We often focus on the final product of the imagination: the image, animation, or interactive that engages the viewer and conveys the information we want to communicate. However, being involved in the visualization production process can also be beneficial and can act as a catalyst for knowledge synthesis. As we engage in this creative process, we revisit and re-evaluate familiar findings and data, exploring hypotheses and challenging assumptions. As we think about how to organize, clarify, and visually present information for the benefit of others, we inevitably illustrate the material for ourselves. Other activities, such as writing and teaching, force us to summarize many studies and data sets into a coherent view. Organizing our ideas and binding them to the written page is an iterative and sometimes difficult process, but a written review can be an opportunity to point out and discuss clear inconsistencies in data between groups and/or approaches. Classroom instruction also requires presenting a concept from several perspectives for the benefit of students with different learning styles. However, from my own experience as a scientist and animator, I have noticed that none of these activities involve the same examination, analysis, and intellectual rigor that visualization development often requires. Incorporating all data sources – quantitative and qualitative – into a visualization requires that we resolve the contradictions between them to provide a coherent visual model.