The Pudding Cup
The best visual and data-driven stories of 2026
To be completely honest: we almost didn’t do it this year.
Over the last year, we’ve felt the same AI fatigue a lot of you probably have. Our inboxes and feeds have been flooded.
The Pudding has always been about more than just a shiny end result. It’s about what it took to get there: the ambition, the struggle, the triumph, and the hope of sharing a discovery.
We’re not here to police how you create a visual data-driven story, but if your project doesn’t have a heartbeat, it’s not getting the Cup!
So, the submissions are open… for now. But if we find ourselves drowning in slop, we’ll close the form, and figure out how to reinvent the Cup into something entirely different that maintains our values. We really hope we don't have to.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Entries are free, just give us a URL! (One per person, please)
- Must be your own work
- Must be a non-commercial* project
- Must have been published / put on the internet in 2026
- Highly encouraged to share your process and raw materials
- Up to three winners will each receive $1,500.
- Deadline - Monday, November 30, 2026
- Winners Announced - The week of December 07, 2026
- More info in the form, but hit us up at sup@pudding.cool with questions!
*Non-commercial projects = things created without compensation. It was made for learning, fun, school, a contest, etc. Not for work or hire.
See past winners from
The 2025 winners
Dithering — Part I
Not everything needs to be an interactive visual story. This piece, though, is an example of leveraging this medium to explain something more clearly (and more delightfully) than you could otherwise. The animations are super sleek, but more importantly, they make you say “oh, that makes sense.” Can’t wait for parts 2 and 3! —Michelle Pera-McGhee
The Legislative Network Behind State Trans Laws
It's incredibly difficult to pull off a data story where your main visuals are text, but through animations and small multiples this piece delivers. A minimal document-based design hammers home the obsurdity that trans peoples' bodies and lives are being legislated with copy/paste. —Jan Diehm
Benford’s Law
I've come across this topic before so I was excited to read it. What made it stand out was how thorough it felt. It kept answering the questions I had, provided tons of examples, and use simple yet effective visuals. —Russell Samora