Infographics Are For Storytelling; Picture Them Well

TalentZoo.com | Flack Me | Digital Pivot | Beneath the Brand

Archives | Categories

By: Doug Bedell

From Edelman Digital comes a lengthy interview with Alberto Cairo, a pioneer of the creative use of infographics. He discusses how to use infographics well in PR and marketing contexts. "I have mixed feelings about this phenomenon," Cairo says. "On one hand, I do appreciate the efforts that so many people in PR and marketing are making to convey information by visual means. I believe that there's a huge opportunity in there. On the other, I think that many of these efforts are wasted due to a lack of understanding of what infographics are really about.

"A good infographic is never just a bunch of decontextualized numbers surrounded by some cute illustrations or pictograms, which is what many of those so-called "infographics" are. An infographic is a visual display of evidence, an argument, a means to tell a story, to clarify a complex issue and — more importantly — to make trends and patterns in your data noticeable."

A most intelligent presentation by a truly practical artist, indeed.

blog comments powered by Disqus

About the Author

Doug Bedell has a background in journalism and PR and is the owner of Resource Relations LLC in Central PA, focusing on organizational and crisis communication. He’s the community manager of SimplyFair.net, a social network on fairness. On the Web, Doug’s at www.ResourceRelations.com. On Twitter, he’s @DougBeetle.

Beyond Madison Avenue on