CREATING VISUAL NEWS:
INFOGRAPHICS
A look at design trends suggests that most readers want specialized
messages with lots of reader-friendly graphics. These readers are looking
for shortcuts that give them the information they want without their
having to read through long passages of text. They want lists, summa-
ries, diagrams, bulleted information and quotations that provide the
heart of the story. Thanks to desktop publishing and the example of USA
To d a y, an exciting new method to help tell a story has emerged—the
infographic.
The infographic (short for information graphic) is a hybrid of typogra-
phy, design and sheer imagination. Loosely defined, an infographic, as
California yearbook adviser Jim Jordan puts it, “is any graphic presenta-
tion of statistical data.” In other words, an infographic turns numbers
into pictures.
An infographic can be used to supplement a written story or to tell
a story all by itself. It can be as simple as a line drawing of a pizza slice
(to illustrate favorite pizza toppings) or as complicated as a full-page
diagram of the human eye (to show how laser surgery works). What all
infographics have in common is their ability to communicate a message
at a single glance.
Brainstorm, Research and Focus
Freelance illustrator Dale Glasgow had never really thought about
hurricanes until one hit his office. As a graphic artist, Glasgow was an
TYPOGRAPHY, HEADLINES AND INFOGRAPHICS^367
Your Beat
- Try writing a headline for each of the following sto-
ries. Use a banner style with five to seven words.
a. At the age of four, a girl named Christian
Banerjee in Midland, Texas, could speak two
languages fluently. She is now a university stu-
dent at the age of 11. Banerjee is a genius with
an I.Q. of 165. She walks across campus with
a laptop covered with stickers of kittens. At her
current rate of academic progress, she hopes
to complete a medical degree by age 17.
b. A man in Nashville was not seriously injured this
morning when he was struck from above by a
dog. The dog apparently jumped out of a fourth-
story window and landed on the man’s head.
Neither the dog nor the man was believed to be
seriously injured. The dog’s owner said the dog
was an Airedale terrier.- Imagine what Mother Goose rhymes might look like
if they were written in the style of a newspaper head-
line. For example, “Pumpkin shell solves marriage
question” might cover the marital difficulties of Peter
Pumpkin Eater. Can you identify the popular rhyme
represented by each of the following headlines?
a. Boy kisses girl, flees
b. Blind rodents attack farmer’s wife
c. Men and horses fail to revive crash victim
d. Lamb follows mistress everywhere
e. Man’s request for taste of pastry denied