50 great examples of infographics

These actually seem mainly like bad examples of infographics to me. I would concede that many are quite attractive ways of presenting the data, but I could only see liking them as an aesthetically pretty way of showcasing data I already know about. For those where I didn't have any idea what the data was, trying to actually read these infographics---you know, getting the info out of them, supposedly their purpose---is a real pain in the ass, much worse than traditional, simpler visualizations.

This one, for example, might be fine as art, something to put on a poster for Bob Dylan fans to buy, but it sure is infuriating to try to derive information from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sergio28/2482933134/

These are pretty examples. They're primarily focused on design-heavy infographics, but eye-catching is an extremely important quality of good infographics, as it gets people looking closer than they would otherwise. Not all in English, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, and helps in showing a wide variety.

My favourite one in this category is the TV commercial of French nuclear power industry conglomerate Areva (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areva):

English version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgZsamFWyBI

French version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3B__ovj2jU

Personally, I prefer the simpler graphics like those of Michael Paukner (http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelpaukner/) or David McCandless (http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/).

They are great, but only if the definition of great does not include being effective.