Why are we called Graphicacy?
How our company works to convey impact and improve understanding as we visualize a better world
Most of us know the ancient word “literacy,” which refers to the ability to read and write. English literacy is a baseline skill for U.S. citizenship and education. If you’re reading this fluently, you are probably quite literate.
Fewer are familiar with “numeracy,” or skill with numbers, which is a more recent addition to our language. It is hard to function in modern society without being numerate. I first heard the word “numeracy” from my Mom, a teacher of mathematics, who gave me a copy of John Allen Paulos’ 1998 book Innumeracy. Many more people are innumerate than illiterate.
New to many, but constructed by analogy from “literacy” and “numeracy,” is the term “graphicacy.” Graphicacy is the ability to understand, use or generate images such as maps, charts, diagrams and graphs.
The word “graphicacy” has been in use for some time. According to Google’s ngram viewer, it started showing up in books around 1963.
The word in question came to my attention at least as far back as May 2009, when I first read its entry on Wikipedia. I liked it enough that I acquired the domain name graphicacy.com. Some time after that, we chose Graphicacy as the name of our data visualization firm.
In 2020, graphicacy is more important than ever. Today’s information comes at us in large quantities and from many angles and in many different forms. The adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words” often applies, and a deft graphic can sometimes communicate an epic at a glance.
For several years now, Graphicacy has helped our clients use their own data to visually demonstrate the impact that they are having, and to explicate complicated matters to a broader audience. The Graphicacy team has learned, through trial and error informed by good judgement, that excellent graphical communication can take place at the juncture between visual communication, current technology, and the missions of our clients.
Graphicacy’s team has had the privilege of applying our trade of graphicacy to communicate the most pressing issues facing the world for top-tier organizations and companies, including the COVID crises and vaccines with Johns Hopkins University, inequity with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, extremism with the Anti-Defamation League, climate change for the Union of Concerned Scientists, immigration for the Center for American Progress, organizing for the 2020 election with the AFL-CIO, natural disasters with the World Bank, and many other important issues.
We’d like this blog to become a trustworthy locale for discussing the use of data visualization analytic design to convey impact and improve understanding as we work to visualize a better world.
We are humbled by the potential of the craft and we realize that we’re at the beginning of a long journey.
Graphicacy partners with clients to tell engaging stories with data. Graphicacy’s team combines storytelling, thoughtful human-centered design and deep technical capabilities to build and deploy strategic, data rich digital projects. Graphicacy’s team has created data visualizations and infographics for top-tier organizations and companies, domestically and internationally, including the World Bank, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Johns Hopkins University the Center for American Progress, the AFL-CIO, the Anti-Defamation League and many others.
