Spencer Schien
Thanks for visiting my web store! By day, I'm a data nerd for a small nonprofit in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and by night -- I'm still a data nerd, just for whatever fanciful project is occupying my headspace at any given time. Everything on this site was created by me using primarily open-source tools. I try to do my part for open-source in turn by writing tutorials and keeping my code public. See my socials to check out my work and how I do it!
Rayshade Designs
The name Rayshade Designs is a nod to one of my favorite R packages, rayshader. I use rayshader to create the high-resolution 3D graphics behind many of the products on this website. The population density graphics depict data from the Kontur Population Dataset, which buckets population in 400 meter hexagons for the entire world. This resolution allows for really striking graphics at multiple geographic levels, from entire countries to small cities and other defined geographic areas in-between.
I have created a detailed live-coding tutorial showing how I make these population density graphics, using as an example the state of Florida.
Shaded Relief
Another map genre that I like to make using the rayshader package is a shaded relief map. To make these maps, I pull data from a variety of sources depending on the resolution of the data. In particular, I like to make shaded relief maps of US National Parks.
Contact
I'm always looking for new and exciting opportunities. Let's connect.