An award-winning data visualization project, Greetings from Georgia is a souvenir coffee table book that unpeels the hidden history of Georgia’s most iconic symbol—the peach. Through compelling infographics, editorial storytelling, and innovative print production, the book reveals how the rise of Georgia’s peach industry was deeply intertwined with slavery and forced labor from 1790 to 1920.

📖 Featured in Information Design for the Common Good, Author: Courtney Marchese (December 2021)
🏆 Gold Winner – SCAD Secession (May 2019)
🏅 Finalist – Adobe Design Achievement Awards (August 2018)

Opportunity: The Peach as a Symbol of Myth & Reality

The Georgia peach is often seen as a cultural emblem of Southern hospitality, but beneath this romanticized image lies a complex and troubling history. This project sought to challenge perceptions by using data-driven storytelling to explore the historical forces that shaped the peach industry.

By leveraging visual hierarchy, materiality, and interaction, Greetings from Georgia allows readers to physically and conceptually peel back layers of history, revealing how economic success was built on human suffering.

Editorial & Data Visualization Concept

📊 The Book as Data

• When viewed from the side, the book itself forms a graph, representing the parallel rise of enslaved labor and peach acreage in Georgia from 1790 to 1920.

• As pages turn, the visual design shifts, unveiling the harsh realities behind the peach industry’s growth.

🍑 Tactile Design & Material Innovation

• The book cover mimics peach skin, achieved through UV printing on velvet using a flatbed printer, courtesy of SCAD’s DigiLab.

• The color palette reflects Georgia’s landscapes, creating an inviting aesthetic that contrasts the unsettling history within.

✉️ Postcard-Inspired Aesthetic

• The book’s title and typography are designed to resemble vintage Georgia postcards, reinforcing the contrast between perceived nostalgia and historical reality.

Visual & Editorial Design: A Layered Narrative

🔹 Opening Spread

• A top-view photograph of a peach grove welcomes the reader, setting the scene for a celebration of Georgia’s agricultural success—a deliberate misdirection to mirror historical erasure.

🔹 Progression of Content

• As pages turn, the tone shifts, revealing historical data, archival imagery, and firsthand accounts of forced labor.

• A small peach-shaped fleuron acts as a timeline navigator, guiding readers through the economic and social shifts of the time.

🔹 Final Spread

• The last page unfolds into a full-scale reproduction of an 18th-century slave ship diagram, creating a visceral connection between human commodification and agricultural expansion.

• The juxtaposition of the book’s first and last pages forces readers to confront the stark reality behind the peach industry’s growth.

Key Innovations & Takeaways

🔍 Data as Storytelling

• By integrating historical research, quantitative data, and interactive print techniques, Greetings from Georgia transforms abstract statistics into a tangible, emotional experience.

  
  

📖 Multisensory Experience

• The book’s material choices, graph-like structure, and progressive reveal format turn passive reading into an active discovery process.

  
  

📢 Recognition & Impact

• Featured in Information Design for the Common Good, a leading data visualization textbook.

• Gold Winner at SCAD Secession for its innovative approach to historical storytelling.

• Finalist in the Adobe Design Achievement Awards, recognized for excellence in information design.

  
  

Final Thoughts: The Power of Design to Reframe History

Through thoughtful data visualization, editorial storytelling, and experimental print production, Greetings from Georgia challenges readers to reconsider the narratives they’ve been told.

By exposing the historical intersections of agriculture, labor, and racial injustice, this project underscores how design can serve as a powerful tool for education, empathy, and social change.