While the exploration and analysis of data have been covered well in visualization, the current tools and techniques for presentation are in their infancy. That provides both an opportunity and a challenge, as we try to figure out how to do things and what criteria to apply to test if we've succeeded. Robert is an advisor for infographics startup Visual.ly and also works closely with Tableau Software.

His work has been exhibited at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial, the Venice Architecture Biennale, Netherlands Architectural Institute, Storefront for Art and Architecture, Lower East Side Tenement Museum, and various piers, public housing developments, tugboats, shopping malls, and parks in New York City. He has written on design, politics, and music for such publications as the Village Voice, Rolling Stone, City Limits, and Metropolis Magazine. His first book, "Street Value," was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2010.

In New York, he was an adjunct professor at Parsons the New School for Design and developed curricula for public high schools throughout the city. He has lectured at Brown University, California College of the Arts, the Chicago Art Institute, Chicago University, MIT, and Princeton University and worked as a researcher and policy analyst for non-profit organizations like Common Ground Community, Place Matters, and the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center. He has served on the boards of NYC non-profits Place in History and the Groundswell Community Mural Project. He received his BA in Government from Cornell University.

He graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2009 with a BFA in Graphic Design, and in his final two years there he was a staff designer at the school's in-house studio, DesignWorks. During that time he worked with the school and surrounding NGOs on various projects, informing his growing interest in design as a catalyst for doing good in the world. He never once made an infographic in school, and now he makes them a lot. He finds that pretty weird.