Rhea Shukla Wins 2026 GDUSA Digital Design Award for Mars Data Visualization Project

Visual experience designer Rhea Shukla received the 2026 Graphic Design USA Digital Design Award for her project Designing Mars: Where Data Becomes Story, selected from nearly 3,000 entries. Her work transforms NASA data about Mars into visual narratives through an illustrated children's book and adult banners. Shukla earned a Silver Winner accolade at the 2025 Spark Design Awards and was a Bronze Winner with Honorable Mentions at the International Design Awards that year. Her methodology was featured in Nightingale, the Journal of the Data Visualization Society. Based in St Petersburg, Florida, she mentors for the Data Visualization Society and works as a Graphic and Web Designer at Advantage Marketing LLC. Shukla holds a Master of Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design (2023-2024) and a Bachelor of Design from the Unitedworld Institute of Design (2017-2021).