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Want to convey statistics, facts or survey information in a more exciting way than using text alone? Infographic templates are a beautiful and compelling way to present data, and they are fantastic for making complicated or even dull concepts clearer and more exciting.
In this article, you’ll discover ten top tips for creating infographic design templates that are easy to read and look amazing too. From choosing the right software to create your infographic layout to sourcing stylish icons and charts, this is your one-stop shop for getting started with creating your own infographic template.
You can find a wide range of infographic templates on Envato Elements and GraphicRiver to help you make a quick start on creating your own infographic designs.
1. Get Started With Publishing and Vector Software
An infographic template can be created using a wide range of programs, but generally software that supports vector graphics will be the wisest choice.
Vector programs like Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape will give you maximum control over importing, editing and creating vector graphics and type, allowing you to scale designs easily without compromising on quality.
Publishing software like Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress also allow you to treat an infographic design as a complete layout, which can be helpful if you’re creating designs for print or multi-page documents like reports. These tutorials show you how you can create beautifully designed infographics using InDesign:
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How to Create a Climate Change Infographic in Adobe InDesign
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How to Create a Russia Infographic in Adobe InDesign
You can also find a wide range of infographic templates for Keynote and PowerPoint, which can be adapted into dynamic presentations with animations and transitions.
2. Collect Your Data and Create a Concept
At the core of every great infographic design is a narrative.
You might be handling a large range of data, but it’s likely that the information will have a common unifying theme. Ask yourself—what message do you want to convey to your viewers? How can I condense this range of data into a single idea or concept?
If you have a single strong message to convey, such as an environmental message, or have a single topic in mind, such as education, choosing a graphic to represent the theme can be a helpful starting point.
These infographic templates use this idea effectively, using a single Earth or pencil illustration at the core of the design, before structuring the data around it.
3. Consider a Timeline Infographic Template
Perhaps a single image doesn’t feel like quite the right choice for your infographic design. If you’re dealing instead with a wide range of data that can’t be condensed into one visual element, you can look into alternative ways of presenting the information.
Timeline infographics are a tried-and-tested, effective style that works particularly well for communicating progression, such as history or travel.
A timeline is also simple to set up and is a helpful method for structuring your infographic design. Begin by drafting a line or arrow down the center of your layout, and build up your data around the perimeter.
Alternatively, you may want to use a grid-based layout for your design, which can include a variety of charts, icons, and callouts. This is particularly effective when you are dealing with a large quantity of varied data, or data that is more statistical, such as quantities or percentages.
Simply break your layout up into square sections, rows or columns and place a single item of data, whether a graph, icon or statistic, inside each section.
4. Size Your Infographic Template for Online Sharing
Before you begin putting your infographic design together, take a moment to consider the end purpose of your design. Who is the infographic intended for? Will it need to be adapted for multiple purposes?
For example, you might want to incorporate your infographic into a PowerPoint presentation as well as a print poster. With this in mind, you will need to make sure your design can be adapted to a slide size as well as to a portrait sheet of paper.
Infographics are also fantastic for communicating concepts to an online audience. With the ability to quickly catch a browser’s eye and hold their attention for longer than a text-based article, infographics can be a clever way to raise awareness about a topic or issue.
If you would like to share your finished infographic online, you will need to size your page appropriately before you start designing. Visual social media like Pinterest will automatically readjust the size of your images to fit them into their feed, so it’s key to ensure your images aren’t going to be warped or too difficult to read.
Expanded pins on Pinterest are sized to 735 pixels in width, but pins in the feed are reduced even further to a minuscule width of 238 px.
Images that are too tall will also lose their visual impact on a Pinterest feed, so it’s important to ensure your infographic looks just as good with a 238 px width as it does at full size.
5. You Don’t Have to Create Everything From Scratch!
Infographics can be very complex, with one design often made up of numerous icons, charts, and other images. If you’re happy to create all your graphics from scratch, then good for you, but you’ll need to put aside a decent chunk of time to do so.
Most infographic designers opt instead to incorporate and adapt ready-made graphics into their designs to save time. Downloading a set of simple vector icons or charts can save you a ton of time and effort, and help to create an overall more polished and professional effect.
This tutorial, for example, uses a range of themed vector icons to help reinforce each item of information.
You can find a wide range of vector icons and infographic elements on Envato Elements, which can be opened in Illustrator or other vector software and used straight away in your designs.
6. Layer Your Infographic Template
As you start working on your infographic design, you might start to feel a little overwhelmed with the sheer amount of stuff on the layout.
Don’t panic! A simple, sensible tactic for tackling any infographic template is to layer your design, splitting the design into easily separated and lockable layers, allowing you to edit individual elements without mistakenly moving or deleting other items on your design.
