The importance of infographics, patient images and visuals in communications
Infographics, images, and visuals alongside communications of all types have become de rigueur. From the packaging on your smoothie carton, to the evening news, visuals in comms are everywhere. Rarely is a plain block of text the more inspiring or comprehensible way to convey information.
Data journalism is a lone thriving sapling in the industry, owing to the data boom of the digital era, and developments in data-viz software. Visually represented information can accompany the copy, or at times, the infographic is the copy (e.g. the New York Times’ interactive election voting map).
Brilliant and inspiring use of infographics and other visuals can be found everywhere. But even… cookery books?
The food writing industry is losing little steam. Pictureless pocket-sized cookery books with succinct recipes are out. Big, beautiful luxurious culinary tomes are in. And within them, innovative ways to convey information.
Take Samin Nosrat’s book: Salt Fat Acid Heat (and the brilliant Netflix programme that accompanies). It’s not just a book of recipes, but also a guide to theory of cookery. Understand the principles of flavour, and some of the chemistry behind it, and the reader is (theoretically) left empowered and independent in the kitchen. If anything, recipes serve to illustrate the lessons conveyed in infographics and visual imagery.
The infographics brightly coloured, and hand drawn. They’re appealing, unintimidating, personal, and warm. There are fold out pages depicting the flavours of the world in vivid wheels.