In this episode of Culture Code, Alex sits down with Valentina D’Efilippo – data designer, author and founder of studio Apostrophe One, whose work turns large datasets into works of art.
Valentina didn’t follow an existing path. She trained in engineering and industrial design, took a master’s in visual communication, and started “playing” with data by deconstructing Kubrick’s The Shining shot by shot.
A cold call from a publisher turned that existing instinct into The Infographic History of the World, co-authored with Guardian data journalist James Ball and now published in 11 languages.
Since then she’s engraved David Bowie’s Space Oddity into ten vinyl data sculptures for OddityViz, rebuilt the children’s encyclopedia for Britannica with 250 infographics, and worked with the likes of Spotify, Pfizer and Siemens.
They get into her belief that the job is clarification, not simplification; the Siemens project that reimagined a Bayern Munich match through the energy of its fans; where AI genuinely helps; and the self-initiated work she’s doing now to visualize the gender gap buried in the world’s health data.
