Introducing our Partnership Director - Inbal Rief
Recently we were excited to appoint Inbal Rief to the Board of Viz For Social Good as our Partnership Director. Inbal is an award-winning visual designer, product expert, collaborator, mentor and researcher. Her DNA is a transparent design that leverages product growth for companies and organizations. In her own words, she loves shaping intuitive data empathy experiences that help people feel numbers and influence change. Her message is “Seek simplicity and you'll find it.”
We asked Inbal a few questions in order to introduce her to our volunteers, to get to know her better and to find out more about the passion and enthusiasm she will be bringing both to our Board of Directors and our partner organisations:
When did you first learn about VFSG?
I first saw the VFSG activity on Twitter, and I was intrigued. Design for impact has been my main activity in the past four years. Then I met you, Neil, (our Editorial Director) at the 2021 Outlier conference, if you recall. It was a 1-1 meeting, and we discussed how capital ventures and mega-companies prioritize their investments, and how they may, or should consider “impact-first investing” and financial return second. So, rather than looking at success only as their portfolio and net worth, they can accelerate social and environmental impact and help us all get there faster. We agreed both that we would like to invest ourselves in such projects that would make our world simply a better place, and I shared my ultimate vision to create a design lab for that. And there I landed in Viz For Social Good
You made an immediate impact with an incredible project for Vera Aqua Vera Vita (VAVV). Tell us about your work with them.
After I joined VFSG on Slack and met an amazing community, I participated in VAVV’s challenge under the ami-duet with Anne-Marie Dufour. We were excited to design a visualization that tells a compelling story about VAVV's global water crisis efforts and the Peruvian people they help. We felt that by zooming in on a personal aspect we could give the numeric data a face. And, we decided to talk to children rather than to the general public and organizations. ‘Mayu’ is perhaps the first data-empathy coloring book for children, designed as an educative exploratory story. It exemplifies the water crisis of seven needy communities in Piura, Peru, as well as how VAVV is changing their lives.
When ‘Mayu’ was noted favorably, we approached Jacob Niemeier, VAVV's Founder & Executive, and asked him: how can we help you more? - we wanted to make an actual impact by offering ‘Mayu’ as a global social campaign in multiple languages, where children can participate in printing the stories, coloring, and organizing fundraising activities for their classes, among other things. So, next, we created a mobile-first experience to reach the majority (we are just about to publish it!) and planned it with VAVV that when they launch a campaign for the communities, Mayu’s project will act as a marketing platform. There are a few surprises, and we invite all to stay tuned!
With ‘Mayu’, we hope to bridge our creative vision to an actual impact. VAVV was planning to develop school programs to engage children with their mission, and I am happy to say that they found it in ‘Mayu'. It’s an incredibly rewarding feeling to be a part of it.
What are you most excited about?
Nowadays, trying to bridge that challenging gap between ideas to actual impacts in our world. And creative collaborations that jointly try to solve today’s complex, interconnected challenges. There is so much to do!
Tell me something else about yourself :-)
Just four months ago, our son, Tommy, was born and it’s beyond the imaginable. Second to that, I miss riding my coacher’s horse, Frisco :-)
Inbal and Frisco