Jessica Draws

As a designer I’m constantly aware of what is trending, what is popular and most of the time, what clients want. Today, they definitely want infographics. 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.

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!