Infographic Thinking Workshop
by Francesco Franchi
The workshop aims at highlighting the potential of infographic thinking as modality to approach and interpret reality: not only limited to the traditional graphic design disciplines, today infographic is able to translate a complex issue into an effective and recognizable visual form, producing new knowledge and revealing new meanings.
Download the Infographic Thinking workshop fact sheet
Previous editions:
Together with Gestalten we traveled to Asia to bring our successful workshop series to Singapore. We partnered up with the design thinktank Methodology to host a two-day “Infographic Thinking” workshop. Read more
download the program / download a list of references
photo gallery / project developed 2
download the program / download a list of references
gallery 1 / gallery 2 / video / project developed 1
Two-Day Workshop c/o Gestalten
The didactic structure of the workshop reproduces the process to create an infographic
The workshop provides participants with the needed theoretical background and practical skills. Step by step, the different project phases will be approached through the direct project experience: starting from the extraction, selection and interpretation of data until the organization of the contents into the most effective visual form, able to combine simplicity and complexity of the communication. For each project phase, the related conceptual basis will be investigated and practical guidelines will be provided; professionals specialized on specific project aspects will be invited in order to relate their experience and works. In terms of tools and languages, not only the common data collecting methodologies and traditional representation practices will be presented but also the latest technologies and applications to record and visualize data will be introduced.
The evolution of information stands at the intersection between the visualization and critical interpretation of data. With technology advancing at such rapid speed, and the way we consume and digest information constantly evolving, designers are challenged to embrace new editorial formats, platforms, and visual languages. An emergence of visual journalists and graphic editors are tackling this task and reinventing news on paper through a new form of journalistic expression. They are creating a narrative language where the content and visuals coexist and work cohesively together to deliver a result that is digestible, informative, and enhances the overall quality of the story. Editorial designers are developing new journalistic styles and conveying their ideas through visual storytelling where texts, headlines, photographs, and infographics are not considered as standalone elements but developed together to create a visual story that allows readers to process and digest this knowledge in an informative and elegant way. Infographics have become the key to changing culture and convention from the perspective of information consumption and IL—Intelligence in Lifestyle, the first magazine dedicated to cultural and social transformation in the 21st century, is one of the publications today that is pushing the envelope in the field of editorial design.
The workshop aims to strengthen the capacity:
- to understand the evolution of the visual communication languages, from the origin until nowadays increasing quantity and complexity of data and information produced;
- to develop a whole ‘infographic project’, approaching the various process phases critically and properly, from the initial access to data, their understanding, manipulation, critical interpretation until the final communication by using the appropriate visual representation;
- to conceive infographic as a process of visual production able to generate knowledge and better understanding of reality;
- to realize how infographics have wide ranging applications beyond news dissemination, in several other domains such as scientific visualization, product design, education, information technology, business communication and entertainment.
Over the two-day workshop
I gave insight into how graphic editors filter information, establish relationships, discern patterns, and develop inspiring and stimulating solutions to contextualize information that simultaneously inspires, informs, entertains and even encourages critical thought.
Workshop participants were divided into small groups and under my guidance, produced an infographic for a given topic. The final infographic had been collaboratively developed further into a feature story, which was published as a spread in an issue of IL magazine.
If you are interested in knowing about upcoming workshops, keep an eye on my website for future updates, or email me.