Over the Christmas Break we have been given a research task to expand our understanding of a topic of our choice. I have chosen 'Information Graphics' as this is an area I would like to develop my understanding of and learn more about. I personally feel that Information Graphics is a key aspect of Graphic Design and the entire world communicates through icons and symbols and Information Graphics allows us to do this and understand what we are seeing more easily.
Here are 100 facts relating to information Graphics;
- Information Graphics is more commonly understood as 'Infographics'.
- Infographics are visual representations of data, statistics and other quantitative information.
- Information graphics presents complex information quickly and easily
- Infographics can be found in signs, maps, journalism, technical writing and education
- People like mathematicians, computer scientists and statisticians commonly use symbols to develop and communicate concepts in order to process information clearly
- Information Graphics illustrates information that would usually be in a text format
- Information Graphics bridges the gap between different cultures and language barriers allowing us to understand the same piece of design through symbols
- Infographics acts as a visual shorthand for everyday concepts such as 'STOP' and 'GO'
- In newspapers we all read and communicate with infographics in order to understand the weather (this is a common form of information graphics)
- David Macaulay's 'the way things work' is a book almost entirely made up of information graphics
- Information graphics is now more commonly used to help educate children as they often understand symbols and images before they are able to read complex words and sentences
- Despite being used heavily in children's books; they are commonly used in scientific literature demonstrating processes and systems that can not always be photographed
- In 1931 Harry Beck designed the London underground map communicating a complex transportation system simply for all to understand
- It was around the 1930's that information graphics really took off after Harry Beck's London underground design
- Traffic signs and other public signs rely heavily on infographics to communicate their information
- In pre history (the span of time before historic recordings) early humans created the first information graphics of cave paintings.
- After cave paintings they became more advanced and created maps to show surrounding environments
- Map making began several millennia before writing began
- The map at 'Catalhoyuk' (an ancient town) is one of the oldest on record and dates form around 7500 BCE
- As information graphics advanced they then began to use symbols as a way of recording the number of cattle and stock
- The Indians of Mesoamerica used imagery and symbols to depict the journeys of past generations
- In 1926, Christopher Scheiner published the Rosa Ursina Sive Sol which demonstrated a a variety of symbols and icons which expressed his astronomical research undertaken on the sun
- Christopher Scheiner, in the early 1900's, used a series of images to explain the rotation of the sun over time
- In 1786; William Playfair published the first official data graphs in his book 'The commercial and political atlas'
- William Playfair introduced bar charts, line graphics and histograms.
- In 1801 Playfair introduced the first pie chart in Statistical Breviary.
- In 1857 Florence Nightingale used an information graphical format to persuade Queen Victoria to improve conditions in military hospitals.
- 1861 saw the release of Seminal information graphics.
- Charles Joseph Minard had a break through demonstrating Napoleon's invasion on Russia in a single two dimensional image. It demonstrated four different changing variables all in one diagram.
- In 1878 James Joseph Sylvester introduced the first mathematical graphics.
- James Sylvester introduced the term 'graph' in the late 1870's.
- In 1936, Otto Neurath, introduced the pictogram for the first time.
- The pictogram was intended to function as an international visual language.
- In 1942 Isidore Isou published the letterist manifesto
- Letterism was a french avant-guarde movement established in Paris in the mid 1940's by Isidore Isou.
- Stephen Toulmin proposed a graphical argument model that became influential in argumentation theory; in 1958
- Toulmin's graphical argument model was based around there being a visual purpose behind arguments and not purely theoretical
- A new set of pictograms were released at the Munich olympics in 1972
- Otl Aicher's new pictogram design proved very popular and became the influence for the modern 'stick figures' used in public signs today
- in 1972 the pioneer plaque was launched into space with an infographic inscribed on the inside.This was intended as a kind of interstellar message in a bottle
- The pioneer plaque was unique in that it was intended to be understood by extraterrestrial beings on another planet. This was advances in history showing how we can used infographics to communicate not only with other languages and nationalities but also with other beings in outer space.
- Since Harry Beck's London underground design infographics has develops and become more popular, however modern infographics are more research centric.
