A recent article on Infosthetics has a look behind-the-scenes at Information is Beautiful and their detailed and rather lengthy design processes for their wonderful infographics. 

(Image via Infosthetics)

As they discuss:

It is truly exceptional that a talented visualization designer provides access to the dirty and tedious work that happens behind-the-screens. But the more and the sooner upcoming talent can understand visualization is a serious design activity as much as a scientific undertaking, the better the field will be able to proof its true value, and eventually escape its urge to mount the current viral media trap.

It’s refreshing to see that McCandless would take the time to explain his thought and design process to his audience, most designers certainly wouldn’t do it. But even more importantly it shows that infographics and visualisations of data are legitimate examples of design and are actually incredibly useful and don’t just have to be linkbait pieces. Unfortunately infographics have received a bad-rap online recently, with people getting more and more fed-up of the sheer number of ‘infographics’ out there, but with artists like David McCandless, Felton and The Guardian we see a wonderfully different view. A view that when data is presented beautifully, it is actually really useful and beneficial to us all.