Creating
Five Fabulous
Infographics
using
PowerPoint
ABOUT THESE TEMPLATES
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABOUT THESE TEMPLATES ...1
CREATING A COLOR SCHEME…2
USING FONTS FOR DESIGN……3
Infographics are a powerful tool that companies and marketers can use to capture the
attention of their target audiences. In fact, according to AnsonAlex, publishers who use
infographics grow an average of 12% more in traffic than those who don’t. Infographics
allow you to present what would normally be hard-to-digest information, in a way that
readers can enjoy and understand. The problem lies in finding the time and resources to do
so.
DESIGN ICONS AND SHAPES….4
WORKING WITH A THEME……...5
That’s why we’ve created six fully customizable templates that will give you the inspiration
and foundation you need to build your own infographics right in PowerPoint.
CONCLUSION & RESOURCES…6
But first, let’s dive into some tools you can use to customize these templates.
TEXT
To insert an image like
the one above, you
can simply drag any
PNG or JPEG file into
your slide.
THE ESSENTIAL
POWERPOINT
ELEMENTS
PICTURE
By learning to use the three key
elements of PowerPoint – text,
picture, and shape – you can create
high-quality infographics. Throughout
this template, you’ll learn a number
of ways to use these three elements
to create your graphics.
SHAPE
FILL
THE ESSENTIAL
POWERPOINT
TOOLS
LINE
While there are three essential
elements, there are four essential
tools that you will be using to design
your infographics: fill, line, effects,
styles. These four elements will help
build your color scheme, shape style,
and font styles.
EFFECTS
STYLES
FILL
The fill of an object or text will determine the primary color
of that object or text. For example, the fill of this box is
blue, and the fill of this text is white.
LINE
The line of an object will determine the color of the outline
surrounding an object. The line of this box is grey. You
can use the line of an object to make it stand out among
colored backgrounds or simply give it a border.
EFFECTS
The effects will give you the ability to add some design
elements to your graphics. You can work with a variety of
features that include shadows, bezels, outer glows, and
3D effects. The icon below is using a shadow effect.
STYLE
The shape styles give you the option to choose from a
number of pre-designed colors, lines, and effects that can
be applied to your graphics. This can be used for objects,
lines, and text.
ABC
ABC
ABC
ABC
When creating an infographic, you should
start by determining what color scheme you
would like to use. A four color setup gives you
plenty of creative freedom to work with. More
than that can look a bit chaotic.
CREATING A
FOUR
COLOR
INFOGRAPHIC
USE CLIP ART, CUSTOM SHAPES, AND
FONTS
Microsoft has a variety
of clip art that you can
download from their
online database.
OVER
400
OPTIONS
]
Fonts like Wingdings
can be used to add
custom icons and
images to your text.
Combining custom
shapes can give you a
variety of useful
images to convey your
data.
50%
Change a shape’s
look by altering the
colors of the Fill and
Line of that shape.
Double click your
shape to access those
options in the tool bar
at the top.
BREAK UP YOUR SECTIONS WITH A
CHANGE IN STYLE
A helpful tip about breaking up your infographic into distinguishable
sections is to simply change up the style. You can use a different set
of custom shapes or text, or inverse the color scheme. This can help
indicate to viewers that they are now looking at a section of statistics
or a section of explanatory information.
CONVEYING STATISTICS
There are times when we have a staggering amount of information that we can’t present
with an image-heavy infographic. These times call for styles of design that focus more
on the fonts and how they can give your infographic a professional look without the
clutter of too many images.
INFORMATION
USE YOUR COLORS
70
SQUIRRELS
ALTERNATE THE COLOR
PEANUT BUTTER
EMPHASIZE
PREFER
OF YOUR TEXT TO
OVER JELLY
CERTAIN DATA
PEOPLE
MIX AND MATCH SHAPES
9 OUT OF 10
OVER
MARKETERS
100
WILL SHARE THIS
SHAPES
TIME
68
CAN BE USED TO CREATE GRAPHICS
YEARS UNTIL
PUPPIES
TIMELINES
TAKE OVER THE
VIDEOS
OF CATS
WORLD
STATEMENTS
2012
INBOUND MARKETERS
ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR
FINDING LIFE ON MARS
ATTENTION SPAN OF PEOPLE
9
YOU CAN’T
CATCH APPLES BY
THROWING ORANGES
2015
GRAPHS
10
RANDOM THOUGHTS
2014
2013
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
2009
2010
2011
400
BILLION STARS
IN THE MILKY WAY
You’ll notice that this infographic was created entirely from
basic shapes and alternating font sizes. By focusing your
design on two simple aspects, you can accomplish an intricate
outcome. For an infographic of this style, I would suggest
using no more than three colors and stick to one font to make
things simpler.
