Welcome to the account of our first Animated Infographic Adventure and it’s been a fun ride! You may have seen my previous post where I showcased my infographic design The Social Media Revolution and mentioned a few developments at Jessica Draws HQ. Namely that Dave Morgan (@waviograves) is now a fully fledged member of the team and that he’s been diligently getting up to speed with Adobe After Effects to be able to bring you our very first animated infographic.

In another post a few months ago I hopefully explained why infographics are becoming such a trend. There has been a steady rise in the popularity of infographics, helped along by social media and it’s easy to see why. People don’t want to read long, boring reports and data. They are searching, in great numbers for infographic content. It’s clear that people want their information in manageable chunks that they can get to and understand easily.  The official (wikipedia) definition of Information graphics or infographics are…

“graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly. They can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system’s ability to see patterns and trends.”

The subject is also of great importance. Infographics are more likely to be shared if they are about a controversial subject, a topical subject or communicate information that is going to astound the reader. One of the most popular subjects for infographics is social media because it’s so rich with data and frankly, it’s just darn interesting! This infographic I created a few weeks ago about The Social Media Revolution has proven to be quite popular. It has been re-blogged on other sites, tweeted and shared all over all social networking sites since I posted it. In the coming weeks we will also be adapting this into an animated infographic.

 Similarly, along the same subject lines anyway, I was commissioned by China Blueprint Online to design an infographic to communicate the benefits of using Chinese Social Media in Australia. This was a great project to do as I learned a great deal about a subject that I’d previously known nothing about. I created this static infographic for them which was published a while ago. I’ve learned that infographics are the way forward and combined with social networking can really propel your marketing results. And luckily for me, I love designing them and they are the most satisfying, rewarding and interesting commissions I receive. I have now numerous infographic projects lined up in partnership with a marketing agency involving some big names and I’m insanely excited! I look forward to showcasing them as soon as I’m able.

 And so on to the reason for this post. Using the Chinese Social Media Landscape infographic above, we scripted and story boarded the information using the same graphics and have we converted it to an animated version. We are pleased to showcase this new infographic to you now after weeks of hard work, re-jigging, tweaking, more tweaking and we hope you like it. We will be publishing it on our YouTube Channel so please share as much as you can. Ta-daaa….

So the next project we’ve got lined up is to adapt the Social Media Revolution infographic and try and incorporate some character animation. Very excited! It’s a great feeling to gain a new skill and be able to offer more to our clients!

You can’t stand in the way of progress!

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So it’s been another eventful couple of weeks and some exciting developments ahead for Jessica Draws, which, I don’t mind telling you now contains more than one person! How amazing is that? The wonderful Dave Morgan, who not only is my very own fiancé but has been working quietly in the background for years sorting out all my technical glitches, building the websites I design and generally being an all round superhero! Now I get to introduce you as Dave and I venture into the wonderful world of animated infographics together. (As well as married life…are we nuts?)

Anyhoo, the story begins a few weeks ago when Dave went skipping off to an After Effects course in Cardiff centre and learnt so much about the software that we’ve (well, he has) begun building our very first animated infographic, based on a static version I had already created. I don’t mind telling you but it’s looking pretty snazzy already! Gone is the time where Dave quietly works on in the background for free with no praise or recognition so please head over to twitter and follow him! He’s @waviograves which incidentally used to be what we called the wonderful world of Jessica Draws a long time ago. In the meantime we will be updating the website to include a bio of Dave and change all terms referring to “me” or “I” to “We” and “Us”. Isn’t he a lucky guy?

