# Data Humanism

> An information-design approach that draws data rather than charting it, treating numbers as personal, approximate and human. Named by Giorgia Lupi in Print (2017) after Dear Data (2014–15), her year of weekly hand-drawn postcards with Stefanie Posavec, it invents a visual code for each dataset: many small hand-made marks whose shape, colour and orientation each encode a variable, decoded through a custom legend and handwritten notes. Dense and layered, it asks to be read slowly, against Isotype's standard signs and at-a-glance dashboards; Federica Fragapane carries it into vector work.

- Period: 2014–present
- Where: Southern Europe, North America, Western Europe
- Origin: Dear Data (2014–15), a year-long exchange of weekly hand-drawn data postcards between the Italian information designer Giorgia Lupi in New York and the London-based information designer Stefanie Posavec. The two had met only twice, and hatched the project while both were speaking at the Eyeo Festival at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, in 2014, out of the analogue way of working with data that they shared and that was rare in their field. It had two roots. One was the experimental full-spread visualisations Lupi's studio Accurat (co-founded 2011; Milan and New York) made with the newsroom of Corriere della Sera for its Sunday cultural supplement La Lettura. The other was Posavec's hand-gathered visualisations of literary text, such as Writing Without Words (2006), her Central Saint Martins MA project on Kerouac's On the Road, for which she counted words and sentences by hand and colour-coded them by theme. Lupi named the approach in her manifesto for Print (online 30 January 2017) and her TEDNYC talk (March 2017), and has carried it on as a Pentagram partner in New York since 2019
- Branch: Postmodern
- Also known as: Hand-drawn data visualisation, Dear Data style, Data drawing, Slow data
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/data-humanism/

## Use it with care

Data portraits are usually drawn from real people's lives (health, moods, relationships, locations): get consent and anonymise before publishing other people's personal data. Because the custom encodings cannot be read at a glance, give a plain-text summary and the key alongside the drawing for readers who use screen readers or are in a hurry.

## How it works

- Invent a new visual code for every dataset instead of reaching for a standard chart: let each mark's shape, colour, size and orientation encode a variable, and give the reader a detailed key to decode it.
- Sketch with data by hand before any software, in pen, pencil, felt tip or watercolour on paper, and keep the hand and its wobble visible in the finished piece.
- Draw one small mark per event, day or person, so that the marks accumulate into a dense field that rewards slow reading rather than a single takeaway.
- Layer side stories over one main structure (a timeline, map or score) and sneak the context in: how the data was collected, what it leaves out, handwritten notes beside the marks.
- Show that data is flawed and human-made: count the small, qualitative and personal (moods, complaints, doors passed through) and draw approximation and uncertainty instead of presenting numbers as absolute truth.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [All-over field](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-over-field/) (characteristic)
- [Organic flow](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/organic-flow/) (characteristic)
- [Radial & concentric](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/radial-and-concentric/) (occasional)
- [Modular grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/modular-grid/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Layered information](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/layered-information/) (defining)
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (defining)
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (characteristic)
- [Flat hierarchy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-hierarchy/) (characteristic)
- [Sequential narrative](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/sequential-narrative/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (defining)
- [Grotesque & neo-grotesque](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/grotesque-and-neo-grotesque/) (occasional)
- [Flush left, ragged right](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flush-left-ragged-right/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (defining)
- [Full polychrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-polychrome/) (characteristic)
- [Pastel](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pastel/) (characteristic)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Squiggles & confetti](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/squiggles-and-confetti/) (characteristic)
- [Geometric primitives](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-primitives/) (characteristic)
- [Biomorphic curves](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/biomorphic-curves/) (characteristic)
- [Non-representational](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/non-representational/) (characteristic)
- [Pictogram](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pictogram/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (characteristic)
- [Painterly brushwork](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-brushwork/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Ornament-free](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornament-free/) (characteristic)

