05/13/2019
Communicating research results, complex program structures, policy outcomes, and processes to varied partners in a more accessible way has meant that teams are increasingly using visual products, including infographics.
As one of the most efficient and accessible ways to convey data and information quickly, infographics are ubiquitous. However, software and skills limitations, along with tight deadlines, have meant that generating infographics can be prohibitively challenging, both in-house and working with outside designers.
Organizations wanting to use their internal staff and substantive knowledge have two goals: to maximize current internal tools and software; and to strengthen internal staff knowledge and capacity for infographic creation.
This has inspired the creation of the Infographic and Visual Product Build Kit.
What is a Build Kit?
Part Library, part Template, and part Design Guide, a Build Kit is a powerful creation beast.
A Build Kit includes styled fonts, custom charts and graphs, background structures for various layouts, a curated selection of royalty-free imagery and icons, and clear step-by-step instructions for pulling it all together.
The Build Kit harnesses the power of Microsoft Office Suite applications such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Microsoft Office Suite is a standard, commonly used set of applications, and internal staff at all levels are usually familiar with using the MS Office applications to generate documents.
Using a Build Kit can put the power of marketing creation into the hands of your internal team.
Creating a Build Kit
Overall look and feel
It is usually necessary to devote the first stage of a Build Kit project to look, feel, and overall design considerations for various types of anticipated visual materials. Reviewing current marketing materials, we will conceptualize an overall design guideline, including font styling, photo treatment, icons and illustration styles, and blocking and placement of elements within templates.
Gathering and creating elements
We review materials relating to an organization’s activities, as well as any content, suggestions and imagery supplied by staff, to list and categorize imagery, graph/chart, icon, and structure requirements for the custom Kit. Using our look and feel guidelines, all template structures and inventory of elements will be organized into the Kit.
The Build Kit structure
The Build Kit is typically divided into three basic sections: a selection of layout structures (three to five PowerPoint slides templating commonly used layouts), an elements inventory (icons, imagery/illustrations, commonly used graphs/charts, curated royalty-free photos), and a full set of instructions and tutorials.
All elements are designed and customized to be crisp and uniform, and will stand out against most background colours. Many of the elements may be ungrouped into logical sub-parts, and mixed, matched, regrouped, and resized, to illustrate text and graphs.
The Build Kit includes
styled fonts
Drag-and-drop text blocks containing several levels of text styles to keep story blocks consistent
custom charts and graphs
Native Powerpoint bar, donut/pie, and column graphs to copy and use for data visualization
background structure for various layouts
Designed backgrounds and text layouts reflecting the content and colour scheme provided; layouts which balance the requirements of onscreen presentations and print graphics for publications
curated selection of royalty-free imagery
Selection of high-quality photos, photo illustrations, and backgrounds
icons
Collection of drag-and-drop custom SVG icons and pictograms of generic or custom conceptual items
step-by-step instructions
Tutorial overviews for: using the layouts and guidelines to make and save new content; placing, grouping and resizing elements for building infographics and other graphical layouts; and building elegant illustrated graphs and charts
Instructional Workbook
We can provide a print-ready PDF instructional workbook designed for independent learning, which contains illustrated step by step instructions, example layouts, and decision-making guidelines for choosing your style. The instructional workbook may be made available in French and English, with French translation supplied by the client.
About Kate Cassidy Design
Kate Cassidy Design was established in June 2016, though the principal designer and owner, Kate Cassidy, has provided graphic design services and project management for over thirty years, to the public and private sectors, academia, high tech, and small businesses.
Kate is renowned for visual metaphors and illustrations of unique and abstract concepts. She has produced thousands of visual, interactive, printed and web products, covering a wide spectrum of vital Canadian issues. Within the public sector alone, these include the environment, the health and safety of Indigenous peoples and Canadian society, public health, employment and human resources, access to information, continued learning, foreign credentials recognition, treaties, Indigenous self-government, and the electoral process. This experience and flexibility stands on a bedrock of project management experience and technical expertise.
Our clients must feel as though we are walking in sync on the journey to a finished product. At the end of a project, there are no surprises — only people who have crafted their own coherent story with our expertise. We navigate a delicate balance between program mandates, cost effectiveness and political pressures. This has placed the firm in excellent stead with our clients, and we are rewarded with repeat working relationships and recommendations, and enjoy a warm connection with current and past clients.
