17 Tips for Infographic Design

You’re on the right track and you’re implementing infographics into your marketing campaign. Maybe it’s your first time or maybe you aren’t seeing the results you expected. Don’t worry, that’s where Visme comes in. 

Hello world! I’m Mike Ploger here with Visme – the ultimate infographic building tool that, trust me, could change your life. 

Several years ago, marketers began using infographics in their marketing campaigns and for good reason. 

For one, infographics allow viewers to quickly scan and absorb content. The information is clear and to the point rather than vague and confusing. Infographics have quickly become one of the most effective ways to market a product or a service. 

And as the competition continues to grow, it’s imperative that all marketers are using infographics properly. In this video, I’ll share with you a number of tips for infographic design and even explain how Visme’s services can help you accomplish them. 

Shall we?

1. Select an Infographic Title

Our first tip is to come up with the perfect title. You want your audience to understand what they’re getting into right away. 

Consider our example – „Pros and Cons of Solo or Couple Travel“. Immediately, I know the theme of this infographic with really no confusion. And, really, this is a good test. 

When you feel that you have come up with the perfect title, type it out, show it to some friends or co-workers and ask if it’s clear what the topic is about. It might seem tedious but, it’s easy and it assures you that you’re on the right track. 

Also, incorporate keywords into your image. Even though it is a picture, it’ll help contribute to search relevance and trust me, people are out there searching for your information. It’s just up to you to make it easy for them to find. 

2. Choose Complementing Fonts

Whatever font you choose for your infographic title, do not, I repeat, do not use that same font for your body of information. That font has in a way become one with your title. Readers will see that font and associate it with your headers and important lines of texts. 

So, you want to use a different font for the rest of your information. This is where font pairing comes in. You could just pick two or three random fonts or you could do proper research and find fonts that complement one another with the perfect amount of contrast. 

Check out Visme’s blog post on 15 fresh font combinations for a guide that’ll make font pairing easy.

3. Create Your Own Graphics

Create your own graphics? Why do that with so many premade graphics available online? 

Well, sure. But if that’s the route you want to take, Visme is your surefire way that won’t get you into any legal trouble. We have a vast array of premade icons and graphics already made at your disposal. 

But, if you want to be completely original, making your own graphics really isn’t as challenging as you think. You can take basic shapes like a circle, triangle or rectangle and turn it into something more complex. 

Circles can become pie charts or Venn diagrams. Combine rectangles with triangles and build envelopes or houses. Polygons are useful shapes that have endless possibilities. Give it a try for yourself!

4. Specify Your Infographic Design Medium

Assuming your audience is viewing your content on the same platform is a common mistake. Sure, the majority may be seeing it on their phone, but others may be viewing it on a laptop or a tablet. 

You should specify your platform or medium before building your infographic. This will help you determine the complexity and the size of your content. 

The same can be said if you’re putting your infographic on paper. Know your dimensions, whether a pamphlet or poster board, and plan accordingly.

5. Use a Premade Color Palette

Just as your fonts need to pair well together, so do your colors. Color psychology can be a difficult art to master so you should either check out our video on color psychology in marketing or use a premade color palette that could make your life so much easier. 

Through Visme you can instantly change your color scheme to one of a handful of premade color palettes. These pairings are proven to work through research and experience. 

And if you’re looking for even more inspiration, I recommend checking out Coolors or Color Hunt. These sites are free, simple and can generate more color combinations than you could ever ask for.

6. Be Mindful of the Infographic Flow

If you’re building an infographic that takes you on a journey, maybe through a time or process, it’s important to be mindful of the flow. 

What a viewer will notice first, second, third and so on should be very clear. Yes, it’s standard to read from left to right, top to bottom, but you can get creative. 

If you’re having a hard time organizing your infographic, try placing arrows, numbers or some sort of icon to signal direction. 

One of the infographic templates on Visme used airplanes in a visual about international travel tips. Others use timelines or flow charts. At the end of the day, you want it to be effortless for a reader to soak in your information. 

7. Avoid Flat Design

A flat design is one that appears to have no depth. No use of shadows, no tints, just words or images that appear plastered on a block of color. 

You want to stay away from using flat designs and it’s really quite simple to do. The best way to do so is by adding a drop shadow effect to your image. 

It’s just as it sounds, making it look like a light source is coming in from off the page. You can also duplicate your image to move it just out from under the original and adjust the image’s opacity. 

This will in turn fade it out, appearing deeper within the page. It’s proven that more depth equals more aesthetically pleasing. It’s one of the best design tactics you can use to keep a viewer engaged. 

8. Use Complementing Images

When you’re picking the images or the icons for your infographic, make sure they’re all of the same style. 

Take a look at this example right next to me. Each column of icons looks like they belong together even though they’re all a little bit different. 

