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.

https://www.ted.com/talks/manuel_lima_a_visual_history_of_human_knowledge