The graphics desk at The New York Times gets high praise amongst journalists and visual information specialists for their clear, clean and often creative graphics that explain and enhance news.

Among the team is the group’s resident statistician, Amanda Cox, who’s been hailed as the “queen of infographics” and has been responsible for some of the high concept pieces published by NYT.

Any time you can hear Amanda speak or learn from her, you should. At the Eyeo Festival in June, she looked at the evolution of data graphics, particularly within the history of the Times graphics department.

Want to learn more? Kevin Quealy, Amanda’s coworker, posts fantastic explanations of how she and other members of the graphics desk do some of its work. Follow along on Charts’n’Things.