Infographics For Dummies

by Justin Beegel MBA, The Infographic World Team (Primary Contributor)

Create stunning infographics with this hands-on guide Infographics For Dummies  is a comprehensive guide to creating data visualization with viral appeal. Written by the founder of Infographic World, a New York City based infographic agency, and his top designers, the book focuses on the how-to of data, design, and distribution to create stunning, shareable infographics. Step-by-step instruction allows you to handle data like a pro, while creating eye-catching graphics with programs like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. The book walks you through the different types of infographics, explaining why they're so effective, and when they're appropriate. Ninety percent of the information transmitted to your brain is visual, so it's important to tickle the optic nerves to get people excited about your data. Infographics do just that. Much more exciting than a spreadsheet, infographics can add humor, interest, and flash while imparting real information. Putting your data in graphic form makes it more likely to be shared via Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and other social media sites, and the visual interest makes it less likely to be ignored.  Infographics For Dummies  provides a tried-and-true method for creating infographics that tell a story and get people excited. Topics The book, written by Justin Beegel, MBA, founder of Infographic World, Inc., describes the elements of a successful infographic, and stresses the must-have ingredients that get your data noticed. Humans are visual creatures, telling stories in a visual way. In today's world filled with data and messaging, an infographic is one of the best ways to get your point across. 

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Business, Art

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 10, 2014

Reviews

[Patrycja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Infographics are popular and widely used in articles, books, different web sites across internet and printed media. Good infographics help send the message to the reader.
“Infographic for Dummies. A Wiley Brand” by Justin Beegel, MBA with the Infographic World Team is a collaborative book created by visual communication agency. It takes the reader trough the stages of designing and developing good infographics.

The book covers topics like, using data,exploring infographics, design, distribution, how to discover trends, how to build designs and more.
It is rather for beginners, who are just starting their adventure with infographics and wish to explore and learn about it. This book will help and guide the reader.
It talks about types of infographics, when and how to use them. The power of infographics, makes it more possible to share it online, on social media. Visual informations tend to grab people’s attention faster. And infographics help to achieve it.
Instructions in the book talk about creating infographics with softwares like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. The book allocates two chapters just for this topics. It shows the basics of using those two softwares.
There are step by step tips and instructions, how to work with clients, how to design the most effective infographics, how to promote infographics.
It points out how important is research of the topic, before creating any infographics. We have to make sure that our data is accurate, so the infographics send the right, correct message. It is important to match visuals to the topic. Even choosing right font and color can be a breaker in creating effective infographic.

There are a lot of infographics and examples in the book, of course.
This book is filled with references and pointers to resources (databases, websites,blogs).

I found this book useful and helpful.

[Eric Carzon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview and detailed concepts on the topic of creating Infographics. Lots of information on resource sites for various aspects of the issue.

[Dray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good overview book on the actual complexity of creating infographics. The book covers a lot of basics like creating an idea and focus, using data, design, distribution etc. The book also had some useful compendiums of resources (databases, websites, blogs etc.) for the infographic designer. What I found a little lacking, since this book was produced by an infographic design company, were more examples of both good and poor infographics and why, case examples of projects big and small from start to finish. I found the two large chapters on illustrator and photoshop not useful as they focused on how to use the programs (best left to another book on those programs) and not focused enough on strengths and weaknesses of the programs when it comes to infographics. A worthwhile read, despite some shortcomings.

[Ariadna73 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this concise introductory guide to the art and craft of infographics.
The figures are nice, the quality of the image is good, and there are a couple of ideas worth grabbing. In general, one of the best "dummies" book I have read so far