PowerPoint Infographic Design

Day 1
Objectives:
  • Create infographics using only PowerPoint
    • Change size of slide based on need
    • Use guides and/or grids to compose infographics
    • Use text in infographics
    • Format text
    • Use charts and graphs to convey points visually
    • Use the selection pane to layer objects
    • Use the alignment tools to align objects
Outline:
Get data/content
Sketch: normally you would sketch several ideas for your infographic before starting in PowerPoint
Change slide size:
  • Design > Slide Size > Custom slide size (Page Setup)
  • Set to half a sheet of paper: 4.25×11
  • Ensure fit (scale down) is normally the best bet if you already placed content
Guides and Grids:
  • View > Ruler or Gridlines or Guides, detail expand in the bottom right corner of the Show set (not Mac)
  • Explain snapping/smart guides
  • Right click on guide > new horizontal or vertical guide
  • Place guides or grid based on you sketch
Place Text:
  • Insert > Textbox
  • Copy= cntrl+drag
  • Hold in alignment = shift
  • Text should be at a minimum and contribute to the visual design
Format Text:
  • Make sure text is readable at 100% or smaller
  • Use consistent fonts (up to 2 normally)
Add Charts and Graphs:
  • Insert > Chart
  • Choose your chart
    • Think about what type of data you have and the point you want to make
  • Enter your data in the Excel spreadsheet
  • Edit the chart settings to make it look good on your infographic
Layering and alignment
  • Selection pane
  • Alignment tool
  • grouping
Day 2:
Objective:
  • Create complex shape icons from simple shapes
  • Use icons to convey points visually
  • Style infographic
    • Apply good font choices
    • Apply good color theme
We want infographics to be graphic, so whenever we can give something a graphic spin we should.
Make Icons
  • Create a blank slide for you to work on
  • From your sketches decide which icons to create
  • break them down into their composite shapes
  • you can use flaticon.com to help out
  • Draw out those shapes
  • Cut and combine to get the correct parts of the shapes
    • this takes time and practice to get right, that is normal
Example:
  • a man symbol is:
    • A circle
    • A rounded rectangle (shoulders
    • a square (body
    • 4 rounded rectangles (arms and legs
Merge Tool: Format Shape
Group Objects: ctrl G
Distribute Objects:
  • Align > Distribute horizontally.
Example:
  • If we use our man to show how many students were accepted
  • We can make a copy for every 1,000 applicants (ctrl drag then ctrl Y)
  • Then we can distribute them so they are equally spaced
Color:
  • If we don’t already have colors we can start with grayscale
  • We want to build a color scheme that is inline with the graphic’s purpose
  • Setting a color set in a theme in PowerPoint
  • Remember that colors should go together, and when one color is on top of another they should contrast
Resources:
Use this link to get some data to use: https://www.niche.com/colleges/brigham-young-university/
Use color.adobe.com to choose your colors