Building Infographics: 10 Tools to Become an Impressive Designer

Visuals have a huge impact in marketing. Not only do they make content more shareable — 40 times as much — but they help us retain information. When details are paired with an image, we remember 55% more of it. And that is even more so by building infographics. You would be hard pressed to top that performance.

I love to read, learn, and try new things. Like new apps for my smartphone and iPad. Often, I’ll see something that I want to try, save, and connect with other new apps I am using.

Ideas that come from previously unconnected planes of thought.

So to bring an important discovery to market, you first need to identify a real-world problem it can solve and connect to engineers who can transform it into a viable product or service. Then you need to find customers who are willing to drop whatever else they’ve been doing and adopt the innovation on a large scale.

There are many apps for workers looking to improve graphics design like me that can be a big help in this regard. And less wasted time? Yes, very good for that also.

Related: 12 Extraordinary Graphic Design Tools You Should be Using

Ponder for a moment … the iPad, Cloud computing, and Apps. A few years ago, they barely existed.  Now they’re an integral part of our lives. That swift journey from nonexistent to indispensable seems to happen a lot these days.

But it gives us unlimited access to improve our learning and utility for things like through apps and idea connection.

This makes you think:  What graphical design productivity apps were you not using two years ago that today you can’t imagine living without today?

Looking for images for infographics? Try this site.

Here are my favorites:

Visualize

This generator could be the start of how ‪résumés will be portrayed in the future

You can visualize your resume in one click and also take a look at previous examples.

Enabling people to express their professional accomplishments in a simple yet compelling personal visualization, we think this is the start of something big.

Visual.ly

Visual.ly is both a tool and community for infographics creators

Visual.ly is a community platform for data visualization and infographics set up in 2011. It allows you both to create infographics and get them shared on social media.

The website is also able to match those commissioning infographics – including brands, companies, and agencies – with its community over more than 35,000 designers.

Canva

Oh, how I love the ease and intuitiveness of Canva. From the very beginning, it asks you a series of simple, colorfully-illustrated questions about what’s brought you to their site. (Today, it’s infographics, but there’s a ton of other stuff you can create there, too.)

Once you’ve let Canva know what you want to do, the site generates several templates you can use as a foundation for your infographic.

Plus, it’s got a library of roughly 1,000,000 images that you can add to your project.

From there, you can edit the text, background image, shapes and other aspects of the infographic to make it your own.

And it’s so easy — here’s a goofy one that I put together on how my dog spends his day:

Venngage

Looking for an easy-to-use tool? Venngage is your best bet!

Venngage is a great tool for creating and publishing infographics because it’s so simple and easy to use.

You can choose from templates, themes, and hundreds of charts and icons as well as upload your images and backgrounds, or customize a theme to suit your brand. You can animate them too!

For infographics, there’s a decent range of templates, each categorized by type — statistical, process, and timeline, to name a few.

Some of the templates are limited to premium members, reflecting Venngage’s four-tiered approach to pricing — free, premium, education, and non-profit. Plus, there are templates available for those latter two categories.

Easel.ly

Easel.ly offers a dozen free templates to start you off

This free web-based infographic tool offers you a dozen free templates to start you off, which are easily customizable.

You get access to a library of things like arrows, shapes, and connector lines, and you can customize the text with a range of fonts, colors, text styles and sizes. The tool also lets you upload your graphics and position them with one touch.

Easel.ly is a no-frills platform that’s comprised of infographics.

You can choose which category you’d like, but it’s not quite as organized as some other sites — the drop-down menu is a bit hidden to the left of the templates.

Still, most of the templates appear to be available for free (more become available with a Pro membership), and they’re fairly easy to edit.

Freepik

As its name suggests, Freepik is a resource for, well, free pictures.

Infographics are just one type, but after performing a search for them, there are plenty of options — most of which are complimentary.

The only drawback? Freepik doesn’t quite allow the same level of customization that some others on this list do.

You can download the images for free, but you’ll need a vector graphics editor to customize them.

Infogram

Like many of its visual peers, Infogram is a resource that helps users create both picturesque charts and infographics.

It’s one of the more “grown-up” sites available for building these images, which might explain why very few of their tools are free — including restricting your work from public consumption.

However, Infogram also has the option of enlisting professional help with infographic design.

So if you’re short on time and have a bit of room in your budget, this route might be the best one for you.

Zanifesto

At the very top of Zanifesto’s website, there’s bold red banner that reads, “Create something.”

When you click on that banner, a list of pricing options appears one of which is free and all of which are reasonable. The only drawback?

It looks like you have to create an account to access any of the resources, even the free ones. Plus, the free option restricts you from being able to upload any custom graphics.

But once you do create a free account, there are plenty of template options and, despite not being able to use your graphics, Zanifesto’s library of icons provides a decent selection.

Google Charts

Oh well, maybe a chart isn’t the same as an infographic. But, given the interesting selection templates made available by Google, I would not exclude it.

There are a few items of value in Google charts. First, we love the selection of charts available.

From animated bubble graphs — like the one above — to clever word trees, the features allow users to bring information to life. (I mean, admit it — adding animation to data always makes it a little less boring.)

One of my favorites, GeoCharts, allows data to be assigned to different regions of a map that appear when hovered over. Check it out.

We’ll admit that some features of Google Charts might be a bit more advanced than the other resources we’ve listed.

But, if you’re ready to step up your visuals game, give it a try.

The bottom line

There’s no shortage of resources when it comes to creating your visuals — charts, reports, and infographics.

And, depending on your budget and needs, they’re a veritable plethora of options available, all of which have their pros, with very few cons.

Look at any industry and its most important technologies were largely shaped by investment from the federal government. Today, however, the challenges are evolving. We’re entering a new era of innovation in which technologies like genomics, nanotechnology, and robotics are going to reshape traditional industries like energy, healthcare, and manufacturing.

What are your go-to resources for creating beautiful infographics? Let us know in the comments.

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Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of a business. Find him on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.

More reading on learning from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

9 Things to Know About Creative Visual Design Content

8 Presenter Mistakes That Are Rarely Made Twice

Know These Great Secrets of Collaboration and Co-Creation

How Good Is Your Learning from Failure?

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