Infographics are becoming more and more popular, and many businesses are pumping them out as their main form of content. But what do you do if you're not a designer, and you don't have the funds to hire one? You still need to produce infographics in order to have some great visual content under your belt, right? Professional design tools are not only tricky to use if you don't have experience with them, but they can be a very pricey investment. Well, you don't actually need to be an experience graphic designer to make eye-catching infographic. These 7 Infographic Design Tips are easy to master and will make you look like you graduated from the top graphic design school in the country!
1) Make sure you use colours that compliment each other
Sometimes you might think that certain colours look good together, or you might want to toss in a lot of different ones to add a sense of liveliness to your infographic. But we all know what happens when you mix too many colours together- you get an unappealing brownish colour that is in no way attractive to anyone. There are a lot of great tools that exist that can help you pick out colours that compliment each other, and design your own palettes. Paletton or Coolors are really easy to use and offer some excellent modern combinations.
2) Less is more when it comes to fonts
There are quite a few important things to keep in mind when it comes to using fonts. First of all, you need to ensure that you know the difference between Serif fonts and Sans-serif fonts. A serif font is something like Times New Roman and a sans-serif font is something like Arial.
Some combinations look very good together, but if you use too many different fonts, your infographic can quickly become an eyesore. Try to limit the combination to 2 different types of font all together. Typography.com has some great techniques on picking out fonts and pairing them. You should also note that serif fonts are considered more believable than sans-serif fonts, so if you are trying to convince your reader of something, they will likely take the text more seriously if you avoid sans-serif fonts.
3) Keep your layout simple
Try not to overcrowd your infographic canvas with too many icons and too much text. Keep the information that you are presenting simple and concise. The general rule is to use a header to describe the main idea, and then use one sentence to describe the concept in more detail. Use a chart, pictogram or icons to further establish your ideas. This Infographic layout cheat sheet is a great reference tool for figuring out placement of your text and icons.
4) Make sure your infographic tells a story
A lot of the time, people will just throw in a bunch of facts and images together and say it's an infographic, but in reality, an infographic needs to tell a story and needs to have a distinct personality. In general, the infographics that rate highest are those that are humorous in nature, or cute in nature. In terms of topic, infographics that are food or travel related score highest. Essentially, you shouldn't be afraid of giving your infographic a voice. This is a great example of an infographic that's not only funny and food related, but that also has a strong personality.
5) Use shapes to add texture to your infographic
Much of the time, people forget to add texture to their infographics. Texture simply implies using a combination of different shapes to structure your infographic visually. Notice in this example (just scroll down to see the infographic) how the combination of simple rectangles and circles are used to create new shapes and to organize the overall infographic aesthetically.
6) Use an online Infographic Maker tool
There are plenty of great online tools available to create infographics. A lot of them are very user friendly and consist of drag and drop widgets that enable you to resize and colour shapes with ease. Most of these tools have freemium as well as premium versions. Venngage and Easel.ly are two really great tools that give you a lot of freedom with your infographic creations.
7) Have a great title
Finally, make sure you have a catchy infographic title that will get people's attention. In general, people prefer infographics that are list or process infographics. These include infographics that begin with "How to do _________ in 7 easy steps" or "10 Companies Doing an awesome job at ___________". But there are plenty of title generator tools that exist to help you out if you ever experience any writer's block. Portent's title generator is very user friendly and fun to use and Klock.work gives you examples on infographic layouts that could compliment the title that gets generated.
Overall, creating infographics doesn't need to be a skill that only graphic designers have. If you pay attention to the 7 tips listed above, you can quickly make yourself appear like a professional designer in no time.