Thanachot Wisuttismarn, founder of Infographic (Thailand), seems to agree with the old adage "A picture is worth a thousand words".
"Humans can process visual information 60,000 times faster than text. Ninety percent of information that comes into the brain is visual," said Thanachot citing research conducted by 3M Corporation.
Human brains naturally prefer visual images over text, said the computer science graduate from Mahidol University. "Humans learn from various brain activities. But the best way is through processing visual images, then by listening, repetitively doing things, and the last way, which is slowest and most difficult, is reading text," said the 25-year-old CEO.
The name of this company might not ring any bells, but people might recognise its creations that have been circulated and shared through social media. The company is the creator of eye-catching infographic images — a mix of graphs, text, pictures, and structural display of complex information — such as the key points of the martial law announced in May, a breakdown of the rice pledging scheme, the recent Ebola outbreak, as well as a guide on how to decorate your home according to feng shui. The company's clients are mostly government agencies such as the Finance Ministry, the Energy Ministry, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, the Thailand Health Foundation and a few commercial companies.
In short, Thanachot is an expert in turning bureaucratic speak into digestible information.
Infographics are the new black for communications and data presentation. Once, this kind of creative information platform was possible only to companies and publishers with sophisticated graphic design equipment. But social media sites such as Facebook and Pinterest, as well as cheap or free software applications, have enabled small companies or individuals to create infographics and make them go viral on social media platforms.
The birth of infographics can be traced back to the 17th century when a Jesuit priest created an astronomy book that used the illustration of the Sun's rotation. A century later William Playfair, an engineer and political economist in 1790 used pie charts, graphs and information bars to explain complex data of the British economy in the 18th century in his book The Commercial And Political Atlas.
Despite being a powerful tool to explain complex data, the use of infographics has been limited by unsophisticated printing technology. But the form of communication found its way into acceptable science and a way to communicate in the 1970s when Yale University's Edward Tufte, professor of political science, statistics and computer science, started giving courses about information design and visual literacy. Tufte — dubbed by The New York Times as the "da Vinci of data" — published a series of books (Visual Explanations, The Visual Display Of Quantitative Information, and Envisioning Information) that have become known as bibles for the graphic design profession.
Simple to look at and easy to understand, making infographics is more than using computer design software to create well-presented graphic images. The work requires time and human labour, according to Ochawin Chirasottikul, sales and marketing director of the company.
In the case of Infographic Thailand, each image needs three staff working on it. First a communication expert distills information, second a creative staff member decides the visual presentation style, and then a designer will render the final image on a computer. The hardest and most time-consuming part does not take place at a computer. "We need to read information to understand the depth and breadth of the data and surrounding contexts first, and then we must think of the way to communicate this information," said Ochawin Chirasottikul, sales and marketing director of the company.
For example, in an infographic on Thailand's fiscal budget, the team read through 14 pages of excel spreadsheets and 10 pages of information. The work — one single picture — took two weeks to complete.
The company has about 20 staff, most of them fresh from college. The company is located in a shared office space called Launchpad, a haven for software designers and start-ups.
Thanachot opened the business two years ago after he graduated. He became an expert on infographic presentation during his university years. "I entered a lot of start-up competition projects and needed to do a lot of presentations. So after graduation, I opened my business."
Now, it is possible for anyone — even students — with basic computer graphic software and mobile phone apps such as Piktochart to create images.
"People always think that our work is IT graphic design. But we look at our business as a creative economy. Indeed, this work is the labour of human creativity. It needs humans to interpret data and content and I believe no software nor apps can replace that.
"Of course, anyone can create simple infographics with apps. But with large and complex data, it needs expertise and know-how, not just technology. Infographics is another form of storytelling. Mankind has always tried to tell stories to other human beings in lively and interesting ways."
Ochawin Chirasottikul, left, sales and marketing director, and Thanachot Wisuttismarn, founder of Infographic (Thailand).