### Imagery
- [Diagram & data](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/diagram-and-data/) (defining)
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (characteristic)
- [Icons & pictograms](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/icons-and-pictograms/) (occasional)
- [Painterly illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-illustration/) (occasional)
- [Pattern & repeat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pattern-and-repeat/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (defining)
- [Offset printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/offset-printing/) (characteristic)
- [Web & CSS](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/web-and-css/) (occasional)
- [Motion & broadcast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/motion-and-broadcast/) (occasional)
- [Architecture & signage](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/architecture-and-signage/) (occasional)
- [Textile & craft](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/textile-and-craft/) (occasional)

### Tone & intent
- [Warm & approachable](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/warm-and-approachable/) (defining)
- [Rational & objective](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rational-and-objective/) (occasional)
- [Calm & contemplative](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/calm-and-contemplative/) (occasional)
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (occasional)
- [Utopian & idealistic](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/utopian-and-idealistic/) (occasional)

Avoids: Single focal point, Extreme scale contrast, Dark ground, Fluorescent & neon, Cards & bento tiles, Gloss & highlights, 3D render, Authoritative & institutional

Palette: #f7f3ec, #3a3a3a, #e0574a, #7b62a8, #f2c14e, #8fbfa8

Typefaces: The designer's own handwriting in pen or pencil for titles, legends and annotations (the Dear Data postcards; the red handwritten script of Lupi's Print manifesto, 2017), Giorgia Lupi, a custom typeface made at Pentagram from Lupi's handwriting (2019), used in What Counts (2020), Proto Grotesk (Production Type) for running text beside the handwriting in What Counts (2020), Pencil, felt-tip and ink lettering drawn onto the charts themselves (Mona Chalabi, adjacent)

Known for: Giorgia Lupi & Stefanie Posavec, Dear Data (2014–15): 52 weeks of hand-drawn data postcards mailed across the Atlantic, the drawing on the front and the key, postage and address on the back, on themes such as complaints, envy, sounds heard and doors passed through; book, Particular Books / Princeton Architectural Press (2016); the 104 original postcards and accompanying sketchbooks are in the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Accurat (Giorgia Lupi with the Corriere della Sera newsroom), experimental full-spread data visualisations for La Lettura built from original symbols and notations borrowed from maps and musical scores, among them a visual history of Nobel Prizes and laureates, 1901–2012 (2012), for which Lupi, a pianist, named John Cage's scores and the Notations 21 project as models; Giorgia Lupi, 'Data Humanism: The Revolutionary Future of Data Visualization', Print (30 January 2017), a manifesto illustrated in her red handwriting with monospaced type crossed out; and the TED talk 'How we can find ourselves in data' (TEDNYC, March 2017); Giorgia Lupi and Accurat with Kaki King, Bruises – The Data We Don't See (2018): 120 days of a child's illness drawn as a meandering line of white petals, one per day, carrying purple and green bruise splotches, red dots for platelet counts, tiny pink dots for petechiae, black dots for King's days on tour, bright yellow spots for good moments, grey brush strokes, coloured-pencil strokes and handwritten notes, set to a 120-measure score by King; shown in Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial (Cooper Hewitt, New York, and Cube design museum, Kerkrade, 2019–20); Giorgia Lupi & Stefanie Posavec, Observe, Collect, Draw! A Visual Journal (2018), a workbook for readers to invent their own visual languages for data; Pentagram (Giorgia Lupi with Ting Fang Cheng and others), What Counts, interactive installation for 'Who We Are: Visualizing NYC by the Numbers', Museum of the City of New York (2020): visitors' answers become hand-drawn-style data portraits that feed a wall visualisation; Stefanie Posavec & Miriam Quick, I am a book. I am a portal to the universe. (Penguin, 2020): an illustrated book that visualises data from the universe at 1:1 scale, through activities such as dropping the book from a height or wearing it as a hat; one of the Financial Times' Best Books of 2020 and winner of the Royal Society Young People's Book Prize 2021; Federica Fragapane, Land Defenders, for Atmos (2021): the environmental defenders killed in Brazil between 2015 and 2019, state by state on Global Witness data, drawn as autumn-hued leaves to accompany Yessenia Funes's investigation 'Paid in Blood'; a digital image in the 'organic, soft figures' she adopted instead of the usual infographic shapes, writing, as she puts it, in 'visual words'; acquired by MoMA in 2023 with Space Junk (BBC Science Focus, 2019) and Noise Pollution (La Lettura, 2020)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Grew out of: [Isotype Pictorial Statistics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/isotype.md) (1925–1971)
- Alike in its design choices: [Polish Information Picture Book (Dwie Siostry)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/polish-picture-book-renaissance.md) (2008–present), 51% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Natural Wine Label Art](https://stylogeny.com/styles/natural-wine-label.md) (2007–present), 45% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Escuela Bruguera (Spanish Humour Comics)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/escuela-bruguera.md) (1947–1986), 43% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Arab Independent Comics (Samandal, TokTok, Lab619, Skefkef)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/arab-independent-comics.md) (2007–present), 43% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Ligne Claire (Franco-Belgian Clear Line)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/ligne-claire.md) (1929–present), 41% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Generative & Dynamic Identities](https://stylogeny.com/styles/generative-identity.md) (2007–present), 41% alike

