Every Infographic Tells A Story
Nate Silver’s introduction is a must-read for all who create presentations. At the heart of it, he calls for better infographics to tell a story. A combination of approachability, transparency, and efficiency are keys to helping intricate data make sense. Infographics show complex data or information in a visual setting; the purpose is to aid our human visual systems to comprehend (see?) patterns and trends that perhaps “straight data” would not be able to show. Edward R. Tufte, sometimes called the modern father of this movement, really didn’t like the term “info-graphics” (see Visual explanations (1997)), yet this concept is linked to his series of outstanding books. If you’ve ever read Tufte’s iconic (no pun intended) works, this volume provides wonderful exemplars of his philosophy in easy-to-understand and fascinating infographics.
There are so many winners in this compilation depicting infographics in an artful and informational manner. The best American infographics reminds me of a coffee table book that you can browse through; be awed by its beauty; study a graphical presentation as a one-off tutorial – and learn something fascinating, all at the same time. I am a big fan of Wired magazine (I love to read the last page of each issue where a question is posed and answered in a fantastical flowchart or Rube Goldbergian chain reaction style); it’s reassuring to learn that some of the infographics within The best come from Wired. As with any compilation, the topics vary from the sublime (data visualization of all unmanned space missions since 1958) to the ridiculous (Justin Bieber’s fashion sense and hairstyles in the past five years). This is also its beauty. I now know a little more about the semaphores used on the Empire State Building than I ever knew before. Until I read this book, I had no idea that this could even be such a topic of research.
My sole quibble with the book is the presentation of the explanatory text for each winning infographic; the explanation displays in a metallic silver-inked micro-font which is incredibly hard to read without constantly adjusting the page to reduce light glare. That said, maybe this is just a design feature to return your eyes to the beautiful infographics?
[written 1-4-2015]

Stronger field than the 2013 edition. Larger format improved readability, and more attention was paid to not having graphics lost in the gutter.

Would still like to see more critical analysis. Thought Silver's introduction was less engaging than Byrne's. ( )