Yesterday, I happened across a video by data journalist extraordinaire David McCandless. Within it he discusses his dataviz process and the way he leverages statistical models and large amounts of information into meaningful, artful visualizations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmch41uLXRU
The video, of course, also stands as a corporate plug for the new Microsoft Office 365 suite (which, from a UX standpoint, I remain conflicted. More on this later). Corporate plugs aside, the short is a cool introduction into information design. O, the art you can make with data! Pretty cool, you guys.