be-dragons-dataviz-in-the-industry-652e712394a0

I think it’s safe to say that 2024 was an extremely dead year for creative dataviz freelancers and small agencies.

• We see less experimental data visualizations, data viz showpieces or key visuals, and less presence in exhibitions.
• Also on the commercial side, there is a noticeable decline in investments in bespoke data visualization from freelancers and independent studios.
• Formats have changed: the few viral, well-known data visualizations tend to be static images or movies or small, personalized apps rather than elaborate interactive web pieces.
• There is a growing homogeneity in visual styles, with many projects looking similar due to the prevalence of established formats, templated solutions and software defaults.

What could be reasons?

Well, as everywhere — it’s a polycrisis.

• In an economic crisis, everybody plays it safe: This leads to much less enthusiasm for investing in experimental, innovative work or hard to quantify outcomes.
• Off-the-shelf platforms are getting better and better, and are often “good enough”.
• AI is eating our lunch in terms of being the “cool kid” everybody wants to hang out with, but also replacing some need for custom tools.
  • Regardless of our work can actually be replaced by AI, just the belief it might be possible in one or two years already hinders us.