Kelly Slater: Greatest Athlete of All Time?

Kelly Slater: Greatest Athlete of All Time? is a design collaboration between InfoNewt (my company) and the design team at Quiksilver.

It is common knowledge among our tribe that June 20th is recognized as International Surfing Day so who better to celebrate then Kelly Slater, 11X ASP World Champion. In the spirit of ISD, we’ve created an Infographic comparing Slater to athletes from traditional sports who have made history and measured their achievements to our Champ’s. Have a look and decide for yourself if Slater truly is “The Greatest Athlete of All Time”.

Do you think Kelly Slater is “The Greatest Athlete of All Time”? If yes, share this with your friends and get ready for summer with a pair of Kelly’s Cypher Nomad Boardshorts.

Of course it’s difficult to compare athletes from different sports, but Kelly Slater’s surfing achievements are truly impressive.  Despite being both the youngest and the oldest to win the ASP World Champion title, holding three Guinness World Records, winning 11 Would Tour Championships and winning events in 11 different countries, Kelly Slater has never been on the cover of Sports Illustrated.  :(

Here are some of the design aspects that this infographic gets right:

• The key message is communicated within the first couple of seconds.  Even if a reader doesn’t read the whole infographic, they will leave understanding the key message.
• Visually appealling with vivid, colorful images, but still easy to read top-to-bottom.
• Intergrated the visual brand style of Quiksilver using photos, with the data visualizations about his career.
• Good mix of different data visualization styles that are unique to the data they communicate
• The key parts at the bottom are all there.  Data sources, brand logo, copyright statement and the URL to the original, full-size infographic.

The data for this design was the key challenge, and finding similar titles or awards in the other sports inspires discussion and debate among readers of the infographic.  Whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter or blog comments, this design draws in readers and invites everyone to share their own opinion.

Check out the full-size infographic HERE, and you can voice your own opinion about Kelly Slater in the comments below.

Thanks to the team at Quiksilver for being fantastic to work with!

Comments

[Randy]

nice graphic, but wheres Michael Jordan? Loses some credibility.

[klex]

Yes. And also, have you heard about Aleksandr Karelin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Karelin

[Foobar]

Yet nobody has ever heard of him.

And it’s “Steffi Graf”.

[Edison Jr.]

Cool graphic, but wheres Sébastien Loeb?
I like it.

hug.

[Andrew]

Have ever heard on Don Bradman?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Bradman

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/27/sports/sir-donald-bradman-92-cricket-legend-dies.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

[TV]

I like it.

[Mat]

What about JEANNIE LONGO, 13 times world champion, 59 times national champion career from 1979 until now. Ok it's bike we are speaking about, and she might have use some dope, but still, this is is impressive. Kelly slater is a BIG champion, I don't like this kind of communication. Trying to foul people by having a journalisme style, but it's actually advertising.

[Rob]

Woods: career earnings: $110M: 112titles
federer: career earnings : $75m: 74 titles
Slater: career earnings: $3m: titles 55
He is great but not greatest: Quicklsilver marketing

[Jacob]

Some incorrect data: Anderson Silva was never UFC Lightweight Champion. In the UFC, he's always fought at middleweight. And for MMA, the most accurate comparison would be title defenses, not years as champion.

[Amazon.com]

I’m not much of reader, I skipped like about 5 blogs, but yours was interesting , didn’t make me feel sleepy at all. Good Work.

[daftar harga]

i like it. he is my favorite atelete

[Harga Motor Terbaru]

Kelly slater was amazing. I hope to be a great athlete seems like one day.

[quotes]

You’ve shared some really beautiful information with us here and I have really enjoyed this while reading. I want more such articles from you

[monica]

Sweet blog! I found it while surfing around on Yahoo News. Do you have any suggestions on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there! Appreciate it