Manuel Lima

Why you should listen

Data expert Manuel Lima approaches intimidatingly dry stacks of bits with the eye of a designer. His website, VisualComplexity, is an encyclopedic and visually stunning catalog of the myriad paths artists take to illuminate the shadowy corners of stockpiled information, whether it’s a taxonomy of rap names or tracking oil money.

Lima’s passion for data has also driven him to become a historian. In The Book of Trees, he digs to the 12th-century roots of the tree diagram, one of humanity’s most powerful and ancient tools for visually representing knowledge.

What others say

“Lima endeavors to make sense of all the myriad ways -- computer-aided to hand-drawn -- to communicate data.” — Ad Age, February 10, 2009