Best infographics: Explain a process
39. Photography Cheat Sheet: Manual Mode Camera Settings
How many of us own expensive cameras, but don’t understand half of the buttons and functions they offer? If you're shooting using the automatic modes then you're probably going to end up with an uninspiring shot. So check out this infographic from Skylum, which explains the three most important things you need to know about manual camera settings: ISO, aperture and shutter speed.
40. Terms Designers Get Wrong
Jargon is a fact of life whatever profession you belong to, but the best infographics can help make the confusing clear. Which is why Creative Market produced this handy guide to the word and phrases that most commonly get mixed up. So whether you get unsure about opacity and transparency, vector and raster, or leading, tracking and kerning, this infographic has you covered.
41. Apollo Missions
Winner of an 'Information is Beautiful award', which are given to the best infographics, in 2017, Paul Button's stunning visualisation of the Apollo missions charts every manned rocket flight by year, distance and path travelled, as well as which astronauts were on board. It thus explains incredibly complex processes such as calculating different orbits, flight paths and landing zones in a simple, visual way.
42. Distance to Mars
Ever wondered how far it is to Mars? Yes, we know that Wikipedia can tell you the exact distance, but once numbers become well, astronomical, it can be difficult to really wrap your head around them. To help you out, David Paliwoda and Jesse Williams' motion infographic, Distance to Mars displays these massive distances in a way that everyone can understand.
43. How Google Works
This detailed visual walkthrough from PPCBlog explores what happens at Google after you add a new piece of content (like this post) to the web. It's all explained using a beautifully old-school flow diagram, complete with biro arrows and a gridded background.
44. How Would You Like Your Graphic Design?
This venn diagram from Colin Harman hits the nail on the head when it comes to the value (and price) of good design. This simple infographic lays out all the things a client wants, invites the viewer to pick two, and tells them what the outcome will be. How badly do you want to show this to your clients?
Best infographics: Report key findings
45. Searching questions
Delayed Gratification magazine is full of interesting and beautifully laid out infographics. The one above shows what the world was searching online for during the height of the coronavirus pandemic from February to July 2020.
46. Gender Pay Gap by EU Country
The best infographics can bring dry statistics to life, and bring out the main theme in one knockout visual punch. This great infographic from the European Parliament, focusing on the inequality between men and women in the labour market, uses simple but effective illustrative device to achieve just that. (That said, as the accompanying text makes clear, a narrower pay gap does not necessarily mean more equality; but that’s a whole other article...)
47. Feltron Annual Report
Nicholas Feltron is best known for being a member of the product design team at Facebook, but for 10 years he worked on a personal project called the Feltron annual report. Every year, he released the daddy of all infographics, documenting everything he'd done in the previous 12 months.
48. Chinese Social Media Landscape
This was illustrator Jessica Draws' first ever animated infographic. It was commissioned by China Blueprint Online to communicate the benefits of using Chinese social media in Australia, and it's both informative and super-fun.
49. How Green is your iPad?
This startling infographic, created by the team at Sortable, depicts just how bad your favourite gadget is for the environment. As depressing as the statistics shown are, at least there's light at the end of the recycling tunnel.
50. The Happy Show
A thought-provoking and interactive infographic exhibition by Stefan Sagmeister, The Happy Show offered visitors the experience of walking into the designer's mind as he attempts to increase his happiness via meditation, cognitive therapy, and mood-altering pharmaceuticals.
Best infographics: Present a timeline
51. The Life and Times of Steve Jobs
There are plenty of Apple infographics dotted around the internet but this one from Mashable explaining the life and times of Steve Jobs caught our eye. Two threads, dedicated to his life and work respectively, interweave, so you can see how one impacts the other.
Best infographics: Simplify complex data
52. All the World’s Metals and Minerals
It’s not traditionally something you would think about: what are the buildings we live in, the roads we drive on, and the products we consume actually made of? But in these times of enhanced environmental awareness, these are increasingly important questions, and they’re answered brilliantly in this eye-opening infographic from Visual Capitalist. Note, though, that you really need to scroll to the bottom to get the full impact.
53. Santiago Poster
Santiago de Compostela is a city in Spain that's best known for being the culmination of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route. This infographic details the routes and identities of those who've journeyed to the alleged burial site of Biblical apostle St. James. It's available to buy as a poster.
54. Imaginary Factory
Illustrator, designer and typographer Jing Zhang has produced some of the best infographics that show how things work. In this recent series, she breaks down the component elements of cameras, iPhones, clocks and TVs as well as coffees, cakes and teapots.
55. Wind Map
One of the best infographics we've seen to harness animation, this wind map shows the delicate tracery of wind flowing over the US. Developed by artists Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg, it creates a series of beautiful patterns depending on which direction the wind is flowing. You can even zoom in to see more details in a specific area.
56. Dribbble: A HTML5 Interactive Infographic
This 3D pie chart showing how people use Dribbble is lovely and creative. It's the work of Bristol-based designer Jamie Brightmore, who created his own icon illustrations and brought them to life with CSS3 and HTML5.
57. Kobe Bryant
Even if you're not interested in NBA basketball, you'll have heard of Kobe Bryant, who passed away in January 2020. In 2012 he became the youngest player in NBA history to score over 30,000 career points, and the LA Lakers released this infographic, designed by J Alexander Diaz, which gives you an insight to Kobe Bryant's scoring numbers over the course of 17 seasons.
Best infographics: How-to guides
58. How to use Colour and Typography in Marketing
There’s a lot of talk about the cultural meaning of different colours and how this can be harnessed in marketing, but how much of it is actually true? This animated infographic by MDG Advertising sorts reality from myth, and provides a series of bite-size facts on the subjects of colour and typography in marketing.
59. How to Learn to Draw
Anna Vital is the information designer behind Adioma, one of the best infographics tools around. And her infographic explaining how to learn to draw is a great example of the tool in action.
60. How to Become a Creative Genius in 5 Days
Sometimes you need to set yourself new creative challenges. So Zippi has produced this great infographic that shows you how to start making your masterpiece in less than a week. It's full of tips on how to get inspiration, tackle creative blocks and promote yourself.
61. How to Design the Perfect Logo
Want to design the perfect logo? Then this logo design infographic from Company Folders has some good advice for you. This infographic features a great checklist you can use to see if your designs are on the right track.
62. Accessibility Challenges in Email
Making designs are accessible to people with disabilities is a win for everyone, and this infographic from Litmus explains some of the things you need to do to ensure this. Subject range from colour blindness to neurological disorders, and there are some eye-opening stats to show the proportion of the population you'll be excluding if you don't pay heed to these rules.
63. How to Be a Superhero
Want to be a superhero? This adorable infographic from illustrator Zia Somjee shows you how you can acquire a back story, a secret identity and even an arch-nemesis. Whether you're concerned about which colour spandex you should opt for or how you'll go about finding your superpower, look no further.
Related articles:
- Adobe Illustrator tutorials: Lessons to boost your skills
- Collage maker tools: Create stunning collages
- Infographic makers: The best from around the web
