Design and Make Infographics (Project-Centered Course)

Michigan State University via Coursera

Coursera based on 955 ratings

Likes

Overview

In this project-centered course*, you will create a content-rich infographic on a topic of your choice using Adobe Illustrator (which you can download for a free, 30-day trial). You might choose to create a visual representation of data from the world of sports, entertainment, politics, or science, to explain a business trend or environmental issue, or even to present a theme or development from your personal life. Your finished infographic will engage your target audience and convey information clearly through...

Syllabus

Plan and layout an infographic

This week is broken into two key themes: things that you need to know about infographics and this week's two peer-reviewed assignments: 1) plan an infographic and 2) sketch a layout of your infographic.

Make a chart

This week we're going to focus on three popular kinds of charts: bar, line and pie and you'll learn what kind of data each one is used for as well as some things you shouldn't do with them. The assignment this week is to make a chart using Adobe Illustrator. If learning graphic software is new to you, this could take you much more time than you think. In the fourth and final module of this project you will be creating an infographic that will contain at least one chart in it, so this might be a good point for you to think about what topic you would like to make your infographic about and then plot your chart here using data that you can apply to your infographic. You can download a 30-day trial version of the Adobe Illustrator by going to www.Adobe.com/Illustrator, or, if you prefer not to use Illustrator, you could try Inkscape (https://inkscape.org/en/), which is free. It won't plot charts, but I've heard that people plot charts in another program, such as Excel, and then carefully trace them in Inkscape so that they can style them up to their needs. Here are some good Youtube tutorials: https://youtu.be/zUIOEXssTSE. Technically, charts are called graphs, but Im not a purist. I call them charts and I have for 30 years. You may call them whatever you like. Why Illustrator? Its the industry standard for creating maps, charts and other graphic images. My Adobe Illustrator tutorial this week shows you how to make a pie chart, and the same styling and editing techniques will apply to the other chart types. If you prefer, here is a link to my tutorial for How to Make a Bar Chart in Adobe Illustrator, though. Its not Illustrator CC, but you wont be able to tell the difference and its a little more comprehensive than my pie chart tutorial.

Make a map
Make an infographic

You've learned some things about content, layout, design, color and making maps and charts and now it's time to pull them all together into an infographic. It will if you review my video from module one where I make an infographic (the one on melanoma) from start to finish. I have a tutorial here that will show you how to draw an illustration in Illustrator, in case your infographic calls for one. I hope you try it!