This post is part of
an inspiration series
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Despite recent claims there may be no such thing as a visual or verbal learner after all, I think we can all agree that some information is best presented in picture form. For example, street signs, maps. Open the newspaper: what does that sun with shades on mean? Yes, lovely weather. These commonplace images, simple as they may be, are examples of information architecture (or, infographics).

Lately, it seems that some infographics are passed around the internet with as much enthusiasm as the latest You Tube meme. Designers are using information architecture to transform complex information into pieces that are at once visually striking and easy to understand. On a mainstream and widely read blog, it’s totally normal these days to come upon an infographic about Stem Cells or Supreme Court Nomination Hearings.

Here’s how Behance creatives are reinterpreting information to be digestible and beautiful all at once.

These designers used the ideas and hypotheses of over 700 influencers from around the world to create this astounding “Map of the Future.” It was published in Italy’s Wired Magazine. The sprawling landscape is organized into categories like Politics, Infrastructure, Environment, Economics, and Society. Here’s what is predicted for Society: digital body swapping, personal data auras, cross-species politics, brain imaging-reading thoughts, and medical ATMS. By mixing the text with intriguing images (a human with a wolf head), the reader is drawn in AND makes connections between the data and its visual image.

Ok, so maybe I don’t work for a company that sends out “company briefs” or lengthy data reports, but I can imagine that at places that do, they can be fairly dense and require much attention to digest. Aside from an occasional pie chart or line graph, I expect that the majority are mostly text and numbers. FOX International steps it up with these channel infographics, transforming their ratings data into something understandable. Through layout, selective images, font changes, and various graphic techniques, they now have a comprehensive illustration that clearly lays out how Fox did that month.

This one seems to be both an inside joke amongst typography designers, and a graphic that is actually useful for those of us who don’t actually know the difference between Palatine, Lexicon, and Fadra (if we’ve heard of them at all). That’s why “SO YOU NEED A TYPEFACE” exists. First asking you to choose what you need the font for (Newspaper, Logo, Invitation, etc), you’ll travel through a path of clever yet practical questions until you reach the font that most fits your needs.

One model of infographic is to clarify complex information visually for an audience. Another way to interpret the form is to use a more inward-facing model, and study data about yourself. This young designer collected data about his own life over the course of a week, and plotted it in this piece, “The Randomness of Daily Life.” He measured things like seconds running a faucet, minutes in the shower, times he made eye contact with a stranger, songs listened to, money spent, and times he opened a refrigerator. The outcome is an orderly and colorful statistical poster.

To see more inspiring images for this article, check out the “Information Architecture” album that our curators put together on Veer.com. If you like what you see, sign up for a Veer account for a choice selection of affordable stock photography. Bonus – new registrants get 10 free credits.