Examples of infographics are everywhere, so chances are pretty good that you’ve seen, read and even shared a few of them with friends or colleagues.
Since the brain tends to process visual images faster than words, infographics have become a proven method for communicating information in an interesting and easy-to-understand format.
Maybe you’ve considered using infographics on your own site, but your design skills are a bit lacking. If that’s the case, read on for some handy pointers, free tools and yes, even an infographic.
1. Find the Right Design Tool
There are many free and easy-to-use online tools that make creating infographics a breeze. These tools provide you with tons of basic layouts that you can update with your own colors, fonts, branding and text. You can even create your own bar charts and pie charts, which is handy for presentations as well.
Here are a few of our favorite tools:
2. Use Bold Headlines
The use of bold, large text for headlines and subheads can help make the most important text stand out. But be careful not to bold everything. This can have the same effect as not bolding anything. In other words, the eye doesn’t know what to focus on if all of your text looks the same.
3. Choose Great Fonts
Fonts that are suited for light topics such as design or art may be less appropriate for more serious topics such as finance or medicine. Pick appropriate fonts for the topic at hand to give the reader a visual cue to what your infographic is about. Check out Google fonts for some font inspiration.
4. Use Simple Graphics
Choose basic images over detailed images in your infographics so as not to distract the viewer. There are a lot of icons and images to choose from within the online tools mentioned above. Stick to using those, and then customize them with colors, fonts and sizing.
5. Whitespace Works
The use of negative space can be quite effective and pleasing to the eye, so try not to jam too much information into your infographic. If you have a lot of information to convey, make your image larger and space it out. Experiment with borders or boxes to break up topics too.
6. Color Sets the Mood
Stick to using a few bold or contrasting colors, along with a couple accent colors that play nicely together. This will help draw the eye to important areas and add interest, without being overwhelming. Too many colors can be just as distracting as overly detailed images.
7. Keep it Brief
While designing your infographic, keep in mind that the whole point is to present tidbits of information in a graphically interesting and easy-to-read format. Use succinct sentences and save the long, descriptive paragraphs for your supporting article.
Infographic on Infographics
Since this post wouldn’t seem complete without its very own infographic, here it is…
7 Tips for Creating a Professional Infographic by Laura Swords | SwordsNet Designs
If you’ve given these tips a try and you still need help, contact us today for a free quote. We can turn around your project – no matter how small – quickly and affordably.
