Evolution of the Batman Logo

The Evolution of Batman poster designed by Cathryn Lavery from Calm the Ham is a visual history of the Batman symbol over the years.  I can’t think of any consumer logo that has changed this much, but the Batman logo remains a very powerful and recognizable brand.

A comprehensive and extensive chart of the Batman logo evolution, spanning over 72 years from 1940 - 2012 to map the transformation of a timeless hero.  Thanks to DC Comics for creating this cultural icon that we can all obsess over, all logos belong to them.

The infographic timeline covers 72 years (1940-2012) and shows different version of Mr. Wayne’s logo so the reader can easily distinguish the different iterations.  Additional information like the year and media publication format are listed in text.  I would have liked to see them spaced out along an actual timeline, but this design format fits better on a standard poster.  Three different size posters are available from the Calm the Ham site.

I found this design on the FastCoDesign site, but a few other designers have also tackled this specific history.  Cathryn Lavery mentions this 2008 video from Rodrigo Alejandro Rojas Sandoval as being the first one she knows of that had attempted this:

I saw this design on Nathan Yau’s FlowingData site in 2010, but he wasn’t able to cite the original source.  This one shows fewer versions, and doesn’t include any additional information.

Infographic Holiday Cards 2012

This is a limited time offer!  

Funnel Incorporated is offering a FREE 4-pack of infographic holiday cards to everyone that submits a request (while supplies last) through a giveaway on Facebook.  You must request your free pack of cards through the Facebook page by Noon CT on Saturday December 22 (Tomorrow!).

U.S. and Canada only, but anyone can download the infographic holiday themed wallpaper designs from the Funnel website at http://www.funnelinc.com/holiday

Fire Code Regulations for Live Christmas Trees in Schools

Fire Code Regulations for Live Christmas Trees in Schools is an informational infographic from the team at Balsam Hill, an online retailer for artificial Christmas trees.  This design is meant to help school officials and purchasing agents all over the country, and not really intended for the general public online.

Setting up a real Christmas tree in a school requires detailed knowledge of a state’s Christmas tree fire code. School fire code regulations for real Christmas trees vary by city and state, and can be overwhelming to puzzle out due to a confusing and sometimes conflicting set of rules. The Balsam Hill Christmas Tree Company has compiled each state’s school fire code regulations for live trees into an infographic for schools and school districts to reference. Look through the infographic to help you decide whether or not an artificial Christmas tree may be a more practical alternative for your school this holiday season.

From a marketing perspective, this design succeeds tremendously.  The overall message is clear: “Regulations around live Christmas trees in schools are complicated.  An artificial tree would be much easier.”  Balsam Hill put together a ton of research (look at the number of sources!), and even though they were able to gather the state level regulations, many cities, counties and individual school districts have their own regulations that may be contradictory.  A number of major cities with different regulations than their state are highlighted, but that list is incomplete.  It only shows a few cities that have different regulations to let the reader know that state level fire codes aren’t the only regulations that schools have to follow.

The design does a good job of clarifying very complicated information, but that can only go so far.  The regulations are actually very complex, so this is still a very long design to thoroughly visualize the data.  Great job using visual design to help readers understand a very complex issue!

You can see additional designs that also cover the regulations for Hotels and Churches.

Facebook’s Network of Worldwide Affiliates

From BusinessProfiles.com, this Facebook infographic takes a look at the complex virtual network of affiliates behind Facebook.

Earlier this week, Facebook’s proposed revisions to its legal agreements with users went into effect following a vote by the social network’s users. One of the changes means that Facebook can now share your data with its affiliates. But who exactly are Facebook’s affiliates? Most of the media coverage has focused on Instagram. But Business Profiles research can now reveal that Facebook has at least 67 Facebook affiliate companies worldwide. The results are summarized in today’s infographic.

I like this design, and it has some great information about what Facebook’s legal agreements really mean to members.  It’s a focused story that isn’t trying to tell the reader too much information.  The color scheme is so close to the official Facebook brand colors and design that it could easily be misunderstood as an official publication, which it isn’t.

