Arts Unscripted with Monica Holt Giorgia Lupi, Partner at Pentagram
10 snips
May 1, 2026 
Giorgia Lupi, partner at Pentagram and data humanist who blends storytelling with visual design. She recounts how childhood collecting led to a career making data feel human. Conversations cover data as a design material, the Dear Data project, translating values into brand identity, and the role of AI in preserving human authorship.
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Childhood Collection Launched a Data Practice
- Giorgia Lupi learned early to collect and visually organize buttons and ribbons in her grandmother's tailor shop.
- She ranked childhood crushes daily, charting four boys to see trends and changes over time.
Treat Data As A Visual Material
- Giorgia reframes data as a material: an abstract, human-made representation that designers can encode visually.
- Visual variables (shape, color, height) become narrative tools, not merely numeric displays.
Read Charts Like Opinion Pieces
- Be fluent in data by asking where numbers come from and what the chart omits before accepting a visualization as truth.
- Treat charts like articles: consider the author's angle and ask for missing context.