## Sources

- Giorgia Lupi, 'Data Humanism: The Revolutionary Future of Data Visualization', Print (30 January 2017), printmag.com/article/data-humanism-future-of-data-visualization/ (embrace complexity, move beyond standards, sneak context in, data is flawed; Dear Data; work for Corriere della Sera's Sunday cultural supplement)
- Giorgia Lupi & Stefanie Posavec, Dear Data, 'The Project', dear-data.com/theproject
- Somerset House, Big Bang Data, 'Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec discuss Dear Data – a year-long "slow data transmission"' (8 December 2015), bigbangdata.somersethouse.org.uk (met only twice; plan hatched while speaking at Eyeo Festival, Walker Art Center, 2014; 'a very analogue approach to working with data (something relatively unique in our field)')
- Maria Popova, 'Dear Data', The Marginalian (19 March 2015), themarginalian.org/2015/03/19/dear-data-giorgia-lupi-stefanie-posavec/ (the two met twice in person, both times at the EyeO Festival)
- Pentagram: 'Dear Data' (pentagram.com/work/dear-data; 104 postcards and sketchbooks acquired by MoMA), 'La Lettura' (pentagram.com/work/la-lettura/story), 'Bruises – The Data We Don't See' (pentagram.com/work/bruises-the-data-we-dont-see; Accurat in the project team; red dots for platelet counts, tiny pink dots for petechiae, black dots for days on the road, yellow spots for positive moments), 'Giorgia Lupi: Data Humanism at Gallerie d'Italia' (pentagram.com/work/giorgia-lupi-data-humanism-at-gallerie-d-italia; nine rooms; sketches, data-driven paintings, digital projects, tiles, clothes, rugs), and the biography of Giorgia Lupi (pentagram.com/about/giorgia-lupi; Accurat 2011, Pentagram partner 2019, National Design Award 2022, books)
- Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum: collection record 'Bruises—The Data We Don't See' (collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/2318798830; 2018; Giorgia Lupi and Accurat, music by Kaki King); 'Cooper Hewitt and Cube design museum to co-organize 2019 Design Triennial' (cooperhewitt.org, 15 November 2018; Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, 10 May 2019 – 20 January 2020; 'Giorgia Lupi, Accurat and Kaki King' under Understand Nature)
- Wikipedia: 'Giorgia Lupi' (Dear Data from 2014, MoMA, Print 2016–17, TED 2017, Pentagram 2019, New York Times long-Covid story 14 December 2023), 'Dear Data' (MoMA record 'Giorgia Lupi, Stefanie Posavec: Dear Data'; publishers 2016), 'Stefanie Posavec', 'Mona Chalabi'
- TED: Giorgia Lupi, 'How we can find ourselves in data' (TEDNYC, March 2017), ted.com/talks/giorgia_lupi_how_we_can_find_ourselves_in_data
- Maria Popova, 'A Visual History of Nobel Prizes and Notable Laureates, 1901–2012', The Marginalian (29 November 2012), themarginalian.org/2012/11/29/giorgia-lupi-noble-prizes-visualization/, on Lupi and Accurat's visualisation for La Lettura (Lupi, a pianist, inspired by John Cage and the Notations 21 project)
