Coffee

What caffeine does to you!

I like this information graphic because it takes something very familiar, something most of us know and drink - coffee - and tell us something about it I didn't know. And it mixes more serious informations with purely funny knowledge.

It presents a lot of informations and consists of many small parts - which makes it rather dense. But the grid and the hierarchy make sure that the viewer doesn't get lost in the informations.

The colors are very well chosen because they all have something to do with coffee - and at the same time they tie the looong graphic together. But even though it is long and has a lot of different informations, it isn't redundant. But it does have a lot of similar facts about caffeine - which makes it rather multidimensional.

In the bottom of the graphic we see a great example of how it is risky to use humor in a quite serious information graphic. Personally, I find the graphic about Hitler very, very funny - but I bet there's a lot of people around the World who wouldn't agree with me, and some might even feel offended. Especially because this graphic is not purely a funny graphic - the intend is to inform the audience of the effect of caffeine, and the funny parts are just tools to draw attention and keep the viewer reading it to the end.

The information graphic is from a very cool site called Daily Infographic (look for a recommendation of the site in the menu under "Blogs I like") or go straight to the site here

iPhone

Inside an iPhone

What I love about this graphic is the fact that it makes a very familiar illustration - the one showing what's inside an iPhone - very original by making fun of it and adding small working men inside it. At first sight it seems to be just another technical instruction, but then you discover the funny elements.

Very unlike real technical instructions, this graphic has decoration elements - and because its intend isn't to show how the phone works, it's more light and simple, not being either redundant or multidimensional.

The funny part of it is that it's very figurative - it shows a phone, the little men walking around inside it and the gear inside it - but of course the audience know that these figures are a comment on the hype about iPhones and their features. Which actually makes it kind of abstract...

You can find the info graphic here

Living without Internet

How long time can you survive without...

With this info graphic I've tried to show how very familiar elements the audience is used to see can suddenly have a funny content. My idea was to create a very light, simple and familiar graphic that doesn't look funny - I've for instance not used any decoration - to make the joke completely clear and give it a hint of seriousness and authority through the use of a familiar way of showing data.

I created a very tight grid and chose only four matching colors (five if the background is included) in order to make it even more simple - and the colors of course show the difference in how long a Person can live without the different things.

It is a very unidimensional, novel and familiar graphic - the only thing that makes it a bit original is the use of "boring" and traditional illustrations to show a joke.

Internet

What to do when the Internet is down...

What I like about this info graphic is the fact that it makes very familiar illustrations funny by adding small details - like the original sad eyes on the familiar pictogram man. We are used to these types of pictograms from signs and instructions, but it's quite original to add small details to make them show emotions.

With a lot of different illustrations and text boxes, the graphic is actually pretty dense, but the use of only three colors and the numbers creating a very clear hierarchy makes it a bit more light in the visualization. 

The different illustrations are very simple and almost only functional, with a few decoration elements. Some pictograms are abstract, but in this case the pictograms are mainly figurative.

When it comes to the informations presented in the graphic, we get quite a few informations - but we don't need to look at all the elements in order to get the message - you understand the joke right away after just looking at a couple of the examples. It isn't multidimensional or redundant. 

You can find the info graphic here

Condoms

All you need to know about condoms...

This information graphic is - in my opinion - a great example of how you can use humor in an info graphic that deals with a serious topic - like the use of condoms around the World and all the problems regarding to it.

First of all - the use of pictures of condoms as eyes and nose combined with the drawing of the head is rather original. The use of condoms in the graphic give it a light, funny look. It also makes the graphic look more light than it is. It's in fact pretty dense with a lot of information an graphics, but the few colors, the light background and the use of both drawing and pictures makes it a bit lighter.

I also like that it's not only functional, but that the condoms are used to make funny graphics to get the audience's attention. In this specific case I guess the audience is young people.

We get a lot of informations about condoms - but even though the graphic is rather complex, the informations are not repeated, so it's not redundant. But it is still multidimensional because we get a lot of different facts about the condoms.

You can find a bigger version of the info graphic here

Infographics

How infographics work

This graphic makes fun of all other information graphic and their way of showing numbers and statistic - and it does so by showing different diagrams, numbers and charts. 

It is pretty dense, because it has a lot of informations, many different parts, that are squeezed together in one graphic. The choosing of only a few colors (primarily grey and white) makes it a bit lighter, but I still find it rather dense.

It mainly uses abstract ways of showing the informations - like bar charts and diagrams. But in the case with the men it actually shows men, so it's not completely abstract.

Most of the elements have a purely functional function, but there are few small exceptions - like the little balloon next to the "men", that says "wtf". Still, I find it rather functional.

What maybe strikes me most about this information graphic is the fact that it is pretty multidimensional and redundant - there are many informations about infographics, and the information is told in various ways. You could claim that this is an overload - but that's exactly the point of the graphic.

Last, but not least, it uses very familiar parts - like bar charts, diagrams and numbers - but by using them to make fun of the use of them makes it rather original. 

You can find the graphic here

Stereotypes

Stereotypes

This info graphic is made by New York Times' Christoph Niemann, and it shows some of the stereotypes around the World - but mainly in the U.S. and especially in New York.

What I like about this graphic is that it is very easy to understand quite quickly, even though it is quite dense.  Using only three colors and no additional elements for purely decoration makes it seem more light.

And then it's redundant in a good way - by making not just one arrow saying "arrogant" in Europe, it makes a lot of them all over the map - and the exaggeration makes the point, the joke.

It's also pretty original. The using of maps and arrows showing a tendency, an exchange of money or something similar is very familiar to all kinds of audiences. What makes this graphic a bit original is that it makes huge lumps of the arrows to show the point. It's also pretty original to make a map with completely wrong proportions, making New York the center of the World.

You can find the graphic here

Pedistrians

H

How different pedestrians walk

This information graphic took me less than 15 minutes to make. It's an example of how effective you can tell the message (here the joke) with very few instruments.

I found the inspiration from "Truth Facts" - a danish designer who makes funny information graphics: http://heltnormalt.dk/truthfacts

It's pretty abstract in the way that it doesn't show the actual pedestrians - it only shows the line of their walk from A to B. It's a comment to the way people with smart phones pay no attention to their surroundings when they walk around. 

I've tried to copy Truth Facts' simplicity, so I made this graphic very unidimensional and novel. There are only one layer of information, and the data is not presented in more than one way. At the same time there is no unnecessary decoration, all the elements have a function. Please comment below and let me know what you think - could I have done it another way?

Socks

Washing socks

What happens when you put your socks in the washing machine...
This info graphic is from the Danish site heltnormalt.dk by the designer "Truth Facts".

Why I love it? As all of Truth Fact's graphics, it uses few instruments to explain the message (the joke) - and it makes it extremely clear. When analyzing it with Alberto Cairo's tension wheel, I find that the graphic is very figurative - the socks are simply socks.

At the same time it's very light - there is not an overload of informations. All the elements are informative, and there are no extra decoration. You could have drawn a man taking out his socks from the washing machine, but the audience get the joke without extra decoration like that.

By making such an unidimensional and novel graphic, it makes the joke even clearer. It's original that the designer hasn't drawn a washing machine - but just the important; the input and output of socks.

You can find the graphic here