shapes Archives - Infographics Showcase

Tag: shapes

History of Japanese Bloodtyping Infographic

When this was submitted by a reader I wasn’t sure what to think. I had never heard of bloodtyping. Blood types? Yes.

Leave it to the Japanese to come up with something as weird and commercial as this. If you want to know more about bloodtyping, take a gander over here. The basic idea is that your blood type dictates many things about you: your personality, your likes, your strengths and weaknesses and so on. Whether you believe this is true or not (I, personally do not. It sound like astrology and horoscoping to me which I also believe is a fantasy.) is not the point. How does this serve its audience as an infographic?

The red color was an obvious and good choice, the color of blood, of course. But the designer chose the better path, rather than dominating the image with red and splatters to resemble a horror poster, they have chosen a very clinical approach that works quite well. The non-descript people with their red accessories is well placed in this infographic. The graphics all match in terms of their design and the hint of the japanese culture with the blossoms at the top and throughout the infographic really gives it a nice touch.

The blue color contrasts nicely with the red color and the use of white text really hits home the clinical feel I mentioned earlier. Each section is easily identified, the content is presented cleanly with obvious breaks and the typeface has its own personality yet isn’t distracting for the reader. A good choice of color, design elements and shapes makes this infographic worth the blood, sweat and tears.

Infographics Scorecard

Design: B
Clean, fun graphics with excellent color choices.

Content: B
Fascinating insight and interesting stats about a new fad. The Japanese are always doing something interesting and weird. ;-)

Mobile Gaming Gaining Popularity Infographic

Being the proud owner of a iPhone 4 I understand the lure of mobile gaming all to well. This infographic does a solid job of presenting a wide range of information from number of companies developing mobile gaming applications to various characteristics of the mobile gamers. I was more than a little surprised to see that female mobile gamers outnumber the male mobile gamers. I guess us men need the big screen to fully pump up our testosterone to levels high enough to enjoy the gaming experience.

While the graphics are simple, using mostly muted colors and familiar geometric shapes, the vast amount of information almost dictates this type of minimalistic and ordered design. Graphics and words play well together, neither one dominating the other. The choice am modern font was a no-brainer and serves the design well. In fact, the entire infographic has the feel of being read on a mobile device. This is probably my perception and not the intent of the designer but it helps the piece feel more connected with its content.

And with this post, I begin my new rating scorecard.

Design: B-
Solid design, thoughtful use of colors, shapes and space.

Content: B-
Interesting, while not overwhelming.

source: http://jackpotcity.com/

Planet of the Apes Infographic

Another infographic masquerading as a timeline, but I’m okay with that because this image dose a great job explaining the oft confusing time travel issues of the Planet of the Apes movie. And since it isn’t a factual timeline, I’m giving it some latitude.

The first thing you will notice is that for a infographic it is heavy on the info and light on the graphic. In fact, the only graphic on this is a montage of a few memorable characters from the Planet of the Apes movie and its sequels. A red link directs you through the more pivotal moments and years of the story line and the legend at the bottom instructs you on the color coding, shapes and symbols.

I am a bit curious about the background choices. I assume it was meant to appear old and rustic much like a map. Not sure that works especially when it makes the content that much more difficult to read. The typeface choice could have been better as this typeface is hard to read and use of the italics doesn’t help matters.

Admittedly this infographic will have limited appeal, fans of the POTA movies and a few highly intelligent chimps looking for a takeover strategy, but it does cover the information it promises and if you decide to have a Planet of the Apes movie marathon, it would be helpful to have this infographic as a cheat sheet.

Click for the larger infographic to read the text.

Thanks to Phil Laver at http://philiplaver.tumblr.com for this fun and creative submission.

A Buyer’s Guide to Snowboards

Snowboarding can be fun, exhilarating, and a chance to show off your awesome sense of style. This infographic says it will help you pick out the best snowboard for you.

With all the snowboarders out there, you’d think that lots of them consider themselves experts, but according to the data presented here only 16% consider themselves experts, while 52% would gauge themselves as intermediate and 325 consider themselves to be beginners.

Most beginners will want to go for an All Mountain snowboard, but there are also Freeride, Freestyle, and Backcountry styles available.

Freeriding is called the “soul of snowboarding” and it’s the off-slope type of snowboarding. You go off the beaten path to explore. Freestyling snowboarders land tricks and rotations on halfpipes, railings, and artificial platforms. Think skateboarding, but with snow. Backcountry boarding is for advanced snowboarders only. It’s like freeriding, but more dangerous. Backcountry boarders are often dropped from helicopters.

Shapes of Snowboards

The shape of the board is important. You can get a rocker or a camber. Rockers are more popular. They provide a forgiving ride, but have a weaker edge grip and are unstable at high speeds. A camber gives an extra pop on jumps and better edge hold, but has a bad catching edge. A hybrid is a well-balanced board, but you sacrifice proficiency on anything but straight boarding.

Best of the Boards

The favorites featured are the Custom Flying V, Ride Agenda and the GNU Ladies Choice.

Scorecard

Design: B

The design is colorful, but snowboarding is sort of an edgy sport and I expected better graphics

Information:

The information provided is good, but I would have liked more context around numbers given.

Source: Snowboarding Gear by Sport Chalet

Identify your Annoying Facebook Friends from High School Infographic

I’m going to make a very safe assumption that everyone reading this has not only heard of Facebook, but actually uses Facebook. I can also make a probably assumption when I write, you are an active member of the Facebook community, yes? Well, even if you don’t use Facebook, you are probably familiar with how your Mom, or Brother or friends use the privacy-bashing, exhibitionist software tool, but I digress…

The real question this infographic answers is how do you categorize the friends you may have on Facebook and this graphic goes a bit further and classifies your high school classmates. I think you can safely use this as a guide whether you are still in high school or looking to attend your 50^th reunion.

The design is very limited, but takes on many of the characteristics of the site is it mocking. I think the blue used by Facebook has been renamed Facebook Blue, or at least it should be. The blue in question has lost its identity to Facebook. But I digress…the choice of colors are smart as is the typeface (at least for the subheads), another homage to Facebook. The problem begins with writing body copy with this typeface. It isn’t an easy to read font choice and it gets even harder when you use ALL CAPS. I assume this choice to use all caps was too help readability on the internet where small type sizes are hard to read. A better choice than all caps would have been another font with a tall x-height which would make readability much better. Okay, before the design Nazis spring upon me, the body coyp is using small caps, which is even worse, in my opinion for readability.

I’m a big fan of simple illustrations. I love artistic masterpieces and realism as much as anyone, but humor often lends itself to simple drawings such as those used here. Simple shapes, flat colors and white backgrounds enhance each image with quick recognition of the characters profile type, especially meshed with the blue subhead to the right. I would have appreciated some more expressive expressions on the faces as most seem to have a smile and happy countenance.

The content, which is the dominant factor in this funny infographic, really soars. I didn’t LOL (laugh out loud for those of you without a Facebook account) but I did smile a few times and chuckled under my breath, and while I am required to read the entire infographic, I didn’t mind doing so and enjoyed it. My favorites were The Overaccomplished (who you watch with jealousy), The Dreamer (with status updates about his latest gig at Bingo night) and my favorite person to dislike on Facebook and Twitter the TMI Guy (talking about the gas he produces and the girl he claims to have seduced). Not everyone is a winner, you can skip The Girl You Never Talked To, but the rest were worth the time to read.

While the word infographic is getter muddier and muddier; is this really an infographic or a comic, at least we have something to entertain us until it is time to update our Facebook status.

Design: C+

There isn’t much design: box with simple figure and text to the right. But there doesn’t need to be much design. The strength is supposed to be the textual content. People are done okay, but more expression could have made this a much stronger piece.

Content: B+

The content was amusing and the jokes landed most of the time, even if they were a soft landing. Only one was a “swing and a miss” so you can’t criticize but so much. An infographic that makes you laugh is a rarity so congratulations to ClassFinders.com for accomplishing that.

Facebook Types submitted for review by ClassFinders.com – Submit your infographic for a review.