The world is full of many beautiful things to observe, including the numbers and details that make up our lives. But what do you take particular note of? What do you find the most interesting or worthy of being measured, documented, and drawn? What you choose to notice can teach you a lot about who you are and what you care about. What makes you… you? And what makes me… me?
Pentagram partner Giorgia Lupi has co-written and illustrated This Is Me and Only Me, a new picture book for children—and adults—that shows how everything we observe about the world around us can tell us something about who we are. The book is co-authored with Madeleine Garner, a former preschool teacher who is now a member of Giorgia’s team at Pentagram. The book is published by Corraini Edizioni and is available in both English and Italian versions.
As an information designer, Giorgia has always seen the world, and herself, through a lens of data, data collection, and data visualization.This Is Me and Only Me helps introduce kids to the concept of observing their own personal data as a powerful way to learn about themselves. Using different symbols, colors, shapes, lines, and other marks and annotations, they can visualize and add context to their observations, and make a unique self-portrait that tells their own story of their lives.
Through an engaging narrative and colorful illustrations, the book teaches kids to notice what makes them happy, sad or excited; to think about what makes them and their friends laugh; to discover that while we all see the stars in the sky, everyone chooses to remember them differently. What story could your data portrait tell about you?
This Is Me and Only Me is Giorgia’s first children’s book. Her previous titles include Dear Data, documenting a year-long project in which Giorgia and another information designer tracked their personal data; and Observe, Collect, Draw!, a visual journal showing readers how to record their day-to-day data and to develop their skills of observation, self-reflection and creativity.
In the new book, Giorgia encourages kids to think of their personal data as a unique expression of who they are. This reflects Giorgia's philosophy of "data humanism," the idea that data should not be scary or intimidating—especially as it becomes an ever-more important factor in our lives—and instead using it to get to know one another and reveal our stories.
“I have always wanted to translate data humanism into something accessible for young people and especially children so they can start to understand what data is and how paying attention to the world one data point at a time leads to beautiful insights,” says Giorgia.
This Is Me and Only Me is available to order from Amazon in the US or Corraini in Europe.