 Dave and I have become quite obsessed (in a good way) about infographic design and I’ve been lucky enough to work with some great organisations on their infographics. There’s also a few commissions already in the bag for the near future and I can’t wait to show you but it’s all a secret for now. I must be good and keep my mouth shut! The latest work which I’m here to show you today was inspired by a seminar and networking event I visited last week presented by Pogo Digital. It was really eye opening, all about the benefits of social media for your business. We learnt a lot and stuck around after to meet some fabulous people but the one thing stuck in my head. It was an animated infographic he showed us on YouTube which contained some amazing, somewhat mind blowing facts about social media. It wasn’t a particularly well designed or engaging piece but the statistics were really powerful. And so I decided to create my own static version, hopefully better designed to communicate the points. I hope you enjoy reading it… “The Social Media Revolution”

If you’d like to see more of my infographics in the future please click on the link in the tweet below and follow my profile on Visual.ly

Here it is: Brand new infographic design up and viewable! Check it out! The Social Media Revolution | Visual.ly – bit.ly/ZlRhYX

— Jessica Draws (@JessicaDraws) March 8, 2013

I don’t know about you but I continually meet individuals and business that are ignoring the power of social media. It doesn’t matter what I try and say to persuade them it’s not going to happen if they have already made their mind up that it’s not for them. But most of the time, they’ve decided it’s not for them because they don’t understand the power it can have and the impact it can have on a business, any business.

There are lots of these social media infographics about and it’s a good job too! Shoving all this amazing information into peoples faces they should eventually get the message. We hope! And if not, well there will be more room for there competitors on twitter

I really enjoyed designing this. Without the constraints of another organizations brand guidelines I was able to add a bit of my own illustrative style more prominently and I hope it adds a more humorous edge to the serious information.

As always I’d love to hear your thoughts, leave a comment or drop “us” a line on facebook, my twitter. or Dave’s twitter.

Bye for now!

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Today I have some exiting news! After a few weeks of hunting and preparing I now have a Featured Artist slot now on Etsy where I will be showcasing, promoting and selling new and original works from up and coming artists. It’s a great way of getting your name out there without any of the hard work. I’ll be marketing and promoting your products and printing and framing and posting them when they sell! What could be better?

And so, without further ado! Please put your hand together for my first featured artist: Frances Rae! Leeds based up and coming artist Fran has recently re kindled her love of art she developed at secondary school and is currently working on a range of canvas icons, brought about by a love of music and fashion.

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When looking at the “Business” category over the past several years, for example, there has been a slow but steady increase in the relative number of people who explicitly look for “infographic” content compared to other kinds of packaged content, such as reports, blogs, white papers, podcasts, and webinars. And in the past year, this increase has been picking up pace.” (source)

It’s clear that people want their information in manageable chunks that they can get to and understand easily. Here’s an infographic that demonstrates the rise of the infographic. Aptly named “The Rise of a Revolutionary Marketing Tool”

I’m sure you’ll agree that this is a lot nicer to view than a white paper report full of lines of text and figures. Infographics are quickly becoming the best way to market information and I for one, am extremely happy about this for a few reasons. One: A great infographic not only needs to be informative but it needs to be creative and  look great! That’s where I come in. Over the last few months there has been a steady demand for infographics from clients and although it was a new area for me, you can’t stop progress right? The first infographic commission I recevied was from Green Business Watch.  They sent over a lot of data regarding energy use in the USA. It was quite a daunting experience, receving tons of graphs and data and lines of text about a subject I knew nothing about. So began the challenge.

Organising the data into manageable chunks was a challenge but so very satisfying. I then created a rough plan with section titles and sent for approval before design began. I think this was a very important and necessary part of the process because without that insight and research into the subject I don’t think I would have been able to design and illustrate it. How can you create something you don’t understand? This is my process now for every infographic even if the client has arranged and organized the data already, I make it my business to learn as much as I can about the subject. That brings me on to the second reason I love that infographics are rising in popularity: I’m learning so much about subject I would never have otherwise read about.

The infographic above was a more recent commission from SHS. They were publishing a yearly informational booklet to communicate the progress and growth of the company. Instead of boring, tiring tables, graphs and text they had the insight to commission an infographic to communicate this information easily, quickly and much more effectively. Great idea! Not only is this going to be distributed in print, it is now a powerful digital marketing tool in circulation. Go SHS! Since then I’ve been privileged to have designed an infographic for Socketstore who wanted to communicate to their customers the difference between products in a creative way and also China Blueprint Online who wanted to let Australian people know the benefits of using Chinese Social Media to market products.