The lack of clear title makes this infographic design hard to share.  Anyone that posts a link has to make up a related title, which will be very inconsistent.  The lack of clear title, also makes it more challenging for a reader to know why they should take the time to read the infographic.  The risk is being considered “just another infographic about Facebook” and ignored by readers.

The map data is clear and easy to read.  The affiliate connects are the most interesting part of this design.  When the privacy policy says they can share you personal information with Facebook Affiliates, this is who they actually mean.

We sourced this information from our own extensive corporate registration directory as well as from other public and subscription sources. Please note that not every jurisdiction makes comprehensive business registration readily available. As a result, there are likely even more Facebook affiliates than those listed above. However, we hope that this gives some sense of the extensive and rapidly expanding physical footprint of the social network.

Information sources were obviously a challenge, and the statement above is included under the design on the infographic landing page.  However, there is no Sources statement in the footer of the design itself, so when the infographic is shared on other sites there is no mention of where the data came from.  Infographic designs really need to have the data sources listing in the image file so they go with the infographic when shared online.

Found on Infographic Journal

Eat Like A Caveman With The Paleo Diet

The Paleo Diet infographic from DrVita.com shows readers what it would take to eat like a caveman!

For those of you who keep asking yourself, “is there a diet that is right for me?” There are hundreds of diets to pick and choose from. One popular diet is Paleo. Below is Paleo in a nutshell.

The paleo diet, sometimes referred to the caveman diet is based on the diet of ancient humans. Getting nutrients from vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, meats, and fish, this diet helps you achieve a healthy and nutritious diet. This infographic helps you understand why the paelo diet is healthy, what foods to eat and avoid, and how it works. Give it a try and see if this diet is right for you.

The design is a good, short explanation of the Paleo Diet, and what it would take eat only natural foods like our ancestors.  Intuitively it makes sense, since processed foods and grains are a relatively recent discovery in the history of mankind.

Mostly just a visual explanation, there are a couple statistics included that would have have been better if they had been represented as data visualizations.  The footer should include both a copyright statement and the URL directly to the original, full-size infographic so readers can find the high-resolution version.

Thanks to Mat for sending in the linK!

The New Christmas Tradition...Artificial Christmas Trees!

Wow!  Apparently the U.S. has completely converted over to artificial Christmas trees while no one was looking!  The Redefining Christmas Traditions infographic from Tree Classics is a summary of findings from two Nielsen studies in both 2011 and 2012 and information from the American Christmas Tree Association.

Every Christmas tradition begins somewhere, and those of us who follow Christmas tree trends know that more and more families are building their holiday traditions around artificial Christmas trees. Find out who’s buying artificial, where they live, and why more and more people are choosing artificial in our infographic of real vs fake artificial Christmas tree facts. If you’re thinking of starting a family tradition of your own, consider buying a Pre Lit Christmas Tree from Tree Classics and start making holiday memories that will last year after year!

The design does a great job of jumping to the main point right away.  A huge majority of homes in the U.S. use artificial Christmas trees for the holidays.  This is the Key Message of the design, and it communicates that fact in less than 5 seconds to the readers.  So even if they don’t read the rest of the design, they still understand the main point.  Also, what makes a popular infographic is bringing to light some surprising, unexpected information to the readers.

The shear magnitude of the number was surprising to me, and I think it will be to a lot of readers.  We see real live Christmas trees being the symbol of home and family traditions in the media, but the reality is that 3.5x more homes display artificial trees than live ones.

All of the important design elements are there.  Focused topic, clear data visualizations to support the Key Message, respectable sources cited, copyright statement and the URL to the original infographic so readers can find the full-size version.

Designed by InfoNewt with designer Jeremy Yingling

The Ultimate Guide to Secret Santa

The Ultimate Guide to Secret Santa is a fun design for Christmas from MoneySupermarket.com in the UK (so the currency amounts are in British Pounds).  This office traditional strikes fear into many employees that fear getting the gift wrong.

Oh, the joys of working in an office at Christmas time.  Festive decorations, the office party and of course the exchange of “Secret Santa” presents make corporate Yuletide a truly eventful experience. 

