Infographics: Designing & Visualizing Data - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 8415967241 ISBN 13: 9788415967248

Publisher: Promopress, 2014

Synopsis

In a world shaped by waves of information, it is of vital importance to develop effective strategic methods of making key data stand out to its target audience. Infographics, which are now used regularly by organizations worldwide, have become a key method for achieving this aim. This book is a comprehensive reference guide for this vital technique.

About this title

About the Author

Wang Shaoqiang is a professor at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, where he is dean of the design, visualization and animation department. He is the founder of Sandu Publishing, whose titles focus on international design, architecture, branding, communication, trends and culture, and the editor of Design 360° magazine and Asia-Pacific Design. He has been invited to lecture at numerous universities, design academies and organizations, and he has also been a jury member for China’s most prestigious design and illustration awards.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"We are deep in the digital age. But far from being at its zenith, the age of technology has just started. The connectedness and multiple input/output possibilities of digital devices that provide the option of near-constant information updates have created new standards for exploring the world in novel, dynamic ways. Many companies have also realized the potential behind beautiful infographics, giving designers opportunities to contextualize information in the most creative ways.

What is data visualization? And how is it different from information graphics? To put it simply, data visualization involves the creation and study of the visual representation of data. In the words of Edward Tufte: The world is complex, dynamic, multidimensional; the paper is static, flat. How are we to represent the rich visual world of experience and measurement on mere flatland?” This is not something new: geometric diagrams and navigational maps dating from the sixteenth century are considered the predecessors of what we call infographics today. As time passed, human-population and economic statistics began to be collated for governing purposes, and the subject of data visualization began to be recognized as a field in its own right.

The face of infographics has changed in the last few years, with a bit of help from the Internet. The World Wide Web has seen a wave of websites dedicated to data visualization, the most famous of which is Visual.ly. In the face of increasing Web saturation, however, some have come to tire of and question the fate of infographics. So what comes next? Where do we move on from here? Do we really need to quantify everything through visuals? A new challenge has been laid out: to display complex concepts and create fresh and interesting content of incredible quality and utility. Going beyond a vague notion of aesthetics, the information presented needs to be understood not only by the aesthetically inclined, but by the average person as well.

In this book we showcase the innovative techniques used in the latest and freshest infographics, drawn from a wide range of fields of interest. Our intention is simple: to introduce advanced data-related works that push the boundaries of visual imagery. The designers of these infographics show us the world from different perspectives, and as you will see, data visualization has no fixed approach or form of expression. Huge possibilities are left in this field, and it is my hope that the projects presented in this book will inspire many excellent works of data visualization in the future."

Preface by Foreign Policy Design Group

Edition details

• Publisher: Promopress
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 8415967241
• ISBN 13: 9788415967248
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 240
• Editor: Shaoqiang Wang