Information Graphics --multilingual

Let's get the obvious out of the way: The 480 page book is beautiful and packed with dozens of very good info graphics. Only 10% are worthy of return visits, and that critique is meant for the field itself. It's very difficult to make a convincing, data-rich infographic and this book makes that problem painfully obvious. The problem with so many of the infographics is their inability to convey a meaningful concept within a few seconds. This problem is compounded by vague rules of interpretation where you spend considerable time mentally mapping the relationships. For some people this may be fun, but infographics need more discipline as Tufte preaches, if we are to use them purposefully. The simpler the rules are, the faster you can start playing with it to draw your own conclusions about the data. Many of the infographics appear to be more focused on aesthetic treatments than showing information convincingly. The book misses an opportunity to present data-similar infographics but with different concepts, sequentially. This would allow readers to see how data can be manipulated rhetorically. More often than not, the data we want to show has some kind of skew that needs attention.

As a scientist, a person who makes a living interpreting graphs and charts for clients, I sometimes forget that graphs and charts and timelines really do make the interpretation of large numbers of words and numbers a snap. This book covers the entire spectrum of where graphics do, or have done, the most good in making people aware of what they might miss if they simply read the words and number. First, the book is a work of art. Its size, format, and multi-page-size format put it up there with the best of the coffee table art books. But what astounds me the most is that while reading Informational Graphics I continuously learn something new in a realm of art or science that I didn't know before cracking the page and viewing the graphic. Informational Graphics is the best book that I've purchased in a few years.

This book is an incredible value. Gorgeous artwork, riveting info, easy to pick up and put down any time you need, ultra comprehensive and just an all around rad book. Excellent design inspiration. Designers, data geeks and art appreciators alike will enjoy this book. Side note: this books is MASSIVE. Nothing prepared me for that...so consider yourself warned.

It's really hard to judge a book by it's cover without being able to see the insides. My successes of buying books is a hit or miss in Amazon. For the price of this book, I should have went to a brick & mortar to see the contents. This is probably the heaviest book I've ever owned. It's big and heavy with the hard cover. I was disappointed but I'm not going to give this book a bad rating. I was hoping for more "commercial" work (real world / agency work / business graphics). But this book is hard core conceptual and alot of visual & information design. It's divided into sections from history and application, nicely color coded. All I wanted was a display of infographics so that I can get my creative juices going. The graphics in this book reminds me of art/design school, not exactly practical. PROS: - Nice cover, gives it the wow factor if you want to display it on your desk. You can tell it's an expensive book. - Smartly organized and color coded sections - Includes history + application - strong in visual & information design CONS: - Few "commercial" or agency work (ie real world or business graphics) - Heavy and not something you would carry around in your backpack to go to work or school - The graphics reminds me of design school (which means it's limited in practical use)

Did not expect the book to be this big when I ordered, but that's not a bad thing. Very impressed with as a whole. Large size hardcover book with 480 pgs. Wealth of visual material inside. Would have expected to pay closer to 70/80 $ or more for this book but a real bargain at right around $40. Very nice addition to home library.

There are a good number of reviews of this book here on Amazon, but one thing I found remarkable was the sheer size of this volume -- about 2X of what I expected. While size and page count are listed in the specs, I wasn't prepared for such a large (and content-rich) book and was, of course, pleasantly surprised. Based on volume alone, this is one of the better books (value-wise) out there for examples of information graphics.

It's quite incredible this book can be purchased for this price here (and be delivered for free with Prime). It's a super high quality object, well designed, well printed and sporting such a wealth of knowledge and examples to make one spend months going through it. I highly recommend having this in our library if you're a designer of almost any sort, or have to work with data visualization regularly.

Beautifully designed book in three languages! If you're familiar with the Tufte series, this book is very similar to those. The infographics used in the book will serve as an inspiration to anyone who is trying to develop their own style. I was particularly fond of the graphic on presidential achievements. If there's one drawback, it's that some of the graphics were very large in their original states so the detail is a little hard to view. But over all, I think the book is a well organized treatment on the visual display of information.

It's quite hard to write a review that does this book (or should it be tome?) justice. It's big, beautiful and stunning. If you're interested in visual communication, and how to illustrate data in graphical form, then this book is for you. It's a huge book - this isn't one for bedtime reading. The first part of the book is printed on smaller width paper and features essays by Richard Saul Wurman, Simon Rogers and Paolo Ciuccarelli - all look at data in some shape or form, be it understanding data, how data changes journalism, or turning data and visualisations into stories. All the essays are insightful - for me, the most interesting one was Rogers' essay (as a former journalist, I was very intrigued by what he had to say on data and modern journalism). The essays are in English, French and German. The bulk of the book is dedicated to all manner of infographics and data visualisations. It's split into four categories - Location, Time, Category and Hierarchy. There is barely a subject that isn't covered - hunting whales, choosing a typeface, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Biofuels, City Waste Management, Fraud, Governments, Tax, Sports, Swine Flu - the list is endless. Some graphics are accompanied by explanation text, while others are granted a short caption. These are the types of illustrations you're likely to see in everyday life (news/broadcasting websites, consumer websites, global brand websites etc) as opposed to academic text books. A lot of credit needs to go to the publishers and the team that put this book together - it must have been a labour of love. You cannot fail to be inspired by the contents. If I have two criticisms, it's that (first) many of the graphics have been reproduced over double page spreads, and because of the spine of the book, it makes it very difficult to read them. And (second) some of the diagrams are virtually impossible to read because the text is so small. These minor flaws don't detract from what is an excellent book.

O livro contempla diversos exemplos práticos que podem ser implementados no dia a dia, repleto de figuras que se auto explicam, sem a necessidade de leitura do texto. Excelente para quem está iniciando a formação em Infografia.

Wonderfully edited, beautiful and entertaining. Worth the price.

Ce livre est impressionnant par son contenu, sa qualité et sa richesse. Il présente diverses manières de représenter visuellement de l'information complexe, dont on peut s'inspirer à l'envi. Le rapport qualité-prix est excellent (on peut même en l'espèce parler de rapport poids-qualité...) Rédigé en trois langues dont le français, ce livre satisfera la plupart des lecteurs. Prévoir cependant une bibliothèque imposante pour le ranger, le livre est un véritable meuble.

Lavorate nel campo della grafica e vi serve qualche idea sfiziosa per un infografica? Questo tomo contiene un sacco di spunti storici per quando non sapete dove sbattere la testa. Un ottimo alleato per tutte le persone del settore.