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IN F OInfographics are the bedfellow of the modern savvy graphic designer, but just what makes a generic inforgraphic?

A meaningless graph showing a varying number of vector graphics$Infographics are the bedfellow of the modern savvy graphic designer, but just what makes a generic inforgraphic?

oftena transparent icon or a simplified graphic is placed under the text witha low opacity to drive home the point to the reader. Sometimes these can be incredibly distracting and do not really serve a purpose other than to irritate a reader. A large part of infographics is the reader’s ability to interpert simple images and relate to the information being displayed. Capitalised or typographic words are used to start paragraphs in wordier Infographics, however, most Inforgraphics aren’t as wordy as this. Ocassionally a vector image of a famous face is placed in the as wordy as this. Ocassionally a vector image of a famous face is placed in the article for the reader to relate to and associate the information with, For this article I chose Josef Stalin, for pretty much no reason at all.

NEXT time you pick up a copy of your favourite technology mag, or check out an online techhie blog, try to pay attention to the information that is actually being given to you. Try not to get lost in the undergrowth of rich text and shiny graphics. Try to discrenfully seperate the shiny showmanship from the journalism. The content from the style. Believe me, it’s tough.from the style. Believe me, it’s tough.

SEAN EARLEY is a sometimes writer sometimes podcaster from Dublin, Ireland.He sometimes bores himself with the sound of his own voice and has neverowned a bicycle. See more of his rubbish at http://seanear1ey.wordpress.com

If you’re an avid reader of WIRED magazine, or indeed an occasional visitor of boingboing.netInfographics will be nothing new to you. Usually some fancy typography at the beginnging ofsaid article is used to catch the eye in a way usually reserved for advertisements. Coupled with a bold combination of loud colours mixed with some sombre greys or whites and thecontrast is too much for your eye to take. Regardless the topic, be it killer bee penetrationin North America or how corrupt politicians are spending your tax money on yoghurt andprostitutes (what else would they be doing with it anyways?) you immediately fall victimprostitutes (what else would they be doing with it anyways?) you immediately fall victimto the graphic design equivalent of waving something shiny in front of a three year-old.

SO what makes an Infographic I hear you groan? Well, as you’d suspect, the term is a compound of the words Information and Graphic. But usually they contain very little information at all and are moreover filler content on a topic that may already have a feature piece elsewhere in the publication. Graphs like the one on this page often feature.Using nice vector images of objects, in this case a car, incase you weren’t familiar with what images of objects, in this case a car, incase you weren’t familiar with what a car looked like, to convey some contrived information. Sometimes,a statistic so mind-boggling that it cannot be represented will be representednonetheless with an infitine tower stretching into other areas of the article. Another little device used to pull you in to “see what this is all about then”.

April May

Words: Sean Earley

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