DON’T LEAVE
TOO MUCH
WHITE SPACE
An important thing to remember when designing an
infographic is to keep your use of white space to a minimum.
Although white space can be useful, too much will spread your
data too far apart and break the flow of your infographic.
When you’ve finished designing your graphic, take a few
minutes to adjust and move your elements around to find that
perfect level of spacing.
2012
COMPARING TWO
SIDES OF THE
SAME COIN
When creating an infographic for comparing
data, one of the easiest design tips is to
simply split your infographic in half. Use two
distinct colors and give each set of data its
own side on the page.
You can do this by choosing one color for
each side, and then use the basic shapes to
create two parts to your infographic. As you
can see, we’re using blue and red with white
as the general font color.
2
1
1
DIFFERENT
FONTS
FOR
HEADERS
FOR
TEXT
50
50
GROUP YOUR SHAPES
When creating custom graphics
from an assortment of shapes, it
can help to “group” those shapes
when you need to resize or move
them around your infographic.
BAR GRAPHICS CAN BE EASILY MADE
Learn to use a variety of shapes
to create interesting graphs,
charts, and other visualizations
to show off your data points.
You can do this by right clicking the
object above, navigate to
“Grouping,” and click “Ungroup” to
break this object into its individual
shapes. To regroup it, just highlight
all the pieces, right click, and
choose “Group” from the menu.
Hold the Shift key to select more
than one element at a time.
SHAPES THAT LOOK LIKE GRAPHS
Each of these icons was created from
individual shapes and lines offered by
PowerPoint. Using a combination of basic
shapes, rectangles, and lines, we were able
to create some commonly used icons for
infographics.
You should start by choosing a base color.
We used white as the base color of our
icons and blue or red to create the details.
31
Don’t forget to hold the Shift key when
selecting multiple pieces of one icon. Once
you’ve selected each element of the icon,
you should “group” it so that you can more
easily move and scale the object.
The icons seen here are not limited to any
particular color scheme, size, or shape.
Experiment with your own company colors
and style to find what works for you.
As we mentioned before, try
sticking to fewer than 4 main
colors for your infographics.
This will give your designs a
professional feel that looks
vibrant but not too busy.
The goal of this infographic is
to illustrate two distinctly
different sides and compare
them visually for the viewers.
Breaking your data into two
sides will do the job well.
Pinterest Inspired Infographic: Tiles!
Get to the Point
Tiles let you organize your
information and graphics.
Large tiles should be used to
showcase a main point or
some important data your
infographic is based around. It
doesn’t hurt to use lovable
icons that your readers can
connect to the data.
Don’t forget to pay attention
to consistent sizes and
spacing.
1 in 3 marketers will…
A lot of people use cell phones
Use a variety of tile sizes to fill
up your infographic.
Use the person icon to
illustrate statistics involving
people.
Simple icons can be great for
representing simple statistics.
Over 1,000 people get struck by lighting each year in the U.S.
Explosions = Michael Bay
Movies
Most of the stars you view from Earth are binary stars.
The moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth.
Random Bar Graph Information
Be sure to label your bar graph so your viewers are
aware of what they are looking at.
Half the time, I’m right all the time.
About 4.1 billion text messages are sent
per day in the U.S.
Most people don’t know that panda
bears can move in four different
directions AT ONCE.
12
Million
laptops go missing at U.S.
airports per week!
The total amount of water on Earth
is about 326 million cubic miles.
Follow Me
on Twitter
@DetectiveDDubs
Webcams have
been in existence
for fewer than 20
years.
SAVING YOUR INFOGRAPHIC
Once your infographic is ready, you’ll need to save the
PowerPoint slide as an image. Simply go to File  Save As
and select PNG (Portable Network Graphics). Saving the slide
in PNG is an important aspect of your final product. The PNG
format is the only file type that will give your infographics the
high quality they need for publishing.
CONCLUSION
HOW THIS WILL HELP YOUR INBOUND MARKETING STRATEGY
The rise of visual content on the internet creates a demand for high quality, educational, and entertaining
content. One issue with large amounts of educational information -- like statistics -- is that these types of
information can be hard to digest if presented incorrectly. The infographic provides you with a highly visual
and easily sharable platform to display your content. This will allow you to better communicate your
information to the readers and offer them an easier way to share your wisdom with their world of friends,
colleagues, and peers.
Now that you’ve got a set of great templates and some inspiration, start creating! Remember to have fun
and experiment with your infographics to find which colors, fonts, and styles work best for yourself and
your company.
WANT TO MEASURE THE SUCCESS OF YOUR INFOGRAPHICS?
As mentioned earlier, publishers who use infographics grow in traffic an
average of 12% more than those who don’t. But how do you actually measure
the business impact of your infographics?
By monitoring your visual media activities, you can get actual marketing insight
into how much traffic your infographics are sending to your website!
Sources – TCDG Studios