Juan Velasco on Infographics: "You Don´t Have to Draw to Be Good"

The former New York Times and El Mundo infographics artist Juan Velasco described his experiences running his own firm, 5W Infographics. It´s very hard to support a business working only for news clients, he said, so he and his colleagues at 5W have branched out into new areas as well: website design, advertising and corporate relations.

Regardless of the medium or the application, he continued, the goal of good infographics is the same: to explain information clearly. It certainly helps to be an expert illustrator, he said, but great drawings don´t help if your graphics are not clear.

He showed examples from his own portfolio and infographic artists he admires. "See how few words are needed in this graphic," he said, showing a population map of the US made by Bill McNulty of The New York Times after the 2000 census. The graphic showed a perspective view of the continental United States with the population centers appearing as giant, pointed peaks.