In this project-centered course*, you will create a content-rich infographic on a topic of your choice using Adobe Illustrator (which you can download for a free, 30-day trial). You might choose to create a visual representation of data from the world of sports, entertainment, politics, or science, to explain a business trend or environmental issue, or even to present a theme or development from your personal life. Your finished infographic will engage your target audience and convey information clearly through effective use of design elements such as typography, color, and structure. Whether you’re a graphic designer, a writer or the intern in the department, you’ll learn: • what an infographic is and what makes a good one • how to work within your limits • how to work with a team (if you have one) • why infographics are effective • techniques for spotting data in stories • six valuable steps for planning an effective infographic • how to use and make some of the building blocks of infographics: maps, charts and flow charts • ways data can be visualized to clarify it and give it meaning • how to effectively design a good infographic by effectively using elements like type, color and an underlying grid structure • some free or cheap, online tools for making various kinds of infographics As you work on your project, you’ll learn more about why infographics are effective, what makes a good infographic, and how to plan and design an infographic for maximum impact. You’ll explore various approaches to data visualization, and you’ll practice creating visualizations like maps, charts, flow charts, and simple drawings in your free version of Adobe Illustrator. Please note that if you are new to learning graphics software, making these graphics could take much longer than estimated as you learn and grow. What you’ll need to get started: This project-based course is aimed at anyone interested in understanding, designing, and using infographics - from students and hobbyists to professional graphic designers. We’ll use Adobe Illustrator for some components of the project. If you don’t have access to the full version of Illustrator,you can download a free version at www.Adobe.com/Illustrator. If the free 30-day trial runs out, you can "purchase" it for a month for about $20. *About Project-Centered Courses: Project centered courses are designed specifically to help you complete a personally meaningful real-world project, with your instructor and a community of like-minded learners providing guidance and suggestions along the way. By actively applying new concepts as you learn, you’ll master the course content more efficiently; you’ll also get a head start on using the skills you gain to make positive changes in your life and career. When you complete the course, you’ll have a finished project that you’ll be proud to use and share. When you enroll in certain courses, you’ll be asked to pay a small fee to share your work with others for peer review.
How to work alone or with a team
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From the course by Michigan State University
Design and Make Infographics (Project-Centered Course)
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From the lesson
Plan and layout an infographic
This week is broken into two key themes: things that you need to know about infographics and this week's two peer-reviewed assignments: 1) plan an infographic and 2) sketch a layout of your infographic.
Meet the Instructors
Karl GudeGraphics Editor in Residence
School of Journalism
[MUSIC]
>> So, who's making the infographic where you are?
Oftentimes it's just you alone.
And I put a graphic designer here, it could be anybody.
It could be the head of the communications department.
It could be a writer, it could be anybody.
I put a graphic designer there because oftentimes, there's one graphic designer,
and they need to do infographics now.
Somebody says, we're going to do infographics.
Well, that's fine and that's good, but
you've gotta learn to work with what you've got and sometimes that's not a lot.
You can look at infographics in different ways.
You can either be a service person where somebody walks in and
says we need an infographic and we've all had meetings all this time without you.
Here, make this.
We've already decided all of the content, and you just do this.
And you act like a McDonald's, or a fast food, service person,
who just says, yes ma'am, would you like fries with that?
And, how quickly would you like that?
Or you can really rethink how your role is, and
get them to rethink what your role is, and become an integrated member of the team.
And be in the meetings from the very beginning, for example.
But let's look at what I mean by working within your resources, within your limits.
So, if you can't draw, think about using photos.
What's your photo budget?
Can you go out and take some photos?
If you can't design,
you can look at the list I have of the different templates that you can use.
And work with those templates.
You still need to be able to design,
so make sure you watch my design section really well.
But still, within those frameworks, you can create some pretty good stuff,
especially if you don't know Adobe Illustrator, for instance.
I'll throw in, can't use any software either.
Like you don't Adobe Illustrator, or any of these softwares.
You can use InDesign to make some pretty nifty infographics, so use InDesign.
Maybe you're already using InDesign.
But you can also try using those templates that I have listed here.
There are a whole bunch of free online templates that you can use.
The paid versions give you a little bit more, or maybe they take out the ads,
or maybe they allow you to export as an image, as opposed to just showing online.
But look into those things.
If you can't write and
you're insistent on writing, please have someone read what you wrote.
So many people, especially visual people, are not the best writers.
And a lot of writers tend to not write well for infographics.
They tend to over-write and over-explain.
Infographics should be short and concise.
If you can't code, just don't go interactive.
Stay static.
Just put your image up on the web or the same one you're putting into a brochure,
put it up on the web.
Don't code.
That said, there are free interactive graphics
softwares that you can use that will allow you to create fully interactive graphics.
And those'll be in the list too.
You have no time?
You'd better cut back on your ambitions.
Don't do all that other stuff you were going to do.
No money?
Well, get creative.
What can do you?
