Believe it or not, the idea is the main aspect of an infographic. You shouldn’t even start if you don’t have a good idea that deserves an infographic.
– Ah, hum, ok, but how do I know if I have a good idea? Excellent question.
A good idea for an infographic is a conclusion, a story that you wanna tell, and that is backed by good, trustful data. Is this idea, with a clear horizon where you wanna get, that you will carefully craft with text, charts and visual elements.
The story plays a big role in the success rate of your infographic. Is here that you should spend most of the time. Be clear about the taking-home message before flooding yourself in Google looking for pictures to illustrate.
This is a weak infographic idea: “Obesity is a problem of public health”
This is a strong infographic idea: “Obesity became a problem of public health in US in the last 30 years, according to the average increase in BMI”
A concept is a well defining punch line, inspired by an interesting idea, that you will use to start creating your infographic.
While creating the concept for an infographic, you should ask yourself these fundamental questions:
- What is my goal with this story?
- Who is my audience? Who am I creating for?
- Is the story meaningful for the audience? Is it interesting?
- How does it help, inspire or inform?
- How do I catch the attention? What is the punchline?
- Which data supports my claims? Does it come from a reliable source?
A bad idea brings confusion and will make you loose time during the creative process and probably result in an uninteresting infographic. Even if you choose a marvelous artwork, without a story, you won’t have a useful infographic.
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