Interview with Coletta Perry, Data Publishing Expert
Q&A with Coletta Perry, who is presenting at the 2023 Design+Data Summit for CreativePro
Coletta Perry and her company, Avatar DPS, have been helping clients be successful with their data publishing projects for nearly 30 years (yes, since before InDesign). All told, that’s more than 1,000 projects. Because Avatar’s business model is primarily to “teach you to fish”, it’s been critical that they make data publishing comprehensible to their clients. Coletta is looking forward to doing the same for you with an eye towards helping you get the most from the Data + Design Summit. She is a repeat performer – having presented on data publishing at Creative Pro Week 2017 and having written on the same subject for InDesign Magazine the same year.
Coletta is also speaking at our upcoming online event, The Design + Data Summit, which takes place September 21-22, 2023. We thought it would be fun to get to know her better with some Q&A.
For those who aren’t familiar, in a nutshell, what kinds of magical things are possible with large scale data publishing projects?
The most magical thing is removing the tedious manual work (and rework) that most of us spend inordinate amounts of our workday performing.
The sky’s the limit, when creatively leveraging built-in labor saving InDesign functions, Plugins, ExtendScript, larger InDesign-centric publishing platforms, and InDesign Server.
If you have a project that has data or content (stories) that can be structured in some way, then you can automate it. Here are a few of my favorites:
- Billboard music charts
- Travel guides
- Course catalogs
- Directories of all kinds
- Horse racing books and images of jockey’s colors (shirts and caps)
- Train schedules
- Charts and graphs
- Books
- Catalogs
- Product information/specification sheets
Then there is the beauty of being able to update these huge projects with a literal “push of the button” when projects stay linked to their data sources – whatever those sources may be.
What is it about data publishing that keeps you coming back? What do you love most?
It’s three-fold:
- The problem-solving aspect of making the data work to do the job at hand.
- Watching the automation build. It never gets old!
- Updating entire projects in just a few minutes
Is there a cheat code for learning to love spreadsheets and databases?
I think the basic “cheat code” is having a need and, more importantly, a desire to find a better way to get my work done and to communicate effectively to the intended audience. There are so many resources for learning these days – something for everyone’s learning style.
The other “cheat code” is attending the Design + Data Summit. I guarantee you will be “loving data” and what you can do with it after listening this illustrious group of presenters Creative Pro has brought together for this event, I’m VERY serious about this. And I am totally geeked at the things I’m going to be learning!
What’s the biggest mistake people make when new to large scale data publishing projects?
Organizations often fail to make a seat at the table for every group within the organization who will have a stake and/or a role in the project. i.e. they often “forget” the doers. In PIM adoptions, the requirements for graphically rich pages (not just print anymore!) are often not accounted for early enough in the project.
Dirty data being used to populate a new database or product information management system (PIM).
These two things can cause major headaches down the line and even cause projects to fail.
What are you most excited to share in your upcoming session?
I hope to impart some of my enthusiasm and passion for how embracing data and automation techniques can revolutionize your work life.
This article was last modified on March 29, 2024
This article was first published on July 18, 2023
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