Telling a Visual Story

Visual Storytelling and Design

Plan and design like a pro designer. With a visual structure in place, your infographic will be easier to assemble once you’ve finalized the content. Otherwise, you will find yourself pushing pixels and text around anytime you need to make a change.

Watch this video on design basics by Cindy Graville:

Plan the Layout

Draw the layout on grid paper first! Check out the “Designing the Page” section in the “Make Your Infographic Visual” poster.

View Poster

Infographic Creation Tools

What will you use to make your infographic? Check out our breakdown of some popular online infographic tools (with a focus on making infographics in your classroom).

Comparison Guide

Plan the Design Elements

Plan your design guidelines. Choose no more than 3 fonts for title, subtitles, headers, and general text. Pick colors that are appropriate for your topic and have good contrast with each other so everything is visible.

See Resources

Just Do It

Once you have a plan, try it out. Your infographic design will evolve as you get feedback and make your message clearer.

Design a Plan

Bonus: Graph Design

Designing your graphs to match the overall look and feel of your infographic helps it stand out.

Make your Infographic Visual

Download PDF

Resources for Design

Color

Adobe Color: an online tool to choose color palettes
Color Wheel: Detailed, Flash-based color theory tutorial
Color Hunter: Create a color palette by uploading an image
Your Friendly Guide to Color in Data Visualizations

Typefaces

What the Font: To identify fonts that other designers have used
Dafont: Free fonts to download (not all programs let you add additional fonts)
Font Design by Canva
The Do’s and Don’ts of Infographic Typography: Detailed article on choosing typefaces for your Infographic

Diagrams

Timeline Generator

Layout and Composition