I recently created an infographic for a client. The concept was that he needed to display time passing in three phases with some explanatory text next to each phase. As per my design process, I sketched out a few initial ideas on scrap paper and then began turning those doodles into digital designs through Illustrator (check out other examples of my digital designs here).
The first design I created had some icons at each stage and the three stages represented as almost a chutes and ladders game viewed at in a 1-point perspective. I still love the idea of using mile-post markers and looking at the infographic in perspective, but I just couldn’t get it to work where the information was readable. Since I’m not happy with it at all, and it has some elements that are client specific, I’ve decided to not share it here. The other two graphics I made are shown below but the text is replaced with Lorem Ipsum.
Besides jotting down initial notes and making doodles on scrap paper, I also did some cursory online research. I only had a few hours to complete a design and while my first concept with the infographic in perspective was original, I didn’t have the time to make it work. I needed to come up with a well thought out design that would immediately win the day, or at least one that would only need a minor revision here or there.
With some ideas in my head from my doodling and researching, I immediately started creating them in Illustrator. When it comes to graphics, Illustrator is my go-to tool. I love the precision, the intuitiveness of the program, the wide range of tools it offers, and I’m a little biased in that I’ve been using it for a long time now.
Second Infographic
The second design I had was that of a ribbon folded three times. This is similar to something else I had seen online, but I made the image more flat and went with a triadic colour scheme to make the three phases pop off one another. I used angular corners with drop shadows to emphasize the strong lines in order to add a bit of dynamism to the design. For the typography I wanted something clean and business looking. I made the date text bolder and clear white against the coloured background. The accompanying text to the right of the dates is made a little smaller and I used a light grey-tinged colour so it doesn’t compete with the date text.
Third Infographic
The third graphic I created is based off a more traditional timeline design. However, I tried to make it a bit more modern looking with a grey and bright yellow-green colour combination. I then added a drop shadow on the image to give it a bit of flat design feel. The typography went after the same principle I had in the second graphic but this time the block text was a lot more work. I wanted it to sit nicely within the rounded corner rectangles I had them in but use a justified paragraph alignment which meant playing with the kerning a lot to avoid rivers. The first of the three paragraphs still doesn’t quite work as well as I would like but the client was happy.
Let Me Know!
Let me know what you think of my two designs- do you have a favourite? If you’ve created an infographic yourself, pop a link to it in the comments below!