Hey! 👋
Welcome to Kawan—our vibrant community of data heads and storytellers. We’re all about improving data literacy and sharing nuanced stories about Asia. Come hang!
There’s enough love to go around— issue #71
They say love can overcome any differences, but recent media trends may say otherwise. What does this mean for our society as a whole?
How a bad Valentine’s Day turned into a Bollywood data project
The team behind our latest story on Bollywood shares how they researched the films’ dataset, used large language models to classify genres, and crafted the visual design for this bespoke longform story.
Meet the Community! Jane Zhang, data viz designer and e-commerce strategist
Jane Zhang is an independent data visualization designer based in Toronto. She’s made a name for herself with her recognisable static…
The might of small things — issue #25
When I was reading history many years ago, microhistories were one of my favourite topics. I love understanding how small things, like folklore and fairytales, reveal a lot about our past. Eventually, I wrote my Honours thesis on Singapore's national day stamps. I got a lot of laughs
Kontinentalist: Insights from user research and translating it into our new website
One fine day in mid-2019, a little more than a year after Kontinentalist first launched, some of us sat down to discuss what was in store…
Kontinentalist: Navigating our new editorial vision
Last week, Pei Ying shared how we’ve rebranded from a map-driven studio to a data-driven storytelling studio… with a fresh new look to…
Introducing the new Kontinentalist!
Hey! You've been part of our story ever since you first laid eyes on our stories—and we wanted to share with you what's been going on with the recent changes on our end. Kontinentalist has now rebranded into a data storytelling studio...with a fresh
We abandoned Wordpress to build our own CMS
Let Dylan and Rifqi, our Lead Developer and Full-stack Web Developer, tell you why. Abandon ship! To answer why, let us travel back in time to when Konti started, as Peiying mentioned in her article on our rebranding. In the early days of 2017–2018, most of what we did
Fashion that goes beyond the surface — issue #24
Fashion isn't exactly my strong suit. Almost everything in my closet is Uniqlo—yes, it's the same boring t-shirts and shorts hanging in yours, let's be real my friends. It's cheap, simple, and good enough. But this also means I know precious
Kontinentalist: A fresh new look, and why we rebranded
We’ve given Kontinentalist a makeover!! Gone are the beige-brown days, and here are the purples, oranges, and pinks.
Rebranding notes from the equator (Part 2: Design)
Hello again! In this second post about our rebranding of notes for the equator, our visual designer Munirah spills the tea about…
Rebranding notes from the equator (Part 1: Editorial and marketing)
Hello! We (Bella and Griselda) will be talking about the rebranding of our newsletter, notes from the equator, in two parts here in this…
Meet the Community! Harim Jung, data viz expert and nuclear engineer
Harim is a Korean nuclear engineer by training who has worked in Abu Dhabi. She learned data visualization on her own and is an avid…
Our spiciest issue yet — issue #23
Till this day, my parents cannot enjoy a meal—even Western dishes like grilled steak or pasta—without some chilli padi, soy sauce, and a squirt of limau juice. As a young girl, I was inspired by my family to improve my tolerance for heat, starting with McDonald's