*** From the Archives ***

This article is from April 27, 2013, and is no longer current.

An Infographic Feast

These days the popularity of infographics is undeniable. You can’t shake a stick without hitting one. But to save you a little stick shaking, here’s a set of nifty infographics for your enjoyment and inspiration plus some tools for creating your own.

For fans of logos and graphic design history, The Logo Company has posted a fine trio of infographics recently.

How Corporate Logos Evolve, shows the brand development of a dozen of the world’s largest companies

In Battle of the Brands, logos of competing companies square off.

And A Logo Design is Born traces the lineage of logos all the way back to cave paintings.

Rose & Grey offers the ultimate guide to superheroes, arranged according to their special abilities on a 26 cm x 61cm poster for £22.00.

TeachHUB.com has an infographic that appeals to the kid in all of us, and it happens to be made in part by kids too. The chart displays the results of a survey of over 1000 elementary school kids on topics like their hardest subjects in school, favorite fictional characters, and what technology they use.

Some infographics turn up in places you wouldn’t expect, like the website of EQA, an office furniture company. Alongside the reception desks and cubicles for sale, you can partake of an infographic guide on how to pull the old “frozen screen” prank on an unsuspecting co-worker.

For the Apple-obsessed, Pop Chart Lab is selling a poster on the Insanely Great History of Apple, including every computer, handheld, peripheral device, software, and operating system released by Apple in the last thirty years.

And finally, check out treknews.net for the outcome of the ultimate nerd battle, Star Wars vs. Star Trek. I don’t know if the infographic will settle any arguments, but it may give you some fun talking points to use the next time you’re confronted by someone with Spock ears or a toy lightsaber.

And if all the infographic goodness has made you want to create your own, here are some tools and services that can help.

Piktochart.com offers design themes, libraries of graphics, plus the ability to upload your own images and get HTML embed codes. The Basic toolset is free but limited and puts Piktochart’s logo on your infographics. A full-featured Pro version can be had with a monthly or annual subscription.

Infogr.am is a free service that allows you to create interactive infographics by choosing a template, adding or uploading your data, and then enriching the look with charts, maps, text, photos, and videos.

Visually Create offers tools for creating visual resumes and infographics from social media data and Google analytics, as well as a marketplace where you can hire someone else to make infographics for you.

Visualize.me is another option for creating a visual resume that works by taking data from LinkedIn and other social media profiles and allowing you to customize the display.

Editor in Chief of CreativePro. Instructor at LinkedIn Learning with courses on InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, GIMP, Inkscape, and Affinity Publisher.
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