Do you have any favourite infographics?

April 7, 2012 9:16 AM

What do you consider to be the best infographics that use a very simple-looking visual style?

I'm considering creating an infographic as a personal project in order to try out some ideas and refine concepts so I can add another tool to my portfolio of skills - I'm trying to learn.

Anyway, while I have some ideas about what sorts of information an infographic should display, and how it should be said, I'm not much good on the actual visuals.

Do you have any favourite infographics that use a very simple visual style in order to display information in an impactful and visually interesting way?

If you have any other infographics you think do a great job at presenting info, that would be helpful, too.

posted by KokuRyu to Work & Money (9 answers total)

Not a specific recommendation, but a link to a pretty good resource. Have you taken a look at Information Is Beautiful? Their visualizations make it to the Blue fairly often, known for their simplicity and innovation in presenting information.
posted by mireille at 10:03 AM on April 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

Edward Tufte's site might be a good place to start.
posted by cedar at 11:02 AM on April 7, 2012 [2 favorites]

afrigraphic is eyecatching and informative while The Economist is considered to have one of the better teams in being able to simply and clearly communicate complicated data
posted by infini at 11:29 AM on April 7, 2012 [2 favorites]

I thought the infographic of infographics was cleverly done and presented.

I like the pale blue with the dark gray in satellites orbiting earth.
I like the shapes and use of space in harvest seasons of the Pacific Northwest.
I like the simplicity of the colors in this world progress report.
Animals in the house is somewhat complex, but seems simple to make.
I like the use of color in Audio/Video and it's a pretty simple design.
Some very good color at work in solar power in Europe, but a simple map at the heart of it.

The Trilogy Meter.
Hard drive vs iPod.
Pete Sampras vs Roger Federer - Tied at 14.
The perfect drink.
Generational infographic.

A few weeks ago visual.ly came up with an interface for creating your own infographics. You have to make an account to play with it, and I think you need a twitter account or a facebook account to actually create it. I have yet to use it so I can't tell you much more.
posted by cashman at 11:38 AM on April 7, 2012 [5 favorites]

ISOTYPE, a visual language created in the 1920s, is all about complex info presented in a simple visual style
posted by Tom-B at 1:15 PM on April 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

I found this relatively minimalist infographic about ocean depth exceptionally powerful, just because it presents such mind-numbingly large distances on a scale that's still comparable to the human level.
posted by Rhaomi at 7:19 PM on April 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg's work: Flowing Media and more recently on at Hint.fm. GOOD Magazine is also known for their infographics. For interactive ones, the team at the New York Times' deserves serious kudos, see this recent one about the U.S. budget (link to a static gallery of past ones).
posted by jng at 8:25 PM on April 7, 2012

While it may not entirely fit your brief, it is worth you looking at Diagrammer, as it majors on the simplicity part.
posted by MuffinMan at 11:53 PM on April 7, 2012

I used to do infographics for a former employer. One handy rule I discovered is that, if you end up having to use a ton of callouts, labels, legends, etc. to explain the graphics, your data probably doesn't really lend itself to infographication. At least not effective infographication.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:42 AM on April 8, 2012 [3 favorites]