Driving Less with an infographic
As the final assignment in my Strategic Public Relations Communication class, we were asked to create an infographic for a client of our choosing. As I racked my brain for an issue that I could express in infographic form, I found inspiration from the Drive Less. Save More. campaign I worked on while interning with Pac/West Communications. The campaign focused on reducing driving in Oregon.
For this infographic I chose the Oregon Department of Transportation as my client and primarily focused on data for Portland, Oregon. Portland is a city that takes pride in reducing the environmental impact of its residents to preserve the natural beauty of the Northwest. With that said, there's always work that can be done to decrease the amount of pollution we are putting into the atmosphere from transportation.
The purpose of the infographic is to raise awareness of the impact driving has on the environment, show the benefits of alternative forms of transportation and hopefully convince people to drive less.
So why an infographic?
Infographics can be an extremely effective way to present information to people in an visually stimulating way. They are entertaining and make sometimes-complex data easily digestible for the average person.
So here are some of my tips for making a successful infographic:
- Find data content that is interesting and supports your objective.
- Find a way to present that information in a stimulating way.
- Use a consistent color scheme when designing the infographic
- Pick two fonts to use throughout - one sans serif, one serif.
- Wire-frame your infographic before hand.
- Position images and text in a way that emphasizes most important data.
A couple of these tips I will briefly delve into. To present your data in a stimulating way, you may take an ordinary statistic and compare it to something relatable to the average person. For example, there are 319 miles of bike paths in Portland. This statistic alone lacks imagination. You can put that number into perspective by showing that distance is enough to span the entire length of Oregon.
Specific data points can be emphasized on an infographic by noticeably positioning them, using high contrast colors and larger font size.
There you have it... Adam's advice on making an infographic.