- The three most common devices are horizontal bar charts, vertical column charts and oval/circular pie charts.
- Illustrated graphics use images to related data.
- Modern interactive maps are also known as information graphic devices.
- Work done by Peter Sullivan for the Sunday Times throughout the late 1900's became a key factor in encouraging newspapers to use information graphics to visually represent information
- USA today, the US newspaper, firmly established the understanding of information graphics to make information easier to comprehend in 1982.
- Nigel Holmes was the creator in "explanation graphics" His work does not only deal with visual displays and graphics etc. but looks at 'how to do things' and instructs the audience in a similar visual format
- The basic material of infographics is the data or facts that it includes
- The art form of information graphics has it's root in print from 2000 it had started to advance in a digital format
- Amazingly the first recognized visual communication supported with pictograms and symbols was found between 15,000–10,000 BC, in the Lascaux caves in southern France
- Information designers may cater to very broad audiences: for example, public signs in airports are for everybody
- 'Information design' is the skill and practice of preparing information so people can use it with efficiency and effectiveness
- The term 'information design' emerged as a multidisciplinary area of study in the 1970s
- Some graphic designers started to use the term 'information graphics', and it was consolidated with the publication of the Information Design Journal in 1979
- During the 1980s, the role of graphic information design broadened to include responsibility for message content and language
- The term information graphics tends to be used by those primarily concerned with diagramming and display of quantitative information
- Form follows Data
- Successful infographics display information clearly and quickly in an eye-catching manner
- In the past couple of years there has been a dramatic increase in the awareness and number of designers working in the field
- Statistical graphics, also known as graphical techniques, are information graphics in the field of statistics used to visualize quantitative data
- In recent years the creation of information graphics has sky rocketed and joined the ranks of social media.
- Information design is the skill and practice of preparing information so people can use it with efficiency and effectiveness.
- Where the data is complex or unstructured, a visual representation can express its meaning more clearly to the viewer.
- An infographic is, by definition, a visual display of facts and data. Therefore, no infographic can be produced in the absence of reliable information.
- No infographic should include elements that are not based on known facts and available evidence
- Colour themes are a common use with information graphics as it catches the eye of the audience
- No infographic should be published without crediting its source(s) of information
- Information graphics professionals should refuse to produce any visual presentation that includes imaginary components designed to make it more “appealing”
- Infographics are neither illustrations nor “art”. Infographics are visual journalism.
- Information graphics often uses hierarchies
- An infographic should mix text, data and images in order to create one single message
- Infographics should be a message that is considerably stronger than it would otherwise be if it had have been left to text, data or images alone
- A good infographic can therefore consist of anything from graphs, charts, maps and diagrams to pictures, symbols and designs
- It should be able to be identified with one glance and the viewer drawn to looking closer
- Signage is any kind of visual graphics created to display information to a particular audience
- The ancient Egyptians and Romans were known to use signs
- Traffic signs or Road signs are signs erected at the side of roads to provide information to road users.
- Many countries have adopted pictorial signs or otherwise simplified their signs to facilitate international travel where language differences would create barriers
- Pictorial signs use symbols in place of words and are usually based on international protocols
- Road signs were first developed in Europe
- The phase rapidly spread through the world and have now been adopted by most countries to varying degrees.
- The earliest road signs were milestone, used to give direction or distance
- Multidirectional signs became popular in the middle ages
- The modern road signs were first erected in the late 1870's and early 1880's
- In 1909, nine European governments agreed on the use of four pictorial symbols, indicating "bump", "curve", "intersection", and "grade-level railroad crossing"
- The UK adopted a version of the European road signs in 1964
- he intensive work on international road signs that took place between 1926 and 1949 eventually led to the development of the European road sign system
- One of the first modern-day road sign systems was devised by the Italian Touring Club in 1895
- Infographics take advantage of innate visual language that is largely universal
- The use of the rabbit and tortoise symbols to represent fast and slow have now become world widely recognised
- In order to understand information graphics successfully the viewer requires a certain level of 'graphicacy'
- The purpose of information graphics is to simplify data
- No infographic should be presented as being factual when it is fictional or based on unverified assumptions
- Information graphics is used to communicate and translate information effectively
