My First Infographic
Even though I am not a graphic designer, I really appreciate the
opportunity try to rub shoulders with those
[types](http://twitter.com/#%21/tommybay) of
[people](http://twitter.com/#%21/unculturedswine). I like to read the
things they share and analyze how they approach tasks and design.
In education, design really takes a [back
seat](http://www.google.com/search?q=education+clip+art&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a).
Sometimes, even in the trunk. Of course, there are
[exceptions](http://blog.mrmeyer.com/) to the rule.
I fancy myself as someone who pays attention to good design, and I think
about it. "Thinking about it" is usually 95% of the solution. If you
just look at it and think for a moment, you're more than most of the way
there.
So, [Piper](http://twitter.com/#%21/PiperLaurie) and I got an assignment
to collect and present some information on the time our office has spent
on professional development with teachers this year.
I compiled the data from 18 people and put it into a spreadsheet. We
used Numbers, Pages, and [Acorn](http://flyingmeat.com/acorn/) to create
the infographic.
I haven't ever used Acorn, but I bought it a few weeks ago, and I have
been waiting for an opportunity to use it. I am glad something presented
itself.
The infographic itself is a Pages document (11 x 17). The images are
from some image pack I downloaded years ago, but haven't had any reason
to use. To get the triangle graphs, I had to create them in Numbers,
then paste an image of them into a Pages document and "Mask with
Shape..." to get them right. I wish I could mask graphs in Pages (or
Numbers) with a shape. That would be really nice. I tried to do it in
Acorn, but I couldn't figure that out either. Piper pulled the + signs
from somewhere and Instant Alpha-ed the white background so they looked
better.
I thought it was pretty fun creating it. Even though it took a long time
to do, it was worth it. I learned a lot, and created something beautiful
in the end.
Here is the Prezi my boss used in the presentation to the principals in
the district:
<http://prezi.com/uwqeo1eqxza1/ebl-year-in-review/>
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