- Stefanie Posavec, 'Writing Without Words', stefanieposavec.com/archive/writing-without-words (final year of her MA in Communication Design; data gathered by hand); 'Interview: Stefanie Posavec, beautifier of literature', Made by Many (24 March 2010; MA Communication Design, Central Saint Martins; On the Road; 'I gathered all of the data by hand, counting words and sentences'); Stefanie Posavec, 'Writing Without Words', MAS Context (mascontext.com/issues/visibility/writing-without-words; MA, Central Saint Martins, 2006; colour-coded by theme)
- Stefanie Posavec, stefanieposavec.com (I am a book. I am a portal to the universe., with Miriam Quick: 'an illustrated book visualising wondrous data from the universe on a 1:1 scale'; Financial Times Best Books of 2020; Royal Society Young People's Book Prize 2021); Royal Society, 'Young People's Book Prize' (8 March 2022), royalsociety.org/news/2022/03/young-peoples-book-prize-21/ (published by Penguin)
- Yessenia Funes, 'Paid in Blood', Atmos (June 2021), atmos.earth/brazil-land-defenders-fernando-dos-santos-araujo-massacre ('infographics by Federica Fragapane': environmental defender deaths in Brazil, 2015–2019, by state; data from Global Witness); Politecnico di Milano Alumni: 'New York's MoMA acquires three projects by Italian designer Federica Fragapane' (22 June 2023), alumni.polimi.it/en/?p=35239 (Space Junk, BBC Science Focus, 2019; Noise Pollution, 2020; Land Defenders, Atmos, 2021; Department of Architecture and Design; Communication Design, Politecnico di Milano), and 'Who is Federica Fragapane, the Italian designer exhibiting at MoMA in New York', alumni.polimi.it/en/?p=36459 ('visual words'; 'organic, soft figures'; autumn-hued leaves in Land Defenders; environmentalists killed in Brazil, 2015–19; Yessenia Funes); MoMA collection, 'Federica Fragapane. Land Defenders (Data visualization for Atmos)', moma.org/collection/works/447622 (2021, digital image) and 'Noise Pollution (Data visualization for La Lettura)', moma.org/collection/works/447623
- Fonts In Use: 'What Counts, Museum of the City of New York' (fontsinuse.com/uses/38297; Giorgia Lupi handwriting typeface, Pentagram 2019; Proto Grotesk), 'Data Humanism: The Revolutionary Future of Data Visualization' (fontsinuse.com/uses/26693; red handwriting, Input Mono crossed out), 'Giorgia Lupi – L'umanesimo dei dati / Data Humanism' (fontsinuse.com/uses/79194; Gallerie d'Italia, Vicenza)
- Intesa Sanpaolo, 'The human side of data: Giorgia Lupi's vision on show in Vicenza' (29 April 2026), group.intesasanpaolo.com/en/newsroom/all-news/art-exhibitions/2026/giorgia-lupi-gallerie-d-italia-vicenza (30 April – 2 August 2026; curated by Associazione Illustri; Dear Data, Bruises, 1,374 Days; sketchbooks shown for the first time)
- Dezeen, '"Data replicates the existing systems of power" says Pulitzer Prize-winner Mona Chalabi' (16 November 2023), dezeen.com/2023/11/16/mona-chalabi-pulitzer-prize-winner/ (charts built in Excel, Google Sheets or R; drawings aligned pixel for pixel)
- Ibrahim Al-Hazwani, Ke Er Zhang, Laura Garrison and Jürgen Bernard, 'Data Humanism Decoded: A Characterization of its Principles to Bridge Data Visualization Researchers and Practitioners', arXiv:2509.00440 (30 August 2025), arxiv.org/abs/2509.00440 (13 principles from Lupi's manifesto, validated through direct consultation with Lupi)

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Data Humanism”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/data-humanism/