Can you make it out of clay?
Can you take photos of your own people to represent a team?
You just have to get creative when you have no money.
Look around, you'll see some pretty cool stuff out there.
One friend of mine had to do something on cloning,
where you take a cell into another and you make the same thing, the sheep thing?
Well he just went and bought some bubble gum, those, not bubble gum but
those toys that you get in the bubble gum machines, where you get,
it's inside of a plastic container.
He took those out and
put little rubber balls in to represent different sizes of cells and nucleuses,
and using photography, he photographed those to explain that.
I don't have a copy of that, but you can imagine, that's using your noggin.
If no one will help, you know what, you gotta go talk to the boss.
It's really hard getting infographics done,
especially if you have to do your other job too.
Go talk to your boss.
You've gotta say I need time, I need resources.
But in general, it's important that you grow the skills necessary to do this.
Whatever they are, try to keep learning.
No one's going to hire someone to come teach you some software.
You're going to have to do it alone.
The fact that you're taking this course is awesome.
That's exactly the kind of stuff I'm talking about.
You know but sometimes there is a team.
So what is a team?
Who's optimal for being on this team for making infographics?
Certainly a graphic designer is necessary.
Someone who knows how to work with type and layout and do beautiful things.
Often times an illustrator helps.
What I've discovered in mine is graphic designers don't make the best
illustrators, and illustrators don't make the best graphic designers.
I'm actually more of an illustrator.
I say I came with a graphic design plugin,
because I learned it later in life in my 20s, graphic design.
And so, it's sort of like learning a language.
Once you're past ten years old, you've got an accent.
So, I've got a little bit of an accent with design.
That's why art directors have always been helpful to make my work better.
Perhaps you need a programmer.
If you are going to go the computer science route where you're going to have
a lot of different kinds of data, and you want to do this really cool
interactive stuff and it's not available off the shelf you know, in some free tool.
You may need a programmer, someone who knows how to make that happen.
And work with a designer and maybe an illustrator to get that to work out.
A writer and a content person.
Really, they're not always the same person.
Sometimes a writer is a writer and a content person is a content person.
Sometimes the graphics person is the content.
Anyone can be a content person is my point.
But writers need to learn how to write concisely.
And oftentimes what they do is they write the infographic first and
then hand it to a graphic designer.
And say now just work with this.
And you know what, that seldom works because they tend to write too long.
And it's not connected to the design of the graphic.
What you need to do is to get together with the graphic designer.
All of these people need to get in a room together and
they need to work on how this is all going to come together.
They all come up with content ideas and they do some research.
And they go, yeah this is what we ought to do.
And then the graphic designer starts dummying in or
sketching out some layout ideas.
And the writer says, yeah,
you know I'm going to probably need more space over here to explain this.
And it becomes a team effort.
Not, I have written this, and I am now giving this to you to layout.
Don't do that, really, work together.
And lastly, almost lastly, there's the boss, and boss's are often in the room.
They have a lot of ideas and I'm going to talk about that in a second.
It's always good to have a team leader in there to help guide the entire thing.
But it could also be detrimental, and I'll talk about that.
But there's another, kind of a new person coming around in these circles that's
called the graphics editor.
It's sort of an interim person who knows how to work with the graphic people,
knows how to work with the content people.
Basically can make this whole thing come together and happen.
They may not specifically do any one of the tasks, but
they're the big picture person who can get everything together.
Maybe your place produces lots of infographics.
Well, this is a really good person to have.
Someone who really understands all of the different aspects of that.
And it's really important as I said,
everyone needs to participate from the very beginning.
Don't just sort of put just the boss and maybe the graphics editor and
maybe the writer in a room and say,
let's just figure out what this graphic's going to be.
You should have the graphic designer and
the illustrator in there from the very beginning.
Because they bring a car mechanic in there.
Anybody who will help this graphic make more sense and be interesting and
relevant.
A bunch of writers and
think content thinkers are not all that it takes to make the graphic.
You need visual people in there.
Get them in from the very beginning.
And back to the boss.
Bosses, there are all kinds of bosses.
Some bosses, though, really want their way done.
And it can be very awkward, and harm what is trying to happen in that room.
So a boss should not force their design concepts on everyone.
They should not bully and say, I want Comic Sans, I want pink.
I want this, I want that.
I want.
Don't do that.
Just listen and let people do their jobs.
And you guys, if you're not the boss,
you've gotta learn how to be diplomatic, and say no.
You don't have to necessarily say no to the boss, but
what you should do is find a way to do it better.
So, one of the reasons I did so
well in my career in journalism was because I seldom said no.
I almost always said yes, but I added,
how might we enhance this, or make it more informational, or whatever.
So, you might want to make sure that you have a better idea, and
bring it to the boss, or just speak up and suggest it.
You know, that's an interesting thing but
the reason the pink won't work is it's going to distract the eye and
we really want people to focus on this stuff over here.
[MUSIC]
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