So you have astartup idea... Unconditionally unique and brand new idea. Maybe you found a way to cure a terrible disease or how to travel back in time. Or just to sell your invention in a new perspective way. Now your goal is to explain your idea to the world or at least to a small group of people who will be interested in investing funds and buy your patent.
Or...maybe not!
As exciting as it can be 76% of unique startups idea to reach out for the main audience and don't get funds. Why? Because people get bored quickly! If you didn't intrigue your audience within 60 seconds your bright idea will be lost. They will stop listening to your passionate speech or read your hard-work proposal. Your bright idea will be gone!
Texts are tiresome, talks are unexciting - so what will really help? A visual contact or a visual language ( information graphic ) or a language built from icons. Infographic is an effective tool to present data and explain complex issues in a way that can quickly lead to insight and better understanding. Why? We scan text sequentially by one word at a time and we scan pictures in different places at the same time.
What is infographics?
Infographic design is a visual demonstration of information and statistics which is combines elements of text image, chart, diagram and even animation. Infographics exist because we recognize visual patterns faster than we read text. That's why these useful charts that you repeatedly see circulating on social media, can explain the complications of a state with well-presented graphics.
The History of Infographics
Believe it or not but the first icons and informative visual messages were found back to the late 1700s with a chart of wheat prices and labor wages. The word “infographic” first started appear in the 1960s. The examples of infographics can be found as cave paintings, Ancient Egyptian Papyrus Paper Sheets, travel maps designs in the Mid Centuries.
Nowadays infographics becomes popular and trendy to use because:
A.It is faster than reading
B. It looks good
How important is to use infographic and data visualization for startups?
You can form the the preposition in a super short visual message of 30 seconds. See the difference between a written text and a visual message here :
Text line :
Our startup provides excellent private cloud storage....
And the icon :
Which one of those did take you mind less time to receive the message ? Text or icon ?
Imagine a situation when your startup has an opportunity to be SEEN on a very important conference a meetup with 155 world major investors who seek new patents to invest in. Obviously you have about 50 competitors startups who have same opportunity to shine and get " a place in the sun". Only 7 out of 15 will have a well prepared presentation and a formal well explained speech. Only 4-5 first startups will manage to represent their ideas in the beginning of the meetups when the crowd is concentrated more.
Now let's compare two of these stock images where you can see a pitch presentation example. Which one looks more promising and attractive in a real life?
The second image is obvious! None will concentrate on trying to see and read an unclear hand writing at the same time concentrating on the verbal explanation. It's exhausting for your brain! How long do you think you can make it? Well, the investors who come to your presentation will take no longer!
On the other hand, the second image explains the main goal of the business even to us, a "third" witness. We don't need to hear what the guy on the picture to understand the meaning of his words since we see a beautiful visual explanation that will be getting in fast and easy. This presentation is impressive and visually communicate with potential clients.
Now that you understand the importance of infographics for a faster and a productively explained startup pitch presentation I will explain how you get a professional infographic design.
The main thing to remember when designing infographics is that minimalism is the basis. That's why you HAVE to rely on a professional designer that can create a balance of charts and visual elements. Data visualization is a tool to make difficult concepts understandable and easy to grasp.
But let's be honest not every designer can create a strong and an informative banner which will include a very important messages. In fact it has to be a professional designer that is informed in marketing aspects of your startup. From my personal experience I recommend working with designers who have a strong typography skills since type is important.
Here are a few steps that will help you create an amazing infographic language for your pitch presentation:
Research - Designer has to learn in advance the main details of the startup goals as the first step before the designing visual elements. It is your responsibility as a client to provide an exact explanation on what is your startup about.
Icons - The second step of inforgraphic language design is to produce informative and minimal icons that will clarify at least 3-4 words.
Brand identity –it’s significant all of your icons and texts have identical colors, same proportions and sizes, same fonts so they match each other and form a visual explanation which will be common on each slide.
Presentation slide layout - After the infographic icons are created now it’s time to organize them on a slide. Seriously, it’s a curtail part for your infographic presentation. No matter who magnificent the infographic style looks it has to work out together to create infographic language.
Keep it clean, minimal and modern. Avoid too many texts and elements together. Use typography skills, play with proportions and contrast to make most important elements stand. Use same grid layout for every 2-3 slides. This way you keep the design language just as it’s done in a magazine layout. Use fun vector illustrations, they make infographic looks fun and not boring.
The stock images are taken from freepik.com