Reeling in the Stars

The goal of this project was to create an infographic that displayed at least five people and detailed five different facts about them. The people all had to be somehow associated. The original suggestion was to create the infographic on serial killers, but I wanted to choose a lighter topic.

As the topic of my infographic is actresses from the Midwest, I wanted the graphic to have a Hollywood feel. The gold and red accents and distinct shapes help to create this feel. The trophy and star shapes also help to bring a feeling of whimsy and fun to the graphic; it makes it more interesting.

Before creating the infographic on InDesign, I sketched the layout. I wanted the layout to be simple because there is so much information that needed to be included. I decided to keep the information in straight rows to coincide with the film strip the actresses photos are placed in. Keeping the information in straight lines felt like the best way to keep the information organized and easy to read.

Infographics are meant to quickly convey a lot of information to the viewer. In order to do so, I decided to use many different shapes. The shapes of the different states the actresses are from, the stars representing the age the actresses became famous, and the trophy representing how many awards they have each won communicate a lot of information in lieu of words. They also make the infographic more visually appealing, and it looks simpler and like less material to read, which are trends the modern reader is heavily following.

In deciding what the focal point would be, I decided that the actresses are the most important piece of this infographic. Therefore, I wanted their photographs to be the focal point. Well known celebrities and human faces tend to draw people in, adding to my reasoning for wanting to highlight their photos inside the strip of film. I made sure to make the photographs all the same size and to be cropped at the same point to show all the actresses are of equal importance.

The backgrounds in the photos are also the same color palette, adding to the equality of the subjects. I chose to leave the backgrounds in the photos as I felt that it draws the eye to the photos first even more.