 Infographics are great because they are findable. If labelled correctly and well designed they are easily findable and easily shared. That’s where social networking comes in. Sharing and posting with social networking is propelling infographic to the top. What’s more, if you provide downloadable PDF’s or make them easily printable, they will live on! What’s more they are useful, which will make people want to share them and print them and keep them.

Moreover, if they share well, they can spread your brand to unimaginable places and make that brand more recognizable, valued and known.

Which brings me to the 3rd point about why I love designing infographics and will advocate their rise for as long as I can! Not only am I being commissioned to create infographics to benefit those clients, I have designed something that is being shared, viewed, posted, tagged. It is a phenomenal marketing tool not just for those clients but for myself. Bonus! So take care designers to put your stamp on your infographics. If the client has no objections, even add your web address to the artwork. I do, and for every infographic I create I receive at least 3 commissions for each one.

I’ve learnt that infographics are the way forward and combined with social networking can really propel your marketing results. And luckily for me, I love designing them and they are the most satisfying, rewarding and interesting commissions I receive. I have now numerous infographic projects lined up in partnership with a marketing agency involving some big names and I’m insanely excited! I look forward to showcasing them as soon as I’m able.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading! As always please leave a comment and let me know what you think. Also please like and follow on Facebook and Twitter and if you haven’t already please subscribe to this blog using the mini sign-up on the bottom right of the website.

See you next time!

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What a wonderful week and thank you so much to all my new subscribers! A big hello from me to you! As I’m writing this post we are still 5 likes away from the end of the competition to win some art prints or cards. So if you haven’t already please enter and good luck! If it’s ended already by the time I post this, then I’ll be announcing the winners very soon!

This post is to finally showcase some work I’ve been doing over the last couple of weeks. Naughty 50′s Pin-up Cards. I’ve been really excited to show you these as they have been so much fun to create!

I received a lovely inquiry from the Managing Director of Tamarind Tree Publishing in Barbados about creating 3 50′s Pin-Up Cards as they were launching an e-card website. Naturally I was eager to get involved, what girl wouldn’t? And to boot, they were saucy cards designed to make you blush! Do not read on if you are easily offended…

With 40′s and 50′s style trending worldwide, there is so much artwork out there. I spend an entire day researching and picking out my favourites. There truly is tonnes to see and I didn’t want to blend in. These were meant to be saucy, tonque in cheek cards and so I decided to go down the more cartoon route. Instead of worrying about skin tone perfection and face geometry and realism, I enhanced more attractive features and went for the clean vector lines. I hope you like them!

It really was a dream come true getting a project like this. Not only have I got a huge interest in Pin-up art but it also gave me a challenge. Life drawing has never been a strong point and I always always have trouble with body proportions as well as angles of the face. But with a LOT of experimenting, revisiting and changes and many many hours of criticism (mainly from myself) I do believe they turned out rather nice.

I think this one is my favorite as it’s the most cartoony of all of them and the background is definitely my favorite.

Doesn’t it make you want to get your lippy out and get all glammed up!? 

As always, thanks for reading and please leave a comment as I love to hear your thoughts. And also, please head over to my facebook and like and my twitter and say hello!

See you next time!

J X

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Hi All!

I hope everyone’s January is going well. Mine is splendid so far, lots of exciting thing coming up so to celebrate, and to help me get to my very close number of 1000 likes on facebook I’m going to give you a chance to Win some goodies from my Etsy shop.
 
As I’m writing this I have a lovely number 964 likes and being a stickler for rounding up, I would love to reach 1000 by the end of the month.

And so, I’m offering you a chance to win either;

1 . Choose an art prints from my shop, of which there are a few. Including the one above, individual avengers prints, Fraggle Rock, Back to the Future and Star Wars.

OR

2. Choose a selection of 8 cards from my shop, including a new range of Valentine’s Day Cards.

HOW TO ENTER:

All you have to do to win either a print or a selection of 8 cards is help a girl out. Head over to my facebook page , like it and leave a comment so I can count you into a random prize draw when I reach 1000 likes!