It’s the same as the yellow people of the Simpsons. When anybody sees the yellow cartoon character, they automatically associate it with the Simpsons even if it’s a character that never existed in the television show. 

So, determine the style and stick with it. Don’t veer from the path that you set out on. 

9. Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is a composition technique that we see everywhere. From television interviews to advertisements to infographics. Using the rule of thirds makes for a much more aesthetically pleasing design. 

What is it, you might be asking yourself? Well, it’s a visual hierarchy rule that places the most important elements of an image slightly off center, just like we see here. 

Rather than a text and bike being on top of one another in the center, they’re offset, making the image much more balanced. 

To accomplish this, place a 3×3 grid over your image and place the most important aspects at the four intersecting points. Easy! Just remember to take out that grid before your final product. 

10. Size and Scale

Another visual hierarchy rule to consider is the size and scale of your infographic. Like I mentioned earlier, this falls in line with the medium that you are planning to use. 

Check out this Game of Thrones infographic. It’s loaded with information but the size of the title and percentages in text is all a little bit different, giving varying importance to each. And the more the broad your research, the more data you may have. 

This infographic on the global water footprint has tons of data in it. As you can imagine, there’s plenty of information with such a topic. So, the creators have to make sure to size the water drops, map, faucets and other icons accordingly. 

Just beware of using so much information with such little white space as it could overwhelm a viewer. 

11. Alignment

So we placed an invisible grid over our image to accomplish the rule of thirds and it’s good to do so again for perfect alignment. This time, it doesn’t have to be a 3×3 grid though. 

Really, the type of grid is up to you. You just want to use some form of grid to ensure boundaries are equal and elements are properly designed. 

This all falls in line with making sure your infographic is aesthetically pleasing. An infographic should look like a well maintained museum, not a messy bedroom. 

12. Sources and Contact Details

For any infographic to be credible, it needs to mention its sources. Viewers are going to wonder where all that data and information came from. 

So, make it easy to find by leaving space at the bottom of your infographic to list your sources. It shouldn’t be a long list like a research paper, but rather one link for each source. 

You could even provide an email in case there are any questions or concerns regarding your material. 

13. Mix It Up

Earlier I mentioned using the same style of icon or graph throughout your infographic. I stand by this but it is also important to mix it up. 

What I mean is, don’t use the exact same icons or graph for every piece of data. Add a simple variation. Whether it be color or maybe another element. 

This iceberg infographic is uniform throughout using the same style but different data visualizations. There are multiple types of bar charts or circle charts from top to bottom. 

If you’re struggling to come up with other charts or graphs, simply change the color or the size. You want to keep your readers guessing.

14. Use Color Strategically

You did your research and you choose your colors purposely. Now, it’s time to go a little bit further and choose your colors strategically.

The best way to do this is to emphasize an element in your infographic. Take a look at our examples. 

While we don’t know the stat, the infographic portrays one of 21 people. In the top one, it takes a minute to recognize the difference showing the stat. But in the bottom, you immediately notice the lone person signifying the rarity.

Take a minute to establish a highlight color when beginning your infographic and mark your most important pieces of information with that color. 

15. Sometimes, Less is More

The purpose of an infographic is to communicate information simply. A design loaded with information doesn’t do that. 

Decide what information you feel your audience most need to see and incorporate that into your designs. 

If you feel like your design is becoming too crowded or confusing, it’d be wise to split up your infographic into two or three separate infographics. This is another way to put your product on to different mediums like I mentioned before. 

16. Use Sticky Notes and a Whiteboard

If you’re laying out a process with an „if this, then that“ type of infographic like we have next to me, take the time to first build it with sticky notes and a whiteboard or a table. 

This is a great way to map out the infographic from start to finish, visualizing it before adding it into a design. While it’s an added step, it’ll speed up the design process because you won’t have silly errors or missteps to go back and correct.

17. Stay Inspired

And lastly, our final tip isn’t technically related to design but it’s just as important. As you build your infographics, especially if it’s your first, you could begin to lose interest and inspiration. 

What’s the point, you might ask yourself. But given how popular infographics have become in marketing presentations and research, there’s no denying their effect on viewers. 

If you’re frustrated, take a break! Come back with a fresh mind. If you’re low on ideas, look online for inspiration. And look no further than Visme. 

Through our services you can create an infographic from scratch or from a template, some of which we have actually seen in this video. 

And rather than searching for or creating your own icons, Visme has all the gadgets you could ever need. 

I encourage you to see for yourself at Visme.co. But before you go, subscribe to our channel. Infographics are just one of the digital creations that we specialize in and we’re always creating more content to help others design with ease. 

I hope you’ll come back for more! Thank you so much for watching. For now, I’m Mike Ploger with Visme, helping you Make Information Beautiful.