Secret Santa involves the anonymous exchange of cheap gifts at Christmas time, typically between office workers.  It is a fun test of your resourcefulness and innovation as you endeavour to buy a present that your colleague will either love, or will find ironically hilarious.  If you go for the humorous option however, it is important to ensure that your colleague will understand and appreciate the joke!

If you are struggling for inspiration this year, hopefully our Secret Santa infographic will provide some ideas.  If you’d rather not play this year and make some savings on your Christmas present budget, we still think you’ll enjoy what we’ve come up with…

The first thing you’ll notice about this design is that it’s an animated GIF file.  A flashback to 90’s web design, this has been pretty tastefully done to only animate the characters eyes to blink and the title text.  You don’t see this in infographic design very often, and I think it was very well done here.

Both a copyright statement and the URL to the original infographic landing page should have been included in the footer space.

Thanks to Paul for sending in the link!

The Christmas Bugs: Adopt-A-Bug this holiday

The Christmas Bugs infographic from Adopt-A-Bug and ChristmasTreeMarket.com helps raise awareness of the plight many bugs face as the weather begins to get cold.  This Christmas bring some tiny friends in from the cold and into your warm home when you buy a live Christmas tree for the holidays!

Adopt-A-Bug this year for the holidays!  Bringing a live tree into your home is like inviting the great outdoors into your living room.  Here are a few new friends you can make that will decorate your tree and light up your life, plus some statistics to share over your eggnog.

The design combines facts and statistics about the different types of bugs that actually live in the trees that most people use as Christmas trees.  I love the fun approach to raise awareness that there is a real risk to bringing a live Christmas tree into your home.  Check out the Adopt-A-Bug site to see all of the party bugs that you can save this Winter by bringing them into your home!

Designed by InfoNewt with designer Ray Vella, this infographic gets all the key design points right.  Nice 3-part story throughout the design, including a clear call-to-action at the end.  Copyright statement, clear sources and the URL to the infographic landing site.

Nobel Prizes and Laureates Timeline Visualization

 

Nobel Prizes and Laureates is great visualization from the Milanese design firm Accurat.  From 1901-2012 this information design breaks down the winners by category, age, principal university affiliates and even hometowns.

The high-resolution version is available on Visualizing.org

The visualization explores Nobel Prizes and Laureates from 1901 to 2012 analyzing the age of recipients at the time prices were awarded, average age evolution through time and distribution among categories, grade level, main affiliation universities and principal hometowns of the laureates.

Designed as a part of an ongoing series for the Milanese newspaper Corrierre della Sera, La Lettura is a culture supplement.  You can see this design and the rest of the series in the collection on Visualizing.org.

The timeline takes a lot of information, and makes it easy to understand for the readers.  I especially appreciate the transition from line chart of ages to the bar chart of education grade levels to the sankey diagram of universities at the right end of the timeline.  Beautifully done.

Each dot represents a Nobel laureate, each recipient is positioned according to the year the prize was awarded (x axis) and age of the person at the time of the award (y axis).

Found on FastCoDesign

MHPM's Infographic CSR (Corporate Sustainability Report)

MHPM Project Managers has taken a different approach with the release their first CSR (Corporate Sustainability Report).  Instead of the normal text report that other companies release, MHPM created an infographic poster with all of their sustainability information.  It serves as a great example to their clients of how even CSR data can be designed in an engaging way.

MHPM Project Leaders passed a milestone towards integrating sustainable practices into its business operations today, with the release of its first annual corporate sustainability report.

MHPM’s corporate sustainability report evaluates MHPM’s impact on the environment and the community, its transportation practices and workplace policies. The findings reveal areas for improvement and provide a benchmark against which to measure future performance.

Designed by InfoNewt, this poster was printed at 24” x 36” by MHPM and is also available online on the Corporate Sustainability Report section of their website.  The front side of the post visualizes all of the data, and puts most of it into context by comparing to prior year results.  The back side of the design includes all of the required text, which keeps the front side less cluttered and easy to read.  The entire design is inspired by the Global Reporting Initiative’s guidelines.

This is a fantastic use of infographic design principles!  The full size, high-resolution poster is available as a PDF download from the CSR page.