I would greatly appreciate if you could share this bog post and retweet (you can follow me on twitter here).

GOOD LUCK!!

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Well 2013 has already begun and it’s begun in a very exciting way. As you might have seen on my rants on facebook and twitter on the 3rd of January I moved out of my little studio in my home to a gorgeous studio right in the center of Cardiff. After 6 months of working from home I was desperately in need of a new beginning. Working from home was great, for a while as I’m sure a lot of you can agree with but it comes with a certain amount of loneliness. With only yourself and the occasional client for conversation, things can get pretty frustrating. Not only that, if you’re a social animal like me, I really missed the hubbub and banter of an office environment.

Granted it doesn’t look to ‘hubbuby’ at the moment but I let them
all go out for lunch before I took the photo to save them posing

In October/November 2012 I found myself in the wonderful position of being able to afford to rent some space and decided quite quickly that this is what I needed to do or I was going to drive myself mad. A new studio and a new beginning. A way to marker the progress of the last year and move forward.

I sent out a tweet and within hours had agencies calling which drive me slightly mad as I told them my requirements and they promptly told me that I wouldn’t be able to get anything like that within my budget. Charming! I’m not that fussy but my main requirement was that I didn’t want to go from one room all by my lonesome to another teeny office all on my own! If possible I wanted a shared creative environment with like minded people.

The lower level of The Old Church

Help came in the form of the Creo Interactive. A web design agency who do some fantastic work. They replied to my tweet and invited me in to see the space as they had plenty of room. Based in a converted church in Cardiff it was perfectly located for me. 10 minute drive from home, walking distance to the town centre and more importantly it was open plan! Hallelujah! Exactly what I’d been looking for!

The Old Church

And so the new beginning has dawned. Out of my tiny space and into a wonderful environment where there are humans! Yippee! Not only humans but creative humans! It couldn’t get any better. Oh hang on! It can. I have access to a gorgeous glass walled meeting room that looks down into the church, a lovely waiting room for any clients that come in and coffee coming out of my ears!

Glass meeting rooms looking down into the church

My desk. Well, a desk and a half really

It’s pretty impressive really when you walk in. A perfect place to bring clients for meetings and start 2013 in style. A new studio and a new beginning equals progress!

Happy 2013 everyone! I hope your January is as exciting as mine

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Hello everyone and Happy New Year! I hope you’ve all had a lovely rest and aren’t too glum about the new working year! For me, this year is very exciting! I’m getting married, going on my dream holiday and this will be the first full year of being self employed. I’m really looking forward to it all! Happy faces all around.
 
Anyhoo, this post it too showcase some recent work I completed for a company called Green Business Watch. Namely a Green Infographic Design. They are “dedicated to connecting those who are looking for viable Green solutions” and are generally around to raise awareness about the important issues surrounding energy use and the benefits of investment in Green technology. All in all they do a darn good job of spreading an important message.

I was approached by them a couple of weeks before Christmas to design an infographic that would demonstrate the energy used in households in the USA and what that energy is used to power. I’ve never designed an infographic about energy use before and so it was definitely an interesting experience. Not only was I learning what all the jargon means but it was nice to know (in the US anyway) that with the rise of larger homes, homes we’re becoming more energy efficient.
 

 
I’ve done a lot of work with a Solar Panel company called JoJu Solar over the past year so I’ve learnt a lot about the benefits of investing in green technology, especially solar panels. Once I own my own home it’s definitely something I’m going to be interested in doing and a subject that will be on my mind.
 
Anyway, back to the design: I think infographics are a great way to communicate difficult or complicated subjects. I always gravitate towards an infographic for an explanation on a subject if it’s available. It’s a fast, easy, direct way to get the point accross without the waffle. Infographics are never the easiest to design. Before I even get to thinking about imagery I need to work with the client to organise the data into sections with headings and eliminate any unnecessary information so it doesn’t become to crowded. That’s always the hardest bit if you’re not an expert on the subject.
 

 
Luckily we were a pretty good team and that process wasn’t too painful. I could then move on to the fun part. Design. Creating icons that make sense without having to attach names and figuring out ways to show graphs in an interesting way is always challenging but when a project comes together, the outcome is successful and the client is happy, it’s the most satisfying part of my job. Here is the finished infographic but please feel free to click here to go directly to the website where it is featured. I have also added it in a new category in my portfolio page on my website.
 

 
If you’d like to discuss an infographic you have in mind or any other commission please let me know either via email: jessica@jessicadraws.com ,facebook or twitter. I always love to hear what you think so please leave a comment or drop me a line.
 
Happy New Year!
 

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Last year we visited Bath for the Christmas market and I fell in love with all the cobbled streets and gorgeous little shops full of Christmas goodies but this year, Cardiff is definitely giving other cities a run for their money!
 

 
Isn’t it all so pretty? If it wasn’t for the freezing cold I could wander around forever. So the big day is nearly upon us and I hope everyone is organised and can now enjoy the holidays. If not, in the meantime, enjoy these pretty pictures
 
Happy Holiday’s everybody!

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Instead of the usual posts about my recent work, here’s something a little different this week. Part book review, part illustration inspiration, I hope it inspires you too. First thing I should say is, I am a compulsive reader. If that’s the best way to put it. I read a lot and I read everyday without fail. It’s just the most amazing feeling to get lost in a book and I’m always looking for that book that will send me off on a wonderful visionary adventure in my imagination.

I mostly read fantasy and I have, for as long as I can remember, thanks to my dad, been obsessed with any writing my Terry Pratchett, J.R.R. Tolkien. As a child it was Roald Dahl and A.A.Milne (I say when I was a child but really I mean now too). The reason I think I love fantasy is the amazing images they invent in my imagination and I’ve often used this for illustration inspiration and I love it when publishers find the most perfect illustrators for the books I love. Quentin Blake and E.H. Shepard are among my favourite illustrators and they really helped bring these stories alive. Please check out my Good Reads Profile for a peek into my reading habits and connect if you’re on there too!

Anyhoo, back to the point of the post. Searching through my recommendations on Good Reads I came across a book called The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and it immediately jumped out at me. Titles like this scream at me. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making is the first novel in a series by Catherynne M. Valente, published in May 2011. It follows a 12 year old girl named September as she is spirited away from her average life to Fairyland.

This book is advertised as a children’s book but I always ignore the age suggestions. After all, Alice in Wonderland is a children’s book and enjoyed by adults for centuries. This gorgeously strange story combines everything I love about literature. It’s full of strange creatures, frightening landscapes, life lessons, friendship, love and of course fairies! I love the way it’s so aware of traditional fairy tales and includes little subtle inclusions that only huge fans of folklore will recognize. In fact, the narrator and September herself are aware of fairytale law and this leads to some beautiful observations from both.

The writing is so colorful and imaginative. There are no limits, no logic, no normality and once you get into the groove and glide with the story, your imagination just runs away with you. It really is beautiful and in some cases extremely dark. It’s Alice in Wonderland, mixed with a pinch of Stardust, stirred with Return to Oz and glazed with a little of every fairytale you’ve ever heard of. Really however, I really shouldn’t compare it. It’s one of a kind!

I think you’re getting the idea that I love this book! Just to add another dimension: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making is illustrated beautifully by Ana Juan who’s work I just adore. Here are some illustrations from the book.

If any of you artists out there are in need of inspiration one day or even if you’re suffering from a bit of creative block, I urge you to pick up this book! It’s so full of strange, colourful, beautiful imagery that you can’t help but want to pick up a pencil.

For myself, it’s helped me free my imagination. I was too caught up in making things realistic and too bogged down with corporate illustrations that I forgot to use my imagination.

This book is going to help me exercise my mind and the next time I pick up a pencil (today I hope) I am going to think of the strangest, unique thing/person/monster/object/landscape/world I can and draw. Draw without limits! I for one will be picking up some more children’s books before it’s too late! GO GO GO!! Re-discover your unaffected, innocent childhood imagination again!

Bye for now!

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