I was curious about who created information graphics so I dug around and it turns out to be a cool story… a 27 year old Scottish guy in the late 1700′s came up with the first infographics.  So who was it?  Well, according to Wikipedia…

William Playfair invented four types of diagrams in 1786: the line graph and bar chart of economic data, and in 1801 the pie chart and circle graph, used to show part-whole relations.

The “Father of Infographics”

William Playfair (22 September 1759 – 11 February 1823) was a little bit of a trouble-maker and his jobs included…

millwright, engineer, draftsman, accountant, inventor, silversmith, merchant, investment broker, economist, statistician, pamphleteer, translator, publicist, land speculator, convict, banker, ardent royalist, editor, blackmailer and journalist.

in 1787 he took part in the storming and the capture of the Bastille in Paris. (Awesome.)

Modern Data Visualization

Infographics are an easy way to explain complex situations and the real benefit is to show the context of how data, information or knowledge relates to each other. The challenge for modern infographic experts like David McCandless is to optimize infographics that show better information and meaning.  The key to marketing and communications in the information age is understanding the rich complexitites of information so that we can make better decisions.