Nigel Holmes graduated from the Royal College of Art, London, in 1966 with an MA in ]illustration. Until 1978 he worked in London; then he joined Time magazine in New York and stayed for seventeen years. His graphic style there was widely imitated. Since then, he has curtailed the more illustrative aspects of his work, while remaining committed to the power of a picture to help readers understand abstract concepts. In 1982 he was the chairman of the first AIGA competition devoted to information graphics. He has won gold and silver medals from British and American design organizations. In 1994 he formed his own information design company. He has lectured in India, Japan, Brazil, and Singapore, all over Europe and the U.S., often including “performances” of information. He has written four books on information design, and is currently working with Stephen Kosslyn, professor of psychology at Harvard, on a book that probes readers' understanding and presentation of numbers from the twin viewpoints of science and design.