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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!
What happens if communities owned their data?— issue #72
Communities are understanding how they can take charge of their own data, or reimagine the use of digital tools for practical and meaningful solutions that ensures benefits are shared. Data, it turns out, is not only a resource to be extracted, but a form of power that can be claimed.
How can we care with data?
Munirah reflects on Kontinentalist’s experience during the Vis Arts Program 2025 (VISAP) conference in Vienna, where designers, researchers and artists come together to present their approach of visualising data with care, and the inescapable cloud of data as power currencies in today’s world.
Humans of Kontinentalist: Zu Xiang
What does it take to tell a data vis story? Our editorial intern Zu Xiang shares his experience.
How I design custom map styles with Mapbox
As told through a map style inspired by Indonesian Batik.
Konti in retrospect 2019
We started 2019 by mapping out our resolutions for the year (both personal and professional). The year flew by and we grew so much as a…
What is an ‘Asian’ perspective
At Kontinentalist, we often describe ourselves as an Asian-focused editorial studio that strives to present an ‘Asian’ perspective to our…
All I want for Christmas is a...scratchable map? — issue #6
It's the most wonderful time of the year! I’ve just spent the past 2 months sojourning in Japan for a leadership training programme, and it’s so wonderful to return to Singapore during the festive period. There’s something magical about December, and it has always been
Inktober Journal
As Inktober 2019 draws to a close, our resident animator Griselda walks us through her #Inktober illustrations and the quirky stories that…
A day in the life of a programmer at a startup
Hi, I’m Dylan, the lead developer at Kontinentalist. So as a developer, people often think that my work entails sitting in front of my computer all day, with 1s and 0s filling my screen. They are wrong. I have three screens! 😉 Today, I’ll walk you through a typical
What does partnership work entail?
When I first sat down with Bella, our Medium editor, to talk about what sort of articles I could contribute, Bella suggested something…
Where got ghost in Singapore?— issue #5
Trick or treat! It's Halloween season! The ghouls and pumpkins fill store aisles across Singapore. But Southeast Asia has about as many ghouls as we have tropical fruits and types of spices. We're diverse like that. So step away from the usual stories and explore our
Humans of Kontinentalist: Rayson
A few weeks ago we caught up with Rayson, our summer intern. Rayson is a third-year university student studying for a Bachelor in…
A quick guide to ArcGIS — how do we begin?
What is GIS?
Humans of Kontinentalist: Dewi
Today we caught up with Dewi, our business development manager, and recently, writer! Her first story on Batik was released last week.