Category: LookingOutwards-08

Giorgia Lupi is an information designer, partner at Pentagram, co-founder of Accurat, and co-author of two books. She got her master’s degree in Architecture and is based out of Milan and New York. Her work is featured at the MoMA, Cooper Hewitt, and Smithsonian. She describes herself as a data humanizer, she humanizes data through the story behind the data. Her body of work usesdata to visualize aspects of life that we ‘don’t usually associate with numbers.’ Her work ranges from hand-drawn data visualizations to data driven fashion collections to large-scale computer graphics for big names like SNL and IBM. 

I admire how Lupi uses data to better understand human nature because she helps her audience empathize with others. For example, in the project of hers I admire most, Bruises she uses her friend’s daughter’s clinical data to illustrate both the factual and emotional aspect of the experience. Lupi’s presentation strategy is a conversational tone and a ton of visual aids. This is effective because it doesn’t feel dry, she tells a story and uses humor to engage her audience. I can definitely learn from the way she frames the story of her art to help her audience relate more. 

Eyeo 2015 – Nicky Case from Eyeo Festival on Vimeo.

Nicky Case is an extraordinary person. Nicky moved from Singapore to Canada at a young age. They largely confronted the world on their own, leaving home at age 16 after coming out as LGBTQ+ and not being accepted by their family. Nicky went on to pursue an internship at a video game development company, where they were faced with the idea “do video games matter?” which stuck with them ever since.

Nicky is an interactive storyteller. They develop deeply personal yet relatable games with nuanced choices that the user can make. Those choices are intended to cause the user to reflect on some aspect of society and identity. I really admire this aspect of Nicky’s work. While commonly played games tend to be relatively surface level, Nicky thinks about poignant, often subtle moments in life, and allows people to play through those moments to increase their own self awareness. It is a greatly heightened connection between game, player, and the developer. Nicky’s most popular game is probably their “Coming Out Simulator” which is autobiographical and follows the choices a young asian teen faces when coming out. Another one of my favorite works is “We become what we behold” which is a commentary on manipulation of the media and biases we develop. The games typically have simple often cute graphics, and easy game play that purposefully and effectively communicate their overarching ideas.

In regards to how Nicky presents, honestly when first watching their lecture I thought it was somewhat awkward with some jokes falling flat. However, thinking back, the message of the lecture stays with me, concerning telling stories through systems as well as making systems out of stories. What worked about the presentation was how Nicky presented in the method of the ideas they were discussing – Interweaving anecdotes and structure, all the while in a human, relatably not-smooth-sailing way, makes the presentation all the more memorable.

Nathan Yau was who I wrote about in my last Looking Outwards and he spoke in the 2019 Eyeo where he elaborates on his design journey. He specializes in creating data visualizations that are easy to read and concise. He created the website Flowingdata.com where he creates data visualizations for himself and others. He is also the author of both Data Points: Visualization That Means Something and Visualize This: The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics. Essentially he wants to make data more accessible and easier to read to everyday people.

What I admire is that he is a designer for the people. Nathan designs with the idea that data is only effective if it is able to get the message across without boring or confusing the reader. He even creates visual representations of his own personal life that other people may not be interested in. He creates them for himself, where he can see the relationships between data only he finds relevant. He mentions that he recently has a child and made a chart about when he sleeps. He is able to easily analyze and interpret all this information because of his visualization skills. He talks about his approach to data visualizations in a comedic and sentimental way and relating how he found his passion for his growth. His explanation and story reinforce the idea of simple yet developed data visualizations.