Every week for a whole year Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec made a pact to visualize the tiny details and data of their lives, turn into beautiful postcards and mail the postcards to each other at the end of the week.
So, at the end of the week, Giorgia got a postcard from Lupi containing visualized data about the week and vice versa. Have in mind that these two designers live on two different ends of the Atlantic, Lupi is an Italian living in New York, and Posavec is an American living in London, and were not friends before this project – just two women aware of each other’s work and affinity for data and infographics. The project was premised on wanting to know if it is possible to get to know a person through data alone.
They collected data about their life and would spend each week noting, noticing, doodling activities and thoughts, and then transfer the information into hand-drawn visualizations.
“On the front of the postcard there would be a unique representation of our weekly data, and, on the other side (in addition to the necessary postage and address), we would squeeze in detailed keys to our drawings: the code to enable the recipient to decipher the picture, and to fantasize about what had happened to her new friend the week before… Instead of using data just to become more efficient, we argue we can use data to become more humane and to connect with ourselves and others at a deeper level.”
Giorgia Lupi is an information designer. She obtained a PhD cum Meritum in information Design at Milan Politecnico in 2014.
Her work in information visualization frequently crosses the divide between digital and print, exploring visual models and metaphors to represent dense and rich data-driven stories.
She is co-founder and design director at Accurat, a data-driven research, design and innovation firm based in Milan and New York.
Stefanie Posavec is an award-winning designer for whom data is her favoured material, with projects ranging from data visualization and information design to commissioned data art for a variety of clients. Her personal work focuses on the visual or physical representation of data derived from language, literature, or scientific topics, often using a hand-crafted approach. 
The Dear Data work still continues, with a newly published 300-page book, loads of exciting contributions and social media awesomeness. Buy the book, and follow the project on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Image, quote and information credit: Dear Data website
