Suburban Atrophy

30+ Examples of Visual Information Design

// May 4th, 2009 // Art in Motion, Design

Infographics or information graphics are the visual representation of data. The goals are always to balance content and design in order to communicate the data set. Infographics should never be so complex that it hiders it’s ability to communicate, however it should never be so simple that it lose the insight of the data it represents. The golden rule is “to make it as simple as possible. But no simpler!” One of the unique characteristics of infographics is its ability to bring together seemingly unrelated sets of data in order to tell a cohesive story. Often these visual representations will show us the connections between data sets that might have otherwise been overlooked in their raw numerical format. By visualizing, therefore humanizing the data we are able to understand it in a physical, relationship based paradigm.

Beyond simple (if you consider it to be simple) data visualization, information graphics also play a role in non-verbally communicating messages or entire stories to the audience. Think about the last time you were in a plane and looked at the information car; did you need any word to understand the message? Visual representation of information is almost as old as humanity itself (think back to cave paintings and hieroglyphs) over time technology has allowed us to display this information in evermore creative ways. Enjoy these 30+ smashing infographic images and videos.

Google Data Visualizations

Browser Wars

Where People Like to Kill Themselves

Climate Change: The Carbon Atlas

Personal Annual Report

Coffee Much

Global Tobacco Trade

Stealing the Show

Red Tape

Text similarities in essays

Web Trends

Price and market penetration of consumer electronics over the past 50 years

Tall buildings

Poverty and Wealth

Made in China

Where we Live

Periodic Table of Typeface

The History of Beer!

How Long will it Last?

Napoleonic Wars

I guess you can’t really talk about information graphics without talking about this graph which shows the size of Napoleon’s army over geographical location, time, weather and events during his Russian campaign. While  it might be very pretty, it does exactly what an infographic is supposed to do: Show a complex set of data in a simple, easy to understand formant.

Corporate Connections

This is an example that I feel missed the mark, it shows the connections between large international conglomerates.  There was no attempt to show the geographical distribution of the companies which I think would have made this graphic much more useful.

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Examples in Motion

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Additional Resources

• “Cool Infographics” Blog
• 50 Great Examples of Infographics
• Infographics : exploring the visual information design
• Information Aesthetics – interactive infographics collection
• Princeton infographics
• Examples for design inspiratio
• Smashing Magazine