William Cleveland: http://www.stat.purdue.edu/~wsc/
Jacques Bertin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Bertin
Blog post was cool, especially to hear about the systematization of subway graphics, but if you say "scientific graphic" you have to read those guys immediately. (And the person whose name begins with "T" is a bit overrated in my estimation).
What I particularly liked about Jure's article was his storytelling -- the TL;DR at the start is a great hook, as is the link with the New York subway signage, and so when he gets to the scientific figure standards (and presents a very thorough commentary) you're interested enough to take in the details.
Jokes aside, thank you very much for the references. There has been a lot of (if a bit discordant and disconnected) work in this field and it would be great if we could form a new age Joint Committee on Standards for Graphic Presentation, harmonizing these efforts.