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Edward Tufte (b. 1942) is the data world’s design guru, a statistician with a flair for turning numbers into art. Often called the “Leonardo da Vinci of data,” Tufte made it his mission to rid the world of bad charts and cluttered visuals. His book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (1983) set the gold standard for how data should be presented: clean, clear, and compelling.

Tufte’s work is all about showing the story behind the statistics—no unnecessary junk, just beautifully crafted visuals that make complex ideas easy to understand. He’s inspired generations of designers, statisticians, and anyone who’s ever needed to make a decent chart. If you’ve ever admired a crisp infographic or a timeline that just makes sense, you’ve probably got Tufte to thank.

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