In Illustrator or InDesign, you can create layers in the Layers panel. Begin with a background layer, before building up separate layers for images, icons, and text. It’s a simple tip, but it will really help you to organise your work process and avoid any hair-pulling moments.
In this example, the infographic template is split into a large number of layers, which separates everything from the cars to the trees to the color of the buildings.
7. Don’t Neglect Your Type
While infographics might be in large part visual and image-based, text is actually a really intrinsic part of any successful infographic design.
The visual elements might entice the viewer to take a closer look, but it’s the facts and figures that will really hammer your point home. With this in mind, it’s important to give just as much attention to the presentation of your text as you do to the visuals.
For starters, a clear and well-sized header is arguably one of the most important elements on your infographic design. After all, if a viewer can’t read your title, the theme and meaning of the infographic will be lost on them. Place your header at the top of your infographic (centered or to the left side for English-language designs), and make the sizing nice and generous.
This space travel infographic uses a bold and creative header title, which has been converted to outlines and filled with a starry sky image.
Choosing the right font to use on your infographic can be tricky. The choice of fonts can be overwhelming, and some fonts which look beautiful on other types of layouts can suddenly look illegible or clunky on an infographic design.
A good tip is to always stick to ultra-clear and minimal sans serif typefaces. This is an almost universal feature of good infographic designs, because sans serifs are super easy to read and look clean and modern. They allow the visuals to take center stage too, while serif fonts can feel a little distracting and fussy.
My personal favorite font to use on infographic designs is Bw Modelica, which has a clean, rounded style which is highly legible at almost any size. You can find a wide range of alternative sans serif fonts on Envato Elements if you fancy trying something different.
8. Use Eye-Catching Color on Your Infographic Template
Color plays such a key part in attracting a viewer’s eye, but it’s often one of the last things designers consider when creating infographics. Stand out in a sea of washed-out browns and greys with an attention-grabbing color palette.
This infographic template uses a simple and striking combination of primary colors to create a stylish and on-trend effect.
Gradient swatches are another fantastic technique for both catching the eye and building a sense of depth on your infographic layout.
In this tutorial, I show you how you can create a multi-colored gradient swatch in InDesign to create a rainbow road effect for a Pride infographic.
Color can also be a helpful tool for making your design more readable and compelling. Color coding elements on your design is a great idea for giving order and legibility to complex designs.
In this example, a detailed religious calendar infographic is given more structure and order with a color-coded key at the bottom of the design.
9. Experiment With 3D and Photographic Elements
Infographic trends have recently been dominated by illustration, with flat design being the most popular with designers of late.
However, new approaches to infographic design are now presenting fresh and novel ways to craft an infographic style. If you want a break from the dominance of flat design, look to emerging trends in infographic illustration, such as isometric design and 3D styles, to give your design an aesthetic overhaul.
These 3D infographic elements use shadows and highlights to merge the legible appeal of flat design with a more immersive style.
You certainly don’t need to take a purely illustrated approach to your infographic designs either. Photography might be less commonly used, but it can be incredibly effective, especially when blended with illustrated elements and softened with overlay effects.
This climate change infographic uses a striking photo at the top of the design to create a visual anchor to the whole design. When teamed with condensed typography and flat illustration, it looks particularly contemporary.
10. Reach Your Audience
When you’ve finished working on your infographic layout template, it’s time to export it and share it with others.
The final stage in creating an effective infographic design is to make it visible to the right audience. Marketers often use infographics as an effective tool in building brand awareness or to raise awareness of key topics and issues.
The final tip to take away from this article is to know your audience and target them effectively using a marketing strategy. For example, an infographic celebrating International Women’s Day might have more impact and views on a social media channel that is female-dominated, and it would also be wiser to share and promote the infographic in the days leading up to the event.
Themed infographics will also benefit from a captive audience. For example, try sharing a beer-themed infographic with breweries on Twitter, or share with craft ale groups on Facebook.
Conclusion: Ready to Share Your Infographic With the World?
In this article, we’ve looked at ten tips and tricks for designing amazing infographic templates. Infographics can be as conceptual and creative as you like, as long as the information content is clear, so design with confidence and you’ll be sure to catch someone’s eye.
Looking for a fantastic infographic template to help you get started? You can find a wide range of infographic templates on Envato Elements and GraphicRiver to help you make a quick start on creating your own infographic designs.
Don’t miss these infographic tutorials for InDesign and Illustrator:
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How to Create a Climate Change Infographic in Adobe InDesign
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20 Best Infographic Template Designs on GraphicRiver
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How to Create a Timeline Infographic for Black History Month in Illustrator
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How to Create a Colourful Dasara Infographic in InDesign
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How to Create an Education Infographic in Adobe InDesign
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How to Create an Editable Pie Chart in Adobe Illustrator
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