Based on global data this brief asked me to design an infographic.
I had a lot of ideas for this particular project, since it was based on global data this gave me such a wide range of possibilities. I began my process with looking at the options that interested me the most; I have always been very interested in global warming and the environment so this topic excited me and that is the road I decided to go down for this infographic.
The environment and global warming is such a wide area so I decided to focus my project on the topic of trees!
I completed a wide range of research before I began to build my infographic. This included researching organisations as well as creating Pinterest boards and mindmaps. I wanted to get a good understanding about the topic of trees and their importance, and I needed to decide what it is that I wanted to include in my project. I used Miro to plan my content and I used a range of organisations including earthday.org and onetreeplanted.org (and many more similar sources) to get reliable facts and statistics. Read about my research on my blog!
The next stage was paper wireframes, I decided to go for a portrait layout as I felt like this would be easier to read and the information would flow better. Within this stage I also desciphered what sections to include and what facts I should consider within each section. I wanted the story of my tree infographic to flow seamlessly so this was a very improatn stage in my process.
Before taking to the screen I wanted to sketch out all of the elements that I would be including within each of the sections of the infographic. I wanted my infographic to be full of nature based illustrations that were simple and didn't take away from the most important aspect- the DATA!
I wanted to sketch and experiment with some colour at the next stage of my process. I knew I wanted a colour palette that included natural tones and it was important to me that I explored how this would look on paper first.
I used Figma to create some digital wireframes to help clarify the layout and where I wanted every aspect of this infogrpahic to go. This was a very important part as I needed to ensure that my infographic and the information created a story but was also clear and readable.
Using Adobe Illustratrator I began to build each of the elements for my infographic based on earlier sketches. I decided to go for forms that were simple, and I wanted to create elements that I could place the facts and or statistics inside making the information stand out but also ensuring that they are easily readable.
This was my first data infographic project and this posed a lot of challenges for me. some including the selection of reliable facts and statistics that weren't too information heavy but still had enough shocking figures. Another challenge was the layout, I needed to make sure that it was easy to read and the main information wasn't crowded with illustrations.
I have learned a lot from this project and I am happy with my final outcome. I feel as though this has improved my research skills as well as my designing capabilities.
Pdf link- the tree infographic