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2004 AIGA MEDAL
Edward Tufte is best known for his trilogy of self-published books
on analytical design: The Visual Display of Quantitative
Information (1983, 2001), Envisioning Information
(1990) and Visual Explanations (1997). Each offers practical advice on aspects of data
display and provides a spectacular array of historic and
contemporary examples. Regarded as the primary authority on the
presentation of information by designers, information architects,
engineers, and scientists, Tufte's work has also generated a strong
mainstream interest. One million copies of these books are in
print.
After receiving degrees in statistics and political science from
Stanford and Yale, Tufte took a teaching job at Princeton
University. His first book on analytical design was written,
designed and published using funds from a second mortgage on his
home. He printed 5,000 copies of the book, rented a P.O. Box, and
put an ad in Scientific American. Twenty years later he is
working on his seventh book, Beautiful Evidence, to be
published in 2005.
Tufte served as a professor at Princeton and then Yale for 33
years. Currently he teaches a one-day course in analytical design
at various locations across the country (which 120,000 people have
attended so far), and is Emeritus Professor of Political Science,
Statistics, and Computer Science at Yale. In addition to his BS,
MS from Stanford and PhD from Yale, Tufte has been awarded seven
honorary doctorates. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim
Foundation and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral
Sciences.
He has consulted for the Bureau of the Census, the Centers for
Disease Control, the National Science Foundation, Bose, IBM,
The New York Times, Fidelity Investments, NBC, CBS, Sun
Microsystems. Medtronic, Lotus Development, New Jersey Transit,
Hewlett-Packard, Newsweek, Thomson Consumer Electronic,
and various law firms.
Tufte is currently writing his latest book, consulting for NASA,
and constructing large-scale landscape sculptures. His recent
sculptures include “Larkin's Twig,” “Spring-Arcs,” the series
“Escaping Flatland 1-10,” and the series “Millstones 1-6.” He has
had a one person show at Artists Space in New York and the
Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles.
In 1985 Tufte stopped a proposed development and then raised all
the funds for the purchase of 31 acres along the Mill River in
Cheshire, Connecticut, in order to create the permanent land trust Fresh
Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary. He has continued to be active in
working for open space in Connecticut.
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edwardtufte.com
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“Few teachers are as accomplished as Edward Tufte when it comes
to demonstrating why good design matters in the
world.”
—Wired magazine
“Edward Tufte is a brilliant observer and analyst of visual
displays. The diversity of examples (in Visual Explanations) is
awesome. Every aspect of this book is of the highest quality.”
—Journal of The American Statistical Association
“The Leonardo da Vinci of data”
—New York Times
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