Hey hey, I’m Jonas Parnow [pʰaʁno:], a Berlin-based freelance designer with a focus on interface design and data visualisation, and a Metalab(at)Harvard affiliate. I have worked in commercial, artistic, scientific and journalistic contexts, but nowadays I mainly offer my expertise in non-commercial projects. Many of these projects consist of data analysis, concept, design, visualisation, and implementation.
I am comfortable with some programming languages1, web technologies2, and a good range of graphic applications. Most of my visualisations are created by combining various tools and methods ranging from data collection and analysis to custom visualisations. Recently, most projects have involved building an entire website with a unique design, infrastructure and visual story.
I have worked with clients such as PIK, NGFS, Climate Analytics, Metalab(at)Harvard, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Simons Foundation and Zeit Online. Many projects have been produced in close collaboration with Kim Albrecht, Paul Heinicker, Alsino Skowronnek and Fabian Dinklage, among others. I’m currently involved in a long-term project about wind energy with ProjectTogether.
Together with Lisa Charlotte Muth I organise the Data Visualisation Meetup. I also teach at the TU Dortmund and FH Potsdam and have conducted workshops for Deutsche Welle in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
I’ve been a scout for over 20 years and have always loved the outdoors. I am also currently doing a one-year wilderness awareness course. I regularly go bouldering and ice swimming from time to time. A selection of photos from recent travels can be found on my dedicated photo website.
I identify as a white, cis-male from Germany. Pronouns are he/him. My native language is German and I’m fluent in English.
You can find me online at Mastodon, Twitter, Github and Observable.
This website is set in Untitled Sans by Klim Type Foundry. It utilises Hugo, Svelte, Github and Netlify.
I’m currently learning Julia (mostly via Jupyter Notebooks) and Go. Most of my projects are realised with Svelte, D3, and Hugo.
I have set up REST-based continuous integration infrastructures, web scrapers and bots, Github actions and other workflows. I’m familiar with (geo) data formats both as files and databases and tools/libraries such as Strapi, Observable, Supabase, Notion, Zod, and Tailwind. I’m currently learning about accessibility, semantics and performance on the web.
Vita
Jonas Parnow is a designer for information and data. After completing his Bachelor of Arts in Media Design at the RFH Cologne in 2012, he joined the infographic agency Golden Section Graphics/Infographics Group. In parallel, he completed his Master of Arts in Interface Design at the FH Potsdam. Until 2021 he worked as a part-time researcher at the Urban Complexity Lab in the EU-funded research project SENSES on the visualisation of climate change scenarios. Since then, he has been working as a freelancer while co-running the interface and information design Studio Karat. He also teaches data journalism at the TU Dortmund and data visualisation at the FH Potsdam. Since 2021 he is a Metalab(at)Harvard affiliate.
Find a tabular curriculum vitae here.