At the intersection of institutional communications, data storytelling, and information design. I learn by doing, and share what I make along the way.
Selected Work
Global Reach
A look at the countries my work has reached.
About
I'm a communications and information design specialist working across institutional communications and data storytelling. Outside work, I'm usually playing video games, out for a run, or making something simply because I feel like it. A few of those experiments have made their way onto my notes page. I'm naturally curious, and I tend to learn most things by getting my hands dirty. That carries into the way I work, too.
For me, good communication goes beyond making something look good. It's about getting the message across to the people who need it, in a way they can actually understand. That could be a report for policymakers or an interactive data story for someone who has never read a policy brief. I enjoy working on both. There's a lot happening in the world, and much of what we see in the news focuses on what's going wrong. But understanding why it's happening, how decisions are made, where public money goes, or how a system is meant to work is just as important. I think there's more room for communication that helps people make sense of these things, rather than simply giving them more information to scroll through.
I've seen organisations put months of work into research and analysis, only for the findings to struggle to reach the people they're meant for. Sometimes the research is there, the evidence is solid, but the way it's presented makes it difficult to follow or act on. That's the kind of problem I enjoy working on. I take complex material and find ways to make it clearer, more accessible, and useful to the people reading it. I've done this with Verité Research, on platforms like Manthri.lk and FactCheck.lk, with the UN Resident Coordinator's Office in Sri Lanka on the 2024 UN Annual Results Report, and with the Department of National Planning on the Public Investment Programme 2026–2030. You can see an example in my Mood of the Nation project.
I first got involved in this kind of work in 2020, when I created campaign content for United Nations Volunteers Sri Lanka during the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of the TogetherAtHome campaign. I wasn't thinking of it as the beginning of a career at the time. I was just making things and figuring things out as I went. There's a short video from that week if you'd like to see where it started.
Strategic Communications
Research & Information Design
Publications & Multimedia
Digital Engagement & Media
More campaign and print work in this project archive ↗, plus social and video editing work ↗.
What I Do
Every project is scoped and quoted to its brief, so you only pay for what you need. Each service lists what it includes. Send a short brief and I will reply with a figure and a timeline.
Download Services GuideInteractive stories, infographics and maps that make national data readable for people who would never open the spreadsheet.
Includes data cleaning and 2 revisions, delivered in 3 to 5 days. Complex datasets and interactive web stories are scoped separately.
Layouts that help a senior reader find the point quickly, and that still look like the institution behind them.
Includes charts, 2 revisions and a print-ready, accessible PDF. Heavy data or custom illustration is scoped separately.
Visual identities that keep a campaign, event or organisation looking consistent across every output.
Includes a logo (2 concepts), colours, fonts, a one-page style guide and 2 revisions. Full brand systems are scoped separately.
The steady, day-to-day work of keeping an organisation visible, so its audience hears from it regularly.
Includes 12 designed posts with captions, a content calendar and 2 revisions per post. Press, video and larger volumes are quoted separately.
Websites and newsletters that stay current and are shaped around how people actually use them.
Includes up to 4 page updates, 1 newsletter and 2 revisions. Redesigns and larger sites are quoted separately.
Writing
Notes on my decisions during the work: what I tried, what failed, and why the results turned out as they did.
Six iterations of a teardrop, a hero image that changed twice, and why pulling back at the end was the hardest call I made on the whole project.
Building a premium Sri Lankan export identity. The client needed a brand that felt ancient, classic, and rooted in heritage, entirely avoiding generic tourism tropes.
Data Storytelling
Charts built to answer one question each, on topics from fertility and government budgets to drug policy.
In 2023, the fertility rate was 1.97 births per woman, reflecting a historical decline influenced by family planning initiatives.
Where the money comes from, and where it goes. The Sri Lankan government budget made legible in one view.
2,252 reported cases. Each petal is 100. A broken lotus, because some numbers deserve more than a bar chart.
A personal piece. On navigating uncertainty without a map, and what it looks like to slowly find your footing.
338 initiatives that shaped Sri Lanka in 2024. Each dot is one effort to strengthen communities or inform policy, visualised as a spiral.
Heroin, cannabis, methamphetamines, all rising. The breakdown behind Sri Lanka's drug enforcement picture.
Arrests climbing. Treatment access flat. The widening gap between punishment and care, in one chart.
Arrests have climbed across every presidency. Record cannabis and heroin seizures under Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Case flow by province, and what it reveals about a system still built around punishment more than rehabilitation.
NDDCB Centres handle more than half of all rehabilitation cases. A look at who's doing the work, and who isn't.
Featured Clients
Reception
A line from my most recent formal review, and an unprompted note from someone who came across the work.
Chatura showed great dedication and delivered quality work within a limited timeframe. He was a reliable team member who remained professional, flexible, and supportive throughout.
I checked your work on Medium, “I Built a Data Story About Cyclone Ditwah.” It’s super impressive, great work.
Get In Touch
If you're working through data, an upcoming report, or want to think out loud about how your organisation communicates, I'm open to that conversation. The best projects I've worked on started with a problem, not a finished product.
For project inquiries, consulting requests, and collaborations.
consultchatura